...Steve Walsh's remit includes the Academy so he might have set the strategy following discussions with the coaches.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
...Steve Walsh's remit includes the Academy so he might have set the strategy following discussions with the coaches.
.....an important consideration in the performances of our youth teams is team spirit. As individuals these boys are playing for their futures, there will be limited contract offers so they are in competition with each other yet the coaches appear to have built a real spirit of working together. I think this is a factor against clubs like Man Utd and Liverpool.
Raino85
Player Valuation: £35m
I think a big factor in how we have done so far is the loan rules changing.
It sounds strange but lower league clubs will much prefer to loan a player for the full season from the likes of liverpool, man utd, city chelsea because of our profile.
Alot of our loan outs last year were a month here, a month there with extensions if they impressed.
Kenny, davies, holgate, walsh, dowell may all be saught after for loans in january but i would much prefer to keep these lads together to build a winning mentality and keep them around the club
It sounds strange but lower league clubs will much prefer to loan a player for the full season from the likes of liverpool, man utd, city chelsea because of our profile.
Alot of our loan outs last year were a month here, a month there with extensions if they impressed.
Kenny, davies, holgate, walsh, dowell may all be saught after for loans in january but i would much prefer to keep these lads together to build a winning mentality and keep them around the club
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Yes I would agree. Generally players should play at the highest possible level. We have always done this more than any other club I've witnessed in the PL. I remember last season we played Liverpools Under 18's and they didn't have a single lad from under 16's playing, most were second year scholars. A couple of days later we played their reserves and again no under 18's were present. We had 6 under 18's in our under 21's. We lost the under 18's match but won the reserves.
There are lots of factors for this, primarily a freakishly strong age group which is now starting to level out a little. However I do wonder if in some ways opportunities for the reserves might have come a little early and they are trying to keep people hungry. There's no doubt it will kick a 16 year old on if he's playing for the reserves but if the progress is not maintained by the time they are 18 there will inevitably be some sense of frustration. I think this underpinned Ledson's decision to leave, as he'd been playing reserve football for 3-4 years and didn't fancy it anymore.
Making it harder to get into the side and more of a challenge could work too. What was interesting about the under 18's was just how far advanced Evans looked and Also Beningime physically. They often look quite slight at mens level but they were just too physical for Liverpool under 18's and was almost men against boys.
The biggest challenge Everton will have going forward is accommodating a lot of these young players and making sure they don't want a move away for regular football. A little more patience in development may make some of them hungrier and aid that process.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
A lot of the lads Liverpool loan out are a bit older too, often 20/21 as opposed to 17/18/19 as the lads are above. It makes a really big difference. Walsh has also had interest from Bolton and Charlton which for a lad just turning 19 is a great honour. We turned them down though which is interesting.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
Yes I think there is a lot in that mate. My own sense is that Unsworth may have been quite happy to see the change and Walsh probably was too. Having worked with a lot of these players for 2-3 years now he is at the point where they are really kicking on and I think he wants them to learn to consistently win games which they are doing and ultimately pick up some silverwear. He can't really do that if half of his team is pushed out on loan.
I suspect Walsh also wants to have a closer look at them. If he thinks for example that Walsh could be close to first team action does he prioritise signing a young central midfielder or can we look for a stop gap?
There are benefits and weaknesses to the loan system and treating reserve football competitively. I've never been a massive fan of the Liverpool (and at times United) approach which is you fill your side with a number of expensive imports who are 21/22 (and with the rule changes 23/24) who are just too big and strong for their opponents. However if a talented crop you've had for a number of years can be kept together for a season to have a crack at winning trophies I can see some benefit to that.
Raino85
Player Valuation: £35m
I think Walsh may be a different case when it comes to my opinion of not loaning players out due to his size!
He's a busy little ba*t$£d and i love the way he plays but with the premier league being so pysical he may not be ready for that like some of the others are, another loan out for him may be a good thing, an upper league 1/ championship team would be great.
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
i havent watched much league 2 football any time recently but id always assumed it would be more physical than the premier league mainly due to the players being less talented and walsh more than held his own there.
Raino85
Player Valuation: £35m
Yes league 2 is physical, but walsh could use his superior ability to get through games. In the premier league these midfielders are big strong fast athletes with the strength, but also the ability, and the nouse to dominate.
Most league 1 & 2 players will have maybe 1 of them attributes not all 4, that is why they are playing in league 2
Massive difference between a big slow but physical clogger & a big athletic physical premier league midfield type like Pogba, Xhaka, Matic, Imbula, Fernandinho etc
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
agree with all that. was watching PSG the other week and a midfield player i think is brilliant and reminds me a bit of walsh is verratti, who might actually be even smaller. lets hope walsh can make up for his lack of size the same way.
BornBlue76
Player Valuation: £35m
My take on the guys going back U18s and in Evans position a level he has hardly seen for a couple years is 3 fold: we have kept more players in house this season, the signing of "2" strikers and I think the club needed to shore up the u18s that have been taking a pasting this year.
Put our best u18s back and all of sudden the change in fortune.
Evans has been a star for u21s and what did surprise me was (as said above) he looked physically stronger than the kids. I think that he has deffo grown but also hanging with the big boys has made him stronger. I see Walsh playing box to box and Evans as our number 10. Is that about right?
I really want to see Evans playing u23s to be honest and Niasse is keeping him out in my options opinion. This u23 side has to win this thing this year if they are as good as we think they are!
Put our best u18s back and all of sudden the change in fortune.
Evans has been a star for u21s and what did surprise me was (as said above) he looked physically stronger than the kids. I think that he has deffo grown but also hanging with the big boys has made him stronger. I see Walsh playing box to box and Evans as our number 10. Is that about right?
I really want to see Evans playing u23s to be honest and Niasse is keeping him out in my options opinion. This u23 side has to win this thing this year if they are as good as we think they are!
....being devil's advocate, whilst ring fencing youngsters in their age group might improve team results the objective is to bring the very best through and those players might be better playing at the highest possible standard. I'm not particularly advocating this but it's a consideration.
summerisle
The rain, it raineth every day
GlosBlue
Player Valuation: £25m
Thanks! I will deffo catch that I think!
There are so many differences between this and last season it's hard to list them all without missing something.
. Firstly as we know the loan system has changed, in the past it has been December/January when quite a few youngsters have been loaned, and this may happen again come January.
. Koeman/Walsh are new they will want to assess some young players like Kenny, Connolly who they would hardly have seen before the window closed. And to assess them they will want to see them all playing for the u23s .
. The age , to U23 now, is new but hardly affects us but in theory should lead to us playing stronger, older teams making more competitive matches for us.
. New competitions and changed format to existing ones mean the u23s will play more competitive matches. e.g. 22 in the PL 2 League, at least 3 in the EFL Trophy, at least 3 in the PL international cup and at last 6 in the Premier League Cup. ( Incidently I heard but haven't verified that our u23s play Wolves this Saturday in the PL cup, anybody confirm that?)
What it means is that the u23s can play about 38 competitive matches, 8 of last nights players will also be on International duty so just remaining " at home" now potentially provides the development they need , linked in with first team squad training and 1st team game time for some.
It also means a knock on effect through the age groups and maybe a chance to make a subtle change in thinking on allowing youngsters longer to develop in the u 23s. There were no 2nd year Scholars in last nights squad, and only arguably the best four , Connolly, Walsh, Davies, Dowell, from last year's Scholars. It may mean that talented 1st year U23s like Brewster, Broadhead, Foulds , Sambou and Holland get limited chances, and it may be next year that they get their chance but are given longer to prove themselves.
Similarly, the U18s looks the same. Saturday's team was primarily 2nd year Scholars. Some have played at u23 level, may get further chances this season but it may be next season when the best 3 or 4 play regularly in the U 23s with others having to wait a year for their chance. And this year's 1st year Scholars as a result get their chance next year, except ,again, the best who get their chance earlier.
Of course this may all change in January if we loan out 4 or 5 key players and everybody moves up, which would also solve the problem of giving game time to the likes of Foulds, Robinson, Broadhead etc. Allowing more players to play is one of the biggest benefits to me of the loan system. It's difficult to prove conclusively that playing out on loan is better than staying at FF. Did Ledson and Walsh develop more playing League 1 last season than Davies and Williams who stayed behind? Arguably not , but all four wouldn't have got all the games they did if everybody stayed. Similarly with Kenny and Holgate , did the guy on loan make more progress ? , hard to tell. Come the end of January we'll have a clearer idea of the direction we're taking re loans etc.
. Firstly as we know the loan system has changed, in the past it has been December/January when quite a few youngsters have been loaned, and this may happen again come January.
. Koeman/Walsh are new they will want to assess some young players like Kenny, Connolly who they would hardly have seen before the window closed. And to assess them they will want to see them all playing for the u23s .
. The age , to U23 now, is new but hardly affects us but in theory should lead to us playing stronger, older teams making more competitive matches for us.
. New competitions and changed format to existing ones mean the u23s will play more competitive matches. e.g. 22 in the PL 2 League, at least 3 in the EFL Trophy, at least 3 in the PL international cup and at last 6 in the Premier League Cup. ( Incidently I heard but haven't verified that our u23s play Wolves this Saturday in the PL cup, anybody confirm that?)
What it means is that the u23s can play about 38 competitive matches, 8 of last nights players will also be on International duty so just remaining " at home" now potentially provides the development they need , linked in with first team squad training and 1st team game time for some.
It also means a knock on effect through the age groups and maybe a chance to make a subtle change in thinking on allowing youngsters longer to develop in the u 23s. There were no 2nd year Scholars in last nights squad, and only arguably the best four , Connolly, Walsh, Davies, Dowell, from last year's Scholars. It may mean that talented 1st year U23s like Brewster, Broadhead, Foulds , Sambou and Holland get limited chances, and it may be next year that they get their chance but are given longer to prove themselves.
Similarly, the U18s looks the same. Saturday's team was primarily 2nd year Scholars. Some have played at u23 level, may get further chances this season but it may be next season when the best 3 or 4 play regularly in the U 23s with others having to wait a year for their chance. And this year's 1st year Scholars as a result get their chance next year, except ,again, the best who get their chance earlier.
Of course this may all change in January if we loan out 4 or 5 key players and everybody moves up, which would also solve the problem of giving game time to the likes of Foulds, Robinson, Broadhead etc. Allowing more players to play is one of the biggest benefits to me of the loan system. It's difficult to prove conclusively that playing out on loan is better than staying at FF. Did Ledson and Walsh develop more playing League 1 last season than Davies and Williams who stayed behind? Arguably not , but all four wouldn't have got all the games they did if everybody stayed. Similarly with Kenny and Holgate , did the guy on loan make more progress ? , hard to tell. Come the end of January we'll have a clearer idea of the direction we're taking re loans etc.