mrb85
Player Valuation: £35m
Probably his last too. I have thought that Davies and Dowell were ready but the former was average at best and the latter invisible. All very disappointing against a poor Liverpool side
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kithnou
Player Valuation: £70m
+1. Nobody is putting their hand up. He won't be playing youth anytime soon, injury crisis aside.
DanEFC92
Player Valuation: £90m
We're still top though aren't we?
Yep hard to disagree with both posts, but I try to look for the positives. In the first half I thought our defence looked very comfortable, and Holgate and Connolly didn't make any mistakes - which may not seem much but at this level is very important for defenders, particularly with RK watching. One bad mistake or poor decision and they can be sidelined for a long time as too risky to put in the 1st team squad.
The other positive was Dominic Calvert-Lewin. He looks the most likely of our current forwards to progress . He's still a long way to go but he was always the willing outlet for a long ball up field, controlled the ball with his back to defenders , laid it off well and is showing he has an eye for a goal when the opportunities arise.
Yes we're still top of the league and in pole position for the other competitions we're in so not all doom and gloom.
Pienaar's gloves
Player Valuation: £35m
They're at Haig Ave next Monday against Chelsea, free in for STHs and Foreverton.
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
live on chelsea tv too
Verbal Kint
Player Valuation: £35m
Apart from Davies and Dowell i don't think any other player on that pitch is anywhere near ready for first team action. It's makes you wonder about the youth set ups all around the country really, the amount of money spent on them is staggering. Is Barkley the last to come through the ranks?? Even he was making the first team at 16,Rooney was the same?? They more or less skipped past the youth set ups. Galloway/Holgate were plucked from other teams and made appearances. It's almost gone to the stage if you haven't made it by 18 it's unlikely you will, terrible pressure in these young lads.
Whatever chance they have at Everton or Southampton they have virtually no hope of making it at the likes of Spurs/Utd/City/Chelsea/Pool.
Whatever chance they have at Everton or Southampton they have virtually no hope of making it at the likes of Spurs/Utd/City/Chelsea/Pool.
catcherintherye
Player Valuation: £80m
I think the issue is with that side that there are not any standout players in the mould of Rooney or Barkley. I know a lot of people throw Ledson around as an example now but even me, who was his biggest fan never ranked him as highly as those two.
What we do have though is an age group with half a dozen lads who are very promising. It reminds me a lot of the late 90's where Jeffers, Cadamateri, Ball, Dunne, Osman and Hibbert came through. None had the talent of Rooney or even Barkley but they all forged decent careers for themselves. Albeit not all of these are in the same age group but we also had lads like Mcleod, Milligan, Mccann, Allen, Jevons & Eaton all had some first team exposure. The captain of the team O'Brien got an awful injury so didn't make it but may well have done and my own favourite from that side Poppleton didn't make the grade. I have given 13 names there who appeared for the first team. Some went on to make England caps, others played 400 times for Everton.
I think we have a similarity between that era and what we have now, which is lots of competent talented lads but nobody that makes you get off your seat. My own feeling is we will either see a few coming up together or probably none will get the chance.
The club have taken a decision to go with Koeman and while I think it's harsh to say he's not interested in youth development I think he's a lot less forgiving of mistakes. I do wonder what impact on morale it may have on the younger players like Kenny, Dowell & Davies who had broken into the first team at the end of last season, played well to find themselves further away than before. It can go two ways, either demoralisation or to make them more determined.
I understand what people are saying about the derby. It was a poor result against a good Liverpool team who were on average a year older than us for the outfield 10 players. They were heavily helped by having a French international Sakho playing for them. We have had some very impressive results so far and are top. However for all the good performances, it is a big jump. Take Niasse who looks completely out of place in the first team is scoring goals galore. Calvert-Lewin may look promising but any more promising than Niasse?
All opinions of course but I thought Holgate looked pretty accomplished , he's come on a lot in six months.
This is where as a club we need to excel. We're not going down the Chelsea/City route of buying in loads of young players so all focus needs to be on developing the likes of Holgate, Kenny and Connolly as far as they can go , identifying their weaknesses, physical needs like more speed, power , endurance, what additional skills are needed etc and putting programmes in place for them .
Zatara
Player Valuation: £100m
Im a pretty positive guy but if i saw Holgate get dropped after a motm performance then id probably lose alot of faith in making the grade and look at loan moves with an eye on jumping ship...
Calvert-Lewin...what sort of player is he? seems like hes our only hope of breaking the kone/valencia disaster on the bench?
The starting point is that he's 19 . He's not ripping up PL defences in the way a 19 year old Lukaku was or looking comfortable in a PL team the way the nearly 19 Rashford can do. For me he's looking our most promising attacker since Chris Long, which is a deliberate comparison. I think he looks better than Dyson, Duffus or Henen but could of course fade into obscurity. He's only been with us a few months so hard to judge maybe , just that I've been quietly impressed with his progress. There are signs about him that I really like.
It's so difficult to tell at this level playing against other youngsters just how good he is, e.g. the likes of Evans and Lavery showing bursts of speed past static defenders which can make them seem better than they are. His progress with England u20s will be interesting as he's competing against some exciting attackers who are gaining experience in various leagues.
Another six months and we'll have a better idea of his potential, always being wary that a hat trick for us or England will result in an immediate clamour for him to be on the bench.
Zatara
Player Valuation: £100m
Although its an anomaly, i read that Rashford was hardly scoring for UTD u19s before he was elevated to the first team...so hard to gauge whether players will hit the ground running or need a lot of loans where they look out of their depth before everything finally seems to click (Harry Kane).
Such a shame our striker options are so weak in the first team squad bar Lukaku. One notable item which ive mentioned here in the past is that other than one or two players theres not many English forwards coming through in the premier league. Perhaps we need to jettison the idea of Kones and Valencias and try to scoop up some of the talent coming through?
kithnou
Player Valuation: £70m
Not Holgate? I think he has more chance than the other two based on how well he performed at the beginning of the season before getting cruelly dropped.
Don't know about Davies or Kenny but my mate knows Dowell's grandparents & apparently he's feeling demoralised by current situation. He was expecting to push on & get some game time this season.