[Archived] Academy - Young Guns

[philipl]

I thought we'd established we'd beaten the Mancs to sign him from Cardiff?

Anyway, it was a cracking good win from the youngsters to send them back top. Good luck in the Cup game Wednesday lads.

Incidentally, are Liverpool allowed to play games on a pitch with steel structures on the touch line? Looks pretty scary to me.

[waggy]

unfortunatley i'm on the wrong shift for this weeks game,but i'm sure the young-uns will be ok without me,newcastle away next

[waggy]

get down to ewood tonight folks if you have nothing to do,and give our future a cheer

[pksrover]

I would consider it if someone can give me a lift from manchester

[grizfoot]

Goin' to game tonight hopefully it will be a good one.

[Simon Says]

Losing 1-0 at half-time.

Sounds like a bit of a fluke goal as well.

[rog of the rovers]

Lost 3-2!

The only match I have missed!

The players can be proud of their efforts though.

[bobsterbrfc]

Anybody at the game last night?

Any rankings?

[den]

Even though they are top of their academy league, on the three occassions I've seen them, I've been very disappointed.

Brighton deserved their win last night and they are quite a way off being one of the better sides over the last few seasons.

They were a big, direct side and rovers seemed as though they wanted to play the same game. Over the 90 minutes, rovers were probably the better side. However, the longer the game went on, the more the rovers tired. Very difficult to pick out the better performances from that team. The central defenders coped quite well for much of the time. Martin Ollssen looked very good for the most part, but he seemed to tire after the first hour and struggled for the rest of the game.

I found Gary Bowyers tactics a bit baffling as well. Firstly, shortly after half time he took off Pezzoni - the tall midfielder. Rovers were doing well until that point. However, he moved Ryan Woods, a left winger, into the middle alongside Hodge [who played well] and brought on Keith Treacy. Joe Garner came on up front, but struggled to make any impression. The game started to get away from rovers at that point.

Also, why Bowyer didn't use the third sub, when three or four of the rovers lads were really struggling with cramp, I didn't understand. Brighton used all three subs and it worked for them.

Brighton pretty well ran the show in extra time and deserved their win, albeit, their last two goals were virtually gifted to them by some poor defending.

So, all in all, fairly disappointing. I would say this is the worst academy side I've seen. That doesn't matter though, as long as one or two of the lads make it into the first team set up. We'll have to see on that score.

EDIT: love to know how Lee sees it.

Edited February 9, 2006 by den

[unleaded]

Gary Bowyers tactics were the reason Rovers were beaten last night.The use of the subs or the lack of them in this case was the overall difference between the two teams.Brighton finished much stronger and with the players stuggling with cramp, Bower still did`nt put some fresh legs on.

Overall this team(apart from Clarke & Judge)was very poor.Garner has been found out at this level and looks a different player at this level.

[mjs]

Excellent summary Den. Couldn't agree more about the substitution of Pezzoni.

Having watched the last two Youth Cup games I am less than excited about our current crop of youngsters.

The pick of the bunch for me last night were Hodge and Alan Judge (right-midfield).

I thought Olsson looked promising, but was extremely disappointed again by Joe Garner.

The most impressive performance of the night was from all the Brighton fans who made the journey. I met two of them in the Fox and Hounds before the game, they had travelled up by train. 'Well what else do you do on your day off' was the reply when I asked them why - every credit.

[waggy]

seemed a couple off new faces last night,could not believe king who was outstanding first game i saw [spurs] was on the bench

[mjs]

I was surprised Nolan wasn't playing, he was outstanding in the last round.

Is he injured or something?

[Duff's Minder]

The most impressive performance of the night was from all the Brighton fans who made the journey. I met two of them in the Fox and Hounds before the game, they had travelled up by train. 'Well what else do you do on your day off' was the reply when I asked them why - every credit.

382846[/snapback]

I can't work out if that's admirable or just weird? I bow down to any fan that travels the length of the country to watch a youth team game. How many were there?

[mjs]

A couple of coaches apparently. I am sure alot of those were family of players but the ones I met were just fans.

[herbergeehh]

Youngster signs for Rovers

[den]

Coaches and cars. At a guess - 60 80 fans? Quite a few next to me.

[JAL]

Was at the game last night, Waggy if you thought Garner was rubbish last time you should have seen his performance last night, talk about running on an empty tank the lad (Joe Garner) has lost it big time.

The new swedish lad Olsson cant take a throw in, cant cross a ball, runs like hes hobbling very very poor. The referee pulled him up on three seperate occassions for not being able to execute a throw in properly - how bad is that, not only that the referee had to demonstrate to him how to take a throw in properly.

With fives minute remaining and the youths seemingly through at two one, Frank Fielding came rushing to the edge of his area to cleer the ball when he missed the ball by a complet mile and allowed the Brighton attacker to equalise and take the game into extra time. A nightmare clanger by the youth team capatin.

The little guys Ryan Woods, Alan Judge and Bryan Hodge are the only ones who can take any credit from the game. Hodge a kind of Andy Todd looking left sided midfielder was always in command after the first thirty minutes or so but tired in extra time.

Jamie Clarke whom i raved about in previous games had a very disappointing game. Keith Treacy showed a few glimpses of potential but too few to shout aboput.

Overall cant see one of these young guns making the prem probably lower leagues but not the premiership unless other players are going to carry them.

[BlueMonday]

Living in Scotland I don't get to keep up with the Youth teams.

However, judging by the comments of those that do, are we not in danger of burdening our young charges with too much expectation ?

At such tender ages qualities such as strength, stamina, consistency and overall reading of the game are still to be developed.

However a good thread and appreciate being able to keep up wi t'youth.

[mjs]

However, judging by the comments of those that do, are we not in danger of burdening our young charges with too much expectation ?

382905[/snapback]

There is expectation because the Academy is a huge investment by the club, who have stated that bringing through players is one of the priorities for the future.

[BlueMonday]

There is expectation because the Academy is a huge investment by the club, who have stated that bringing through players is one of the priorities for the future.

382928[/snapback]

Agreed. But some people are writing them off already after a few below par performances.

Surely thats premature in the extreme.

[herbergeehh]

Been thinking along the same lines for a while..

"can't see anyone become a premiership player" etc., based on a few matches is a bit unfair on the youngsters imo.

[mjs]

Agreed.  But some people are writing them off already after a few below par performances.

Surely thats premature in the extreme.

382945[/snapback]

Nobody is writing them off, just commenting on what they have seen.

I would love it if two or three of last night's team make it through to the first team.

I just happen to think it is unlikely.

[92er]

The most successful youth team ever for the Rovers was the team of '59, which "only" produced 3 players for the first team, who all went on to become internationals.

If we could get 1 player for the first team every year that would be excellent.

However, the team that last got to the final and lost to Arsenal was our first team to get to a final and not produce a top division player(Danns might still come bck and prive to be the exception). For the second leg against Arsenal. I was sitting next to a friend of the parents of the right back, called Rose. He told me the club had told his parents they had high hope for their son. I could not see any real quality. Since then the Rovers have let him go and I don't know what level he has achieved in the game.

The person who sits behind me at home games , who goes to all the away games, as well as many Reserve and Youth games, has said that the Youth teams tend to play very direct football-i.e. with tall strikers and not much concentration on skill.

The main fact that is obvious is that the the last Premiership players the club produced were from the David Dunn era. Some people argue this is not good enough.

[joey_big_nose]

Really good points there 92er!

I guess we will have to see how Peter gets on. Although not of the standard of Dunn or Duff, Gallagher shows we can still produce skillful players. And people have to give Rovers credit for casting their net wide- Italians, Swedes and Germans all in the youth and reserve teams.

With younger players many of the problems come from players of a high natural ability slacking off and not introducing enough self discipline. THe Hughes era is defined by a huge emphasis on discipline and hard work which hopefully should help bring out the best in the youth team.

In the Premiership as a whole I rekon the average for the emergence of a home grown player is about one every other season, although I have no proof for that. If we want to rely on them we need, like 92er says, to be producing one a season.

It also means we have to give them chances, starting with Peter. He needs to get a few starts and regular substitue appearences. It's a gamble, but if thats how JW sees our future, and I tend to agree with him, we need to be bold.

If young players are put on the field regularly then the finest 15 and 16 year olds will look at Rovers as a good club to start at, and the management will become familiar with how to deal with such inexperienced players.

ps. I have been following the comments on The Oatcake regarding Gallagher. He is currently going through a phase of being used as a striker. THe fans are not that impressed at the moment: "Too lightweight" and "poor free kicks" seem to be the comments that dominate. This perhaps suggests he will be moved back to the midfield where he was excellent for them before Christmas.

Edited February 9, 2006 by joey_big_nose