Academy & U21s

[bluebruce]

Ref is soft as fuck. 2-1 now after a free kick out of nothing.

[rigger]

Poor defending at the Wolves free-kick. This half has been unspectacular, but we have been well organised. They will be disappointed if we don't win this.

Edited December 18, 2023 by rigger

[bluebruce]

Amazing neither team has scored since it went to 2-1, especially Wolves. Nsangou nearly scored a spectacular goal from some 40 yards or so with the keeper off his line, and Wolves should have had 3 really. Some very close shaves.

[rigger]

Won 1-2, well organised when down to 10 men. In fact we played better with 10.

[neophox]

Who was the trialist?

[arbitro]

49 minutes ago, neophox said:

Who was the trialist?

https://www.bwfc.co.uk/player/119

[rigger]

1 hour ago, neophox said:

Who was the trialist?

He wasn't very good, but his hair stood out.

[Rogerb]

Difficult to judge when your playing best part of an hour including time added on in both halfs with ten men. Particularly when filling in at left back.

[rigger]

13 minutes ago, Rogerb said:

Difficult to judge when your playing best part of an hour including time added on in both halfs with ten men. Particularly when filling in at left back.

What you could see is that the trialist was lightweight with no real pace either initially or over a long run. After basic football skills, physical attributes are what are looked at. Those stood out in the forty minutes he played  in the eleven man team. He actually looked better at full-back, but not physical enough.

[bluebruce]

Ethan Walker recalled from League Two Morecambe and sent to Oldham in the Conference.

Edited January 4, 2024 by bluebruce

[only2garners]

7 hours ago, bluebruce said:

Kyle Walker recalled from League Two Morecambe and sent to Oldham in the Conference.

If only. I think you mean Ethan Walker.

[RoversClitheroe]

What's happened with our youth teams this year? 

All part of the cost cutting exercise, poor scouting?

Or just very young sides being put out?

[KentExile]

33 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

What's happened with our youth teams this year? 

All part of the cost cutting exercise, poor scouting?

Or just very young sides being put out?

Finneran and Tyjon (both age 15) both have a few appearances for the U21s as do Michalski, Davies and Atcheson who are all first year scholars, so the U21s has been a very young set up.  This in turn means that these players have not featured as often as they perhaps should have for the U18s, leaving the U18s under strength

Edited January 4, 2024 by KentExile

[rigger]

27 minutes ago, RoversClitheroe said:

What's happened with our youth teams this year? 

All part of the cost cutting exercise, poor scouting?

Or just very young sides being put out?

Not good enough sides being put out. Same with Man city it would seem. But it doesn't really matter as there is no relegation/promotion. Ideal experiance for the first-team. 

[arbitro]

Just now, KentExile said:

Finneran and Tyjon (both age 15) both have a few appearances for the U21s as do Michalski, Davies and  Atcheson who are all first year scholars, so the U21s has been a very young set up.  This in turn means that these players have not featured for the U18s, leaving the U18s under strength

That's correct. The knock on effect of having so many youngsters with the first team permeates right down the chain and kids are stepping up to a level they perhaps aren't quite ready for yet.

[RoversClitheroe]

3 minutes ago, KentExile said:

Finneran and Tyjon (both age 15) both have a few appearances for the U21s as do Michalski, Davies and Atcheson who are all first year scholars, so the U21s has been a very young set up.  This in turn means that these players have not featured as often as they perhaps should have for the U18s, leaving the U18s under strength

Makes sense cheers.

[riverholmes]

Am I right in the thinking that the club don't report on the U18s regularly any more online?

The last result I read about was the FA Youth Cup 3rd round exit away to Wimbledon, which seemed, on the surface a really bad result, as a PL1 side. Even more so looking at the squad which included first team 'fringe' players (as unfair it is on them, given inexperience) of Atcheson, Davies and Finneran.

Given how much we have relied on youth players coming through, it is concerning as it does look like there may be a dearth of quality players coming through in the next tranche, over the next few years. Moreover, our loanees such as Vale and Walker aren't doing much on loan, which might suggest it might be hard to recoup financially as well. George Gent seems to be playing regularly for Motherwell, though.

In the past, we added the likes of Brad Lyons, James Brown, Stergiakis and Connor McBride to the reserves and whilst they didn't amount to anything at Rovers, they did play and , perhaps, contribute to the development of those around them. (Though, Brown, spent most of his time on loan). I wonder if financial constraints or priorities mean a struggle to compete for players both locally and wider afield, including those released by Premier League clubs. We did add Dolan and Walker from PNE over the past few years.

I do question the merit of the constant changes to the U23s team with weekly keeper rotations, almost, and constant shifts in personnel. However, it does seem if the wider story, taking into account injures to hopefuls like Jake Batty, that the quality is not there at the moment. Would be interesting to know what regular watchers think.

 

Edited January 4, 2024 by riverholmes

[philipl]

I watched that Wimbledon game.

Well on top playing nice stuff until the box where it all fell apart.

Increasingly lost our way, our rhythm, sense of purpose in the second half.

Sound familiar?

[rigger]

6 minutes ago, philipl said:

I watched that Wimbledon game.

Well on top playing nice stuff until the box where it all fell apart.

Increasingly lost our way, our rhythm, sense of purpose in the second half.

Sound familiar?

My take on the game, as well.

[ABBEY]

so can someone please explain to me as to why ,we hear we have this all singing all dancing acadamy thats up there with the elite odf the elite  and we dont develop the young ones of own and prefer to develop other teams kids for them and get nothing from it it in the long term.

Surelyif the acadamy is everythuing we are told it is then we shouldnt need to bring in kids that have failed at coventry for example .  Dont know about anyone else but i support the team in blackburn not  the future team of poxy brighton.

[Mattyblue]

My view is if they are better than what we have get them in - Harvey Elliott, for example. But if they are just raw, slight 19/20 year olds that struggle to adapt to the Championship why have them ‘blocking the pathways’ of our own, to use a well known Greggy phrase…

[bluebruce]

3 hours ago, ABBEY said:

so can someone please explain to me as to why ,we hear we have this all singing all dancing acadamy thats up there with the elite odf the elite  and we dont develop the young ones of own and prefer to develop other teams kids for them and get nothing from it it in the long term.

Surelyif the acadamy is everythuing we are told it is then we shouldnt need to bring in kids that have failed at coventry for example .  Dont know about anyone else but i support the team in blackburn not  the future team of poxy brighton.

Two things wrong with this post.

The most glaring is that we absolutely do develop our own young players. The last stats showed we gave the second most minutes to players we developed ourself, out of all the clubs in England.

The second is that you can't expect that having a good academy means you'll have players of the requisite quality ready to step in for all positions at all times.

Edited January 6, 2024 by bluebruce

[RoverCanada]

Is Batty injured again? He hasn't featured for the u21s since 1 Dec. Also reportedly had a minor injury in the summer... Disappointing he hasn't stepped up to be proper depth at LB yet, but he's only 18. Injuries seem to be holding him back. He's only made 8 appearances across all competitions this season according to soccerway and only 17 last season.

Other fullback options: Cirino's injured, haven't heard much hype around Haddow, Gent's on loan (starting to make consistent starts at Motherwell, which is good to see), maybe Duru as he's popped up on the bench recently and will turn 19 soon.

Anyway, I can see the case for bringing in Chrisene as (cheap...) temporary FB depth. Apparently did quite well on loan at Kilmarnock before getting injured last year.

Edited January 6, 2024 by RoverCanada

[wilsdenrover]

41 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Two things wrong with this post.

The most glaring is that we absolutely do develop our own young players. The last stats showed we gave the second most minutes to players we developed ourself, out of all the clubs in England.

The second is that you can't expect that having a good academy means you'll have players of the requisite quality ready to step in for all positions at all times.

Actually, bonus third thing - we just spent half the season with only one young Prem loanee, who is now going back and will result in us having just two loanees. These are smaller numbers than recent seasons.

You seem to have forgotten Moran…

[KentExile]

Jordan Eastham has gone on loan to Hyde in the Northern Premier League.  Seems to have been replaced by a 16 year old Michalski in the U21s now.  Easthams height has always been against him being a sub 6ft (I think) keeper