U21s / Development Squad 2013-14 Put it in here.

[Aus Fox]

2-1 up now

Much improved 2nd half.

Who scored for us? How are the first teamers playing?

[steveherbe]

Bugger the first teamers, how did Angus do? He was rumoured to be the next John Terry.

[Cruss5]

First teamers weren't that good. Knocky refused to pass most the time and baka couldn't pass and seemed really slow.

Cain looked good.

[steveherbe]

And Hampshire Angus....?

[Lionator]

Knockaert cr*p, Bakayogo cr*p, Marshall ok but has forgotten how to shoot on target. 

[Mack]

An interesting night's viewing.

Bakayogo looks just fine for me, has some pace, can pass and didn't allow his man to get the better of him.

However the other three 'first teamers' were pretty dire.

Knockaert spent most of the night trying to go around the entire opposition side on his own, and mostly losing the ball in the process, once right in front of our box.

Marshall looks a shadow of his former self, and Miquel was beaten more than once and looked nowhere near the standard required in the first team.

 

On a more positive note some of the youngsters looked tidy if not ready for contention in the first team, and Logan was solid enough in goal.

[Xen]

An interesting night's viewing.

Bakayogo looks just fine for me, has some pace, can pass and didn't allow his man to get the better of him.

However the other three 'first teamers' were pretty dire.

Knockaert spent most of the night trying to go around the entire opposition side on his own, and mostly losing the ball in the process, once right in front of our box.

Marshall looks a shadow of his former self, and Miquel was beaten more than once and looked nowhere near the standard required in the first team.

 

On a more positive note some of the youngsters looked tidy if not ready for contention in the first team, and Logan was solid enough in goal.

 

This.Knockaert was clearly annoyed at being put in the u21 side, and his frustration made him try and over-play a lot of the time. Which meant he messed up, and he got more frustrated and it just got worse. Excellent controlling of the ball though, and plenty of times he had acres of space only to get ignored. He did seem a bit lazy for a few runs though, and perhaps couldve got something if he'd just kept going a bit more.

 

Marshall wasn't great, and didn't stand out much against the academy players really. Once or twice he linked up well, particularly with Knocky and Bakayogo at one point (think a goal came from that move, but my memory's left me atm haha).

 

Miquel wasn't great, but on the ball he was fine, picked some decent passes and ran the ball out of defense a few times, which was good to see. Have a feeling he'll come good with a solid CB like Morgan playing next to him.

 

Bakayogo was the best of those realistically looking at first-team involvement this year. 

 

 

 

Panayiotou (sp?) was decent, but kept managing to do all the hard work and fluff the easy part. 

Dodoo looked very good when he came on, and made some nice runs. Cain looked really good, too.

 

Who was the other CB? McDonald? Had a fairly solid game for the most part. 

Wasn't a big fan of Sesay at RB in the first half.

 

Liked the look of one of their forwards, think he was number 7/8?

 

Referee was okay, though no way it was a penalty (linesman didn't give it, either), and he seemed to make some poor decisions in the last few minutes.

 

 

 

LCFC deserved the win, 3-2 to us would've been a fair result I think. Just a shame it went the other way.

[HoustonFox]

http://www.lcfc.com/news/article/190813-u21s-report-city-2-sunderland-3-1003293.aspx

[Danno]

Taft not play?

[HEGGSY]

Taft not play?

On the bench. Didn't come on

[Bagworthblue]

Bit surprised at some of the reviews although all down to opinion. Thought zoum looked good. Pacey and put in some decent crosses. Ok at the back but stronger going forwards. I thought Miquel read the game superbly, very composed on the ball but also put in some strong crunching tackles contrary to what i'd heard about him.

Knockaert got more wrong than right but was everywhere (literally) and never stopped running. You couldn't challenge his commitment albeit a bit headless chicken at times. Marshall looked ...ok to me. Some very good crosses first half.

I wouldn't hesitate putting Zoum and Miquel into a 3-5-2 on Saturday although I doubt very much that will happen

[sg6]

Was impressed by Sesay tbh. Especially in the first half, some fantastic crosses and seemed solid defensively?!

 

Thought the trialist centre back was quite shakey and lacked pace. 

 

Shame Hopper went off injured. 

[dayday]

So conclusion is Zoum is pacey and slow,sesay was good in the first half but also shit in the first half,Miquel is nowhere near ready yet another poster says have no hesitation playing him saturday in a 3-5-2....I am confused.

[Bettsj2]

So conclusion is Zoum is pacey and slow,sesay was good in the first half but also shit in the first half,Miquel is nowhere near ready yet another poster says have no hesitation playing him saturday in a 3-5-2....I am confused.

Hahaha!!

Its almost like an actual matchday.

[Ric Flair]

I'm going to the game vs Chelsea on Saturday, i'll do a report if I don't get too pissed before/afterwards. It's a 2pm kick off for goodness sake. Looking forward to seeing Cain and Dodoo.

What was that Ryan Watson like? Worth a contract?

[Xen]

On the bench. Didn't come on

 

Probably because we wanted Miquel and Bakayogo to get a full 90 minutes of a (semi-)competitive game before putting them in the first team. Shame, as Taft has looked decent in the past and it would have been nice to see him get a run out.

[HEGGSY]

I'm going to the game vs Chelsea on Saturday, i'll do a report if I don't get too pissed before/afterwards. It's a 2pm kick off for goodness sake. Looking forward to seeing Cain and Dodoo.

What was that Ryan Watson like? Worth a contract?

Thought he played well. Deserved his goal. Too early to say whether he deserves a contract though.

[Ford Super Sunday]

Bummer to hear they lost, they were winning 2-1 when I left. Didn't think I'd miss much!

[Dan LCFC]

Bit surprised at some of the reviews although all down to opinion. Thought zoum looked good. Pacey and put in some decent crosses. Ok at the back but stronger going forwards. I thought Miquel read the game superbly, very composed on the ball but also put in some strong crunching tackles contrary to what i'd heard about him.

Knockaert got more wrong than right but was everywhere (literally) and never stopped running. You couldn't challenge his commitment albeit a bit headless chicken at times. Marshall looked ...ok to me. Some very good crosses first half.

I wouldn't hesitate putting Zoum and Miquel into a 3-5-2 on Saturday although I doubt very much that will happen

 

I agree with all of that.

 

Bakayogo looked good I thought. Not perfect, but he didn't have a bad game at all.

 

Miquel conceded a penalty didn't he? But ingoring that I agree again that he was decent.

 

Knockaert looked completely out of place for me again.

[Mack]

So conclusion is Zoum is pacey and slow,sesay was good in the first half but also shit in the first half,Miquel is nowhere near ready yet another poster says have no hesitation playing him saturday in a 3-5-2....I am confused.

 

The difference between concentrating on the game and chatting to a mate and missing half of it mate.

 

For me Bagayoko is ready to go now. The others are not and that includes Knockaert unless he changes his attitude.

I'm not sure how he looked at this game, but if I was Nigel I would not see him as a guy getting on with it and trying to prove his worth of a starting place in the first team. And if he played like that in the first team, well, they say he headbutts the ones that drive him bonkers!

Miguel did make a couple of crunching tackles, but they were like the flash of some page 3 tits amongst a sea of skinhead dykes. He got turned more than once allowing a sunderland youth striker a clear run into our box. I wouldn't put him into our 1st team defence based on a struggling performance against kids.

Doodoo scored almost as soon as he was put on, but after that did little to nothing so I dont see how anyone gives him a glowing report, took the goal well mind.

If you are looking for a stand out kid Ryan Watson was pretty tidy in the middle for us.

 

Marshall looks so very lost. Shots from distance going high, wide and not very handsome, although granted some of his interplay was tidy he wasn't beating a man either. Maybe he has the hump?

[Ric Flair]

The difference between concentrating on the game and chatting to a mate and missing half of it mate.

 

For me Bagayoko is ready to go now. The others are not and that includes Knockaert unless he changes his attitude.

I'm not sure how he looked at this game, but if I was Nigel I would not see him as a guy getting on with it and trying to prove his worth of a starting place in the first team. And if he played like that in the first team, well, they say he headbutts the ones that drive him bonkers!

Miguel did make a couple of crunching tackles, but they were like the flash of some page 3 tits amongst a sea of skinhead dykes. He got turned more than once allowing a sunderland youth striker a clear run into our box. I wouldn't put him into our 1st team defence based on a struggling performance against kids.

Doodoo scored almost as soon as he was put on, but after that did little to nothing so I dont see how anyone gives him a glowing report, took the goal well mind.

If you are looking for a stand out kid Ryan Watson was pretty tidy in the middle for us.

 

Marshall looks so very lost. Shots from distance going high, wide and not very handsome, although granted some of his interplay was tidy he wasn't beating a man either. Maybe he has the hump?

 

Our two only creative players in the squad and they are demoted to playing for the development team, very worrying. Whether they deserve to play for the first team or not right now, without them I don't see where consistent levels of goals are going to be sourced from. Knockaert applied himself very well when he came on vs Wycombe and vs Leeds and deserves to be involved. Marshall has gone off the boil in the last 12 months and i'm concerned of the inability from Nigel and the coaching staff to sort it out. If Knockaert goes the same way that'll be 3 youngsters with masses of ability that haven't succeeded at Leicester and why? Because our manager doesn't have the capablities of getting the best out of them, Max Gradel being the other. Criminal how he went from what he was at Leicester to destroying defences at this level within a year.

 

We can kiss goodbye to promotion without a single source of creativity.

[Guest MattP]

Personally think it's a decent message to send out that if you arent going to scrap and work your bollocks off when times are hard you'll be playing in front of an empty stadium on Monday nights.

 

Too many times during our bad run last year players went missing and we got dominated in terms of muscle and work rate, I don't think Mr Pearson is going to allow that to happen this season.

 

Knocky is obviously a huge talent but I've seen nothing consistent from Marshall yet to say he's anything but a flash in the pan.

[champions 08/09]

Personally I thought knockaerts attitude was quite good as his desire to win in a reserve game was brilliant I know he overdoes it a fair bit and got angry a few times but I think some of it was because he wanted others to be putting in the same amount of effort. He was also involved in the build up to both goals. Id much rather the players ran around like headless chickens than have their head down similar to Marshall.

[Mack]

Personally I thought knockaerts attitude was quite good as his desire to win in a reserve game was brilliant I know he overdoes it a fair bit and got angry a few times but I think some of it was because he wanted others to be putting in the same amount of effort. He was also involved in the build up to both goals. Id much rather the players ran around like headless chickens than have their head down similar to Marshall.

 

There is a difference between effort and attitude.

His attitude in this game was that he was superior to anything else on the pitch so bollocks to everyone else he was going to try and walk around the whole opposition side on his own.

It was woeful to watch, was the complete wrong attitude and approach and if I was Pearson it would not have looked good.

[Dan LCFC]

A lot of the players lacked the hunger he did.

 

Knockaert's a winner. Simple as that. He's definitely got some growing up to do but if the rest of the team had the same desire to win as he did then we'd have won the game.