honeybradger

The one in black is his teammate, the other orange guy moves back to mark the teammate when Monga opens up for a pass to him but he holds onto the ball instead. It's not good defending by the standards that we are used to watching but this is what it looks like when semi pros come up against elite players.

No chance, what does Johansson have over Stolarczyk? Worse at claiming crosses, worse with his feet and worse at shot stopping. if we had Johansson and Stolarczyk was playing for someone else we would all rate Stolarczyk higher. It's just that our fans love to rag on whoever our goalkeeper is at the time, including Schmeichel when he was here.

I wouldnt take him back on the basis there is no guarantee he rediscovers his form after the injuries and what has likely been a confidence destroying experience at West Ham. We have the best goalkeeper in the championship anyway, no need to spend money on a new one.

Bit of a blow for Sammy as the Newport manager seemed to make him his main man. There were a few times when I was watching that he would call over Sammy to pass out tactical instructions to the rest of the team.

Came on at the 80th minute i think, had a good layoff for a shot at the edge of the box and cut inside to shoot a couple times himself without properly threatening the goalkeeper. I was impressed with his decision making for the short time he was on, think he's got more about him than that Rodriguez fella who plays every game but that's just how football works sometimes.

Bit of a shame that Evans isnt getting on the pitch, thought he looked good in his 10 minutes vs Haiti, albeit Haiti are really poor.

It will be interesting to see if Braybrooke ever becomes a starter for us. You would think he suits what Cifuentes wants from a midfielder more than Soumare and Skipp.

We're doing the same again with Ayew, Daka and Faes starting ahead of the academy options. We just start whoever has the highest wage.

I think you need a lot of top quality to win a cup competition and England's best U17 talents playing above their age group means i think England fall short in the knockout rounds. The last time england won they had Sancho, Foden, Hudson Odoi, Morgan Gibbs White, Skipp (lol), Guehi, Smith Rowe. That's probably half a billion in terms of talent nowadays.

Less than a year younger than Will Alves. Will Alves has experience on loan at championship level, England youth team call ups etc despite having an ACL injury and Heskey has none of that. Would have been a bizarre decision to loan Heskey instead of playing Alves, typical grass is greener syndrome.

Page missed a good chance to score but at least he is getting in the right positions. He had some very nice dribbling to get out of trouble as well. Will be interesting to see how he performs against the better opposition in this competition. I dont think England have a chance of winning with the likes of Dowman, Ngumohah and Monga playing at a higher age group.

I would move on both, 3 first team centre backs with an academy lad like Kevon Gray as emergency backup is enough imo.

I think the squad's bloated as it is and we wouldnt miss him if we sold him considering he has barely ever played for us. If we have an offer we would be silly not to take it and dont even need to replace him.

Motsi goal from the win over Birmingham U21.

If we have money on the table for Souttar from Sheffield United in January then surely we take it. Would be nice to have an aerially dominant defender but the money is probably worth more.

As product of 84 said being taken off on a stretcher isnt always a sign of a major injury. We've seen Ricardo play on through a major injury and others using the stretcher and being fine.

Didnt seem to be in significant pain, so hopefully not too serious. Might be back in action after international break?

Why does he have to earn his place with goals and assists when others get regular gametime and dont deliver that either. It's not like 1 goal 1 assist in 500 minutes is particularly bad for a winger either. Much prefer him to Ayew who is our current starting left winger, Monga actually offers some threat out wide.

The question is will he want to stay or will he have better options to progress his career elsewhere.

He can actually take on his man and pass the ball forward unlike Ayew. Has the second highest successful dribbles per 90 in the league behind Fatawu. Loses the ball when dribbling far less than Fatawu as well.

He is far better than Ayew and has generally played well. Standards are just higher for the academy lads for some reason whilst our experienced players get away with murder.

What did Monga do wrong? Was starting regularly then doesnt get off the bench anymore. It's not like he was at fault for the bad performances.

I wish every player could be Jordan James. What a man.

Fair point.

I cant imagine Ayew being out for a year and clamouring for him to be back in action.