indierich06 Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Apart from the premier league. No most of the team is not under 24 at all. There are 11 players in the team, as I keep saying and you keep ignoring the team regularly contains (more often than not) Dyer 30, Nugent 27, Konchesky 31, Morgan 28, Whitbread 28 or SSL 27 and Kasper 26. So that's 6 players over 24. Not forgetting Vardy who is 25 (although you won't count him) and King who maybe only 24 but has 164 league appearances. And to put that into perspective Danns at the age of 29 only has about 50 more, and many of those were very much lower league. The likes of Drinkwater, Marshall, Knockaert might be fairly young 22, 21, 20. But they aren't kids, and two of them have played minimum of a season in this league. Think I beat you to it Babs, although you were a lot more succinct. I love a ramble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Libertine Dream Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Confirmed on one month loans, hopefully end up longer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mannyzlcfc Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Confirmed on one month loans, hopefully end up longer If only signed on one month loan deals does it make you think that he must be putting them in somewhere in the squad, who gets dropped??? Can't be coming here just for a look at if they are so highly rated at United they won't sell........ Hopefully it doesn't upset the squad & team spirit we have now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miquel The Work Geordie Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Most people would say our best starting 11 is: Kasper - 25 RDL - 23 Morgan - 28 SSL - 27 Konchesky - 31 King - 24 Drinkwater - 22 Marshall - 21 Knockaert - 20 Nugent - 27 Vardy - 25 That side has an average age of 25. Throw Dyer in there instead of Marshall and it has an average age of 26. There are no players under 20 in that team and over half of them are 25 or over. We've got some extremely experienced players in Nugent, SSL, Konchesky and Morgan, with Whitbread and Dyer in the squad too. I would argue that we've got a very good mix of youth and experience in our squad - the only place we don't have any experienced players is in midfield and I think most would argue our midfield has been absolutely top notch for the majority of the season so far. I completely disagree that Pearson is packing the squad with youth players - even Lingard and Keane will both be 20 in December and January respectively. It's not like we're throwing in 16 year old kids who have never played competitive football before, even our younger players have got a lot of experience of playing competitive football - Marshall was class on loan at Sheff Wed, Drinkwater was class on loan for Barnsley, RDL has played for a lot of different clubs and did particularly well at Portsmouth, Knockaert has played a lot of competitive football in France, King has played over 160 games for us, Vardy's played a lot in the lower leagues, Kasper's turned out for Man City and played for a few different clubs too. If these youngsters were all wet behind the ears and never played league football before, I'd agree with you - but they've all got considerable experience in their own right. So if Pearson wants to bring in a couple of 19 year olds to provide us with a bit of cover and hopefully add some quality to the squad then fair play to him, I'd rather bring in some hungry young players, eager to prove themselves, rather than some old pro who can't even make the bench for his own team and probably doesn't really have any desire to play for us. There's no magic formula for a promotion winning side, you don't need X amount of young players and Y amount of experienced players, you just need good players and thankfully we've got a fair few of them and the best thing is, a lot of our young players ARE experienced players. Well, that might keep him quiet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grey Fox Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Very pleased with these two signings, especially Keane. When Reading won 8 in a row last season, they only conceded 2 in that run, and kept 6 clean sheets. If you don't concede goals, you don't lose games. Considering we have scored in every single game, it bodes well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grey Fox Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 http://www.lcfc.com/news/article/061112-city-squad-bolstered-by-united-loan-double-469523.aspx Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson has moved to strengthen his squad with the loan acquisition of two promising young players from Manchester United. Defender Michael Keane and midfielder Jesse Lingard, both 19, have joined City for one month, reinforcing the Foxes squad for the next six games. Subject to their registrations being confirmed by the Football League, both players will be available for Tuesday night’s npower Championship trip to Bolton Wanderers. City manager Nigel Pearson said: “We have been operating with a smaller, more balanced squad this season, but we felt the time was right to increase the options available to us. “Not only do Michael and Jesse add a great deal of quality to the group, they are also the type of hungry young players that will fit in well with what is already a very strong squad.†Both graduates of the United academy, Michael and Jesse begin the first loan spells of their young careers at King Power Stadium. Keane, a defender who can operate both centrally and at full-back, has featured three times for Sir Alex Ferguson’s first team, including two appearances in this season’s Capital One Cup. Born in Stockport, he played for the Republic of Ireland at various youth levels before opting to represent England and making his Under-19 debut in May. Warrington-born Lingard, who turns 20 next month, is an attacking midfield player whom Ferguson once likened to stylish Frenchman Jean Tigana. Comfortable operating out wide or in the ‘No10’ role, he has yet to feature for United’s first team but has been tipped for a big future and was highly impressive during the club’s pre-season campaign. The loan spells of both players will run up to and including 3 December, making them available for City’s away trips to Bolton, Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United and home games against Nottingham Forest, Ipswich Town and Derby County. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indierich06 Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Well, that might keep him quiet. Doubt it, but it was worth a shot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Great news - especially Keane offering us good defensive cover Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corky Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Not too surprised I think he needs to add more to his game but I think he'll get better. I think Drinkwater has a lot more to his game too. Also how good is Tom Ince? I've seen him play a few times on SkySports and a bit of highlights on the Football League show but I haven't seen enough of him. Do you think he'll be good enough to play for United in the near future? Because I've heard we've been strongly linked with him. Drinkwater played for Barnsley at us last season and ran the game, so a few days later we signed him permanently. We saw first-hand what he was capable of. James probably will get better but he's similar to Andy King in our midfield without King's presence in both penalty areas. But he does fit in with our mostly quick passing game, which is encouraging. Ince will go on to be a good player, but right now it's too early. He left Liverpool to get first team games and another big move might hold him back. He was their best player when we played them in September and you could see he had quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
_Fatboyslow_ Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Well, that might keep him quiet. I have a fiver that's says he will be back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuddly ken Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 I don't get the Man U love in on here, very few players make the grade there and most end up in the lower leagues despite bring heralded as future stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingfox Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Apart from the premier league. No most of the team is not under 24 at all. There are 11 players in the team, as I keep saying and you keep ignoring the team regularly contains (more often than not) Dyer 30, Nugent 27, Konchesky 31, Morgan 28, Whitbread 28 or SSL 27 and Kasper 26. So that's 6 players over 24. Not forgetting Vardy who is 25 (although you won't count him) and King who maybe only 24 but has 164 league appearances. And to put that into perspective Danns at the age of 29 only has about 50 more, and many of those were very much lower league. The likes of Drinkwater, Marshall, Knockaert might be fairly young 22, 21, 20. But they aren't kids, and two of them have played minimum of a season in this league. Not saying they are kids not expecting us to sign 16 year olds. Compared to other teams though our squad lacks experience, and especially in midfield, experience in the shape of a veteran or someone who is 28 or over. You need the experience in midfield to gain promotion, it helps and it has helped for a lot of teams, but we simply don't have it. Whitbread won't play much again, or we wouldn't be getting Keane in, Vardy is 25 but he lacks experience at this level, he has jumped three divisions so you can't say he is experienced. Dyer is in and out of the team, and if he doesn't start then Marshall or Lingard will, both being under the age of 21-22. And how did Man City and Man Utd win the league with kids? I don't call players like Gareth Barry, Vincent Kompany, David Silva, Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand etc... as kids. In the Championship if the majority of your squad is 22 or under you won't get anywhere, in this league you need a mixture, and right this moment Pearson is turning our squad into a more youthful one. We won't get the chance to play our strongest side on a regular basis, and tonight will be just that, therefore it would mean the likes of Moore, Keane, Lingard, Waghorn, Schlupp and Futacs may feature, six players there under the age of 22. Compare our side "strongest side" with Cardiff's - Marshall(27), McNaughton(30), Hudson(30), Turner(24), Taylor(26), Cowie(29), Whittingham(28), Mutch(20), Bellamy(33), Mason(21), Helguson(35) Now do you see the mixture of ages, in that starting 11, plus you can include Tommy Smith, Stephen McPhail, Nicky Maynard who have been around for a bit, while other youngsters such as Craig Noone, Arron Gunnarsson, Kerim Frei. I could do exactly the same with the Middlesbrough side. Majority of that Cardiff starting eleven is over the age of 24, while about only half of our strongest side is over the age of 24. Inexperience shows in this league, and if you don't get the right balance, then your more and likely won't get promoted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sods Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 I don't get the Man U love in on here, very few players make the grade there and most end up in the lower leagues despite bring heralded as future stars. Have you got any names to back that up, Welbeck, Cleverley and Evans have all played out on loan. I imagine a few years back these guys were loaned out - Cathcart, Chester, Simpson, Heaton, Stewart and Drinkwater who have all left the club. Obviously for every Welbeck there will be a Fabian Brandy who is still playing league football, I would take Uniteds youth team over any others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miquel The Work Geordie Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Compared to other teams though our squad lacks experience, and especially in midfield, experience in the shape of a veteran or someone who is 28 or over. Your point was made invalid a long, long time ago, stop redefining the word 'experience' in order to try and win an argument you've already lost, man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indierich06 Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Not saying they are kids not expecting us to sign 16 year olds. Compared to other teams though our squad lacks experience, and especially in midfield, experience in the shape of a veteran or someone who is 28 or over. You need the experience in midfield to gain promotion, it helps and it has helped for a lot of teams, but we simply don't have it. Whitbread won't play much again, or we wouldn't be getting Keane in, Vardy is 25 but he lacks experience at this level, he has jumped three divisions so you can't say he is experienced. Dyer is in and out of the team, and if he doesn't start then Marshall or Lingard will, both being under the age of 21-22. And how did Man City and Man Utd win the league with kids? I don't call players like Gareth Barry, Vincent Kompany, David Silva, Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand etc... as kids. In the Championship if the majority of your squad is 22 or under you won't get anywhere, in this league you need a mixture, and right this moment Pearson is turning our squad into a more youthful one. We won't get the chance to play our strongest side on a regular basis, and tonight will be just that, therefore it would mean the likes of Moore, Keane, Lingard, Waghorn, Schlupp and Futacs may feature, six players there under the age of 22. Compare our side "strongest side" with Cardiff's - Marshall(27), McNaughton(30), Hudson(30), Turner(24), Taylor(26), Cowie(29), Whittingham(28), Mutch(20), Bellamy(33), Mason(21), Helguson(35) Now do you see the mixture of ages, in that starting 11, plus you can include Tommy Smith, Stephen McPhail, Nicky Maynard who have been around for a bit, while other youngsters such as Craig Noone, Arron Gunnarsson, Kerim Frei. I could do exactly the same with the Middlesbrough side. Majority of that Cardiff starting eleven is over the age of 24, while about only half of our strongest side is over the age of 24. Inexperience shows in this league, and if you don't get the right balance, then your more and likely won't get promoted. So you're writing off all players outside of our starting 11 because they're young, not based on their ability as players? And Whitbread 'won't be playing much again' because we've brought in defensive cover on a one month loan while we've got injuries and suspensions? Bizarre. I also like how you conveniently don't mention the experienced players we have at our disposal in the squad in Danns, Gallagher, Wellens and Dyer - we could field a whole midfield of experience in those 4, do you think it would be an improvement on our current midfield? If we lose key players like Morgan, SSL, Nugent and Konchesky, of course it's going to affect us - it doesn't matter how old the other players in our squad are, the players coming in are going to be squad players, they're not meant to be playing in the first team week in, week out - you take out half of Middlesborough or Cardiff's first team and see how they'd do after that. As for Cardiff and Middlesborough, well they've had - more or less - the same faces in their sides for the past couple of seasons and they hardly tore the league to bits did they? Plus, I'd rather have players like Wes Morgan and David Nugent who are reaching or are at their peak as footballers, than players like Woodgate and Bellamy who have been on a downward spiral for a long while. That 'best' Cardiff side has an average age of 27. A whole 1 year more collectively than the one I listed with Dyer in the side. The Middlesborough side that won their last game has an average age of 26. The same collectively as the side I listed with Dyer. Surely this suggests we have the balance right? It just seems that you're looking at a player's age and writing them off without a second thought. United's team of kids that would never win anything according to Alan Hansen had an average age of 24. Now, seeing as you're so fond of wheeling out footballing cliches, how about this one? "If you're good enough, you're old enough" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indierich06 Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Oh, and just another little aside - I'd say Ipswich have got an extremely experienced side. How are they doing again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raw Dykes Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 And how did Man City and Man Utd win the league with kids? Ask Alan Hansen. There's no rule to how many older players and younger players you need to be successful. I don't know why you think there is. Some teams have enjoyed great success with a relatively ancient squad, others have won major titles with a lot of young players. It's not a case of "buy x amount of players under the age of y, and z amount of players over that age to win a league title." It just doesn't work like that. There's no real relationship between age and ability across the board. If that were true, you'd see that non-league would contain only the youngest players, and the PL would have all the over 30's. Forget their age. I doubt many of us have seen this pair play - for all most of us know, they might be among our best players. I think you're moaning about an imaginary problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxpleasure Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 surprised hes only a short player (5' 9"ish) considering hes been used as a centre back at Man U Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babylon Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Not saying they are kids not expecting us to sign 16 year olds. Compared to other teams though our squad lacks experience, and especially in midfield, experience in the shape of a veteran or someone who is 28 or over. You need the experience in midfield to gain promotion, it helps and it has helped for a lot of teams, but we simply don't have it. As I already pointed out King is only 50 appearances short of Danns a veteran of 29 years. Dyer is experienced. Is it age you are bothered about or appearances? We do have experience, two of our regular starting 11 are experienced in the middle. Then you have Danns, Gallagher and Wellens if you need them. Whitbread won't play much again, or we wouldn't be getting Keane in, Vardy is 25 but he lacks experience at this level, he has jumped three divisions so you can't say he is experienced. Dyer is in and out of the team, and if he doesn't start then Marshall or Lingard will, both being under the age of 21-22. Whitbread won't play much again? Where does this come from, he's played about 3 or 4 games. And how did Man City and Man Utd win the league with kids? Ask Alan Hansen. We won't get the chance to play our strongest side on a regular basis, and tonight will be just that, therefore it would mean the likes of Moore, Keane, Lingard, Waghorn, Schlupp and Futacs may feature, six players there under the age of 22. We have played our strongest side quite regularly and it's experienced, for the majority of the season so far actually, why do you highlight one game and use that as a definitive example? Compare our side "strongest side" with Cardiff's - Marshall(27), McNaughton(30), Hudson(30), Turner(24), Taylor(26), Cowie(29), Whittingham(28), Mutch(20), Bellamy(33), Mason(21), Helguson(35) Now do you see the mixture of ages, in that starting 11, plus you can include Tommy Smith, Stephen McPhail, Nicky Maynard who have been around for a bit, while other youngsters such as Craig Noone, Arron Gunnarsson, Kerim Frei. I could do exactly the same with the Middlesbrough side. Majority of that Cardiff starting eleven is over the age of 24, while about only half of our strongest side is over the age of 24. And? Inexperience shows in this league, and if you don't get the right balance, then your more and likely won't get promoted. We have balance FFS, we are higher than we were last year with a team you are banging on about as being inexperienced. Why? because we have better quality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ric Flair Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 The only valid point that Kingfox has made is that all successful teams at this level have an experienced midfielder in the centre of the park. It's possible to be successful without such a talisman but generally he's right on that. The rest is weak in my opinion because we've got a decent blend of experience. What we are lacking is a finisher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indierich06 Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 The only valid point that Kingfox has made is that all successful teams at this level have an experienced midfielder in the centre of the park. It's possible to be successful without such a talisman but generally he's right on that. The rest is weak in my opinion because we've got a decent blend of experience. What we are lacking is a finisher. But on the whole, our midfield has performed fantastically this season. Drinkwater and King have formed a great partnership in the middle of the park, while Knockaert has been a great addition, Dyer has put in some good performances and Marshall has had his moment too. I really don't think there are any problems in midfield at all. If we could find the right player and - more importantly - if the price was right, I'd love to see us sign a striker who's going to bang in 25-30 goals - who wouldn't? But the reality is that these players are either ridiculously overpriced or they wouldn't want to play for us. I'd rather see us stick with what we have than overspend on some mercenary who has no real interest in playing for the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex_LCFC Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 The german national team took a very young squad out to the world cup 2010 and did brilliant, they still have a fairly young squad and loo how good they are. Age doesn't matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bettsj2 Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 surprised hes only a short player (5' 9"ish) considering hes been used as a centre back at Man U Really? That is short for a centre back. Mind you, Ben Mee was about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANGEROUS TIGER Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Maybe ok, but it's a main striker we need the most, imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluearmyfox28 Posted 6 November 2012 Share Posted 6 November 2012 Maybe ok, but it's a main striker we need the most, imo. This I really hope we make a move for Adam Le Fondre! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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