Manchester United v Carlisle United - FAYC

Mr. MUJAC

According to the FA Website, the next round of the FA Youth Cup sees United take on Carlisle at Northwich Victoria on Wednesday 16th January.

Let's hope the young reds make further progress.

Elliott

Let's hope the pitch is playable.

Coca Cola

bump.

Elliott

I hope those lucky enough to have MUTV will step up and keep us lesser folk updated as the game unfolds.

Pogue Mahone

Make a nice change, wouldn't it?

Pogue Mahone

2-1 to Carlisle at half-time.

We've been fairly dominant - without really hitting any heights - but they got two goals against the run of play. Their second was unbelievably good

Decent goal by Wellbeck in reply.

68-99-08

Yea, there 2nd goal was a strike on the bounce outside the box.

ColdplaySmiley

any news??

klebersomeone

Still 1-2 on 80 mins

ColdplaySmiley

GaryLifo

Basically we're going out to a bunch of limited hoofers who have done nothing in the second half but defend.

Pogue Mahone

We didn't deserve to win really. We played shite. Their keeper had two easy saves to make in the whole of the second-half. Carlisle could even have picked us off on the break a few times.

The much-hyped Macheda/Wellbeck combo was fairly average. Macheda had a shocker.

Our defence has looked distinctly ropy this season too. What happened to Cathcart?

klebersomeone

Beaten 2-1. We hardly created a chance in the second half despite having all the ball, they defended deep and we tried to play through them rather than getting it wide more often and bombarding them with crosses.
This side will not go down as one of our vintage youth teams..

Pogue Mahone

Been a long fecking time since we had one of them

BezsMaracas

Cathcart has been out on loan and doesn't play for the academy side any more.

Was a pretty poor performance from us really, they should have been ready for it considering how tough we made the previous game for ourselves.

klebersomeone

Too true..
This lot are fairly shite from the games I've seen this season.. there's not a hope of a potential first teamer coming through

Elliott

Jeez!

julesee

steady on....Wellbeck and Macheda are for example two very talented individuals....everyone has an off day.... admittedly the rest of the team might be a bit lacking. Eikrem may have a chance but he has to fill out quite a bit

klebersomeone

Both Wellbeck and Macheda are talented kids, but neither are exceptional for their age and neither of would have a fantastic workrate as both give off an impression of going through the motions at times.

Pogue Mahone

Got to agree with you. For any kid to have even a faint hope of making it through to the first team they would usually look absolutely head and shoulders above any other kid on the pitch.

I've seen a couple of kids with this sort of potential in teams we've played against but there's noone who fits that description at United these days, playing for our academy or our reserves (not since Rossi left anyway )

Far too early to write them all off though, there's still plenty of time and there are some kids who clearly have potential (Wellbeck looks the most likely) but they need to buck their ideas up, big time,

sincher

I think Welbeck is exceptional for his age, as it goes, though I think he should be told to stick to being a right-winger.

noodlehair

I don't really find time to watch these games or the reserves anymore, but from what I have seen this season, we're definitely not very good. Plenty of neat footballers, but no one who's talent really stands out, aside from Welbeck.

horselesspaul

Agreed. He also does work hard for the team but his role is one where most things go through him so he mustn't be tracking back too far. Paul McGuinness would never allow him to shirk.
I was hoping we could convert Brandy to a winger too...
Macheda is yong and lernin. A bit greedy but talented nonetheless.

Bammy

Aye not good enough tonight. Missed the first 15 minutes so didn't see their first goal but the one thing I noticed for the rest of the game and for their second goal was how many headers our defenders(and to some extent centre midfielders) missed.

Wellbeck was okay, I think he's a great young player, great goal, done well the rest of the match considering the lack of space and support he got,Macheda was crap tonight,nothing he tried came off,needs to play percentages a bit more I think rather than looking for the killer pass or turn each time.I think Wellbeck is fairly hard working at closing down tbh.He's nearly too hard working because a lot of the time he tracks back when he's needed as a target up front. He has definately the best chance of making it out of the youth team imo.

Eikrem's passing was good but he never seemed to really impose himself on the game, not really a winger, should be played in centre midfield.as someone else said, will only have a chance of first team after filling out a bit. Evans was solid and got forward well but is not really the player you need when trying to break down teams, more of a midfielder who just gets stuck in.Drinkwater was ineffective.Bryan was pretty good, some good runs but a lot of the time the end product wasn't wonderful.

James was pretty good coming forward like Rio does for the first team, I though Gill was pretty crap. Moffat was good apart from one time their winger beat him, got forward well. Stewart was crap.

PS18

seems like a hell of a kneejerk reaction here. didn't see the game tonight unfortunately but i've seen a fair amount of these kids this season and it's OTT to start going on about this not being 'one of the vintage youth teams'. they've had a bad day at the office certainly but we're doing better in the academy league than we have done in a while. you look back at the youth cup winning side of 2003 and how many of them have set the world alight? not going to dismiss this crop just on the back of a shock result. it may well be that we don't have a team as good as the one that won in 2003 or came so close last year, but we could well end up producing an individual or two that goes on to make the first team, which the aforementioned teams have so far lacked.

westlife4ever

really sad result. but anyway, this team seems not good enough to win the cup.

any unused subs?

julesee

Agree.....still, some of the views expressed here that you have to be head and shoulders above the rest to make it to the first team are also fair enough. I guess at the end of the day our Academy can at least be financially profitable even if these days these kids dont end up in the firsts.... bit of a shame of course.

Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber

Seconded

Red Indian Chief Torn Rubber

I'm certain Marcheda stands out too...for a player his age...

Pogue Mahone

Another point worth making (even though it's arguing against myself!) was the fact that a lot these lads were part of the team that won the World Youth Cup this summer, beating the likes of Barca and Juve along the way.

But I stand by my statement about the lack of real stars (with Wellbeck being the possible exception). In general, you can spot the young players who are likely to make the first team by the fact that they appear in a totally different class to everyone else on the pitch. Even the much-maligned Darren Fletcher was playing at a different level to his team-mates and the oppposition, when he was coming up through the ranks.

I think our trophy in Malaysia was more about graft, team-work and organisation than exceptional individuals. This was in contrast to a few of the teams we played, who were a bit all over the place but had a few exceptional youngsters.

Still, there's always time for late developers and Wellbeck and Macheda are both lanky lengths of rope, who won't be at their best until they start to fill out and get better control of their spindly limbs. I was shit at sports until after I stopped growing. Being a tall dork, in your teens, is a nightmare, when it comes to hand(foot)-eye coordination.

We've also got our best youngsters either in the reserves, or out on loan, including real talents like Hewson, Brandy, Cathcart, Kieran Lee, Campbell and Dong (spot the deliberate mistake )

horselesspaul