U21s: United vs Liverpool

Ennis played quite well. Harrison made 1 nice save. Thought Bennett had a good first 45 mins. All the positives I can come up with

Oyedele's decision making isnt very good and not too sure why he's used in an attacking position

Liverpool had a lot more speed in attack and Kaide Gordon looked good with his dribbles and his goal from outside the box

Maybe it's because he's younger and his legs start to go a bit but we seem to consistently sub Baumann off around the 60-70 minute mark and every time we seem to then lose control of the game.

Pericles said:

I am not a fan of this 3-5-2, especially when we have got the players for a 4-3-3. It is stifling our attacking play.

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Need to have more of the ball with it and use the wingbacks to pin the opposition wingers into a supporting defensive role. We didnt see much of our wingbacks in attack and making dangerous progress, with Liverpool on top we were essentially playing 5-3-2 too often

Gungerz said:

Maybe it's because he's younger and his legs start to go a bit but we seem to consistently sub Baumann off around the 60-70 minute mark and every time we seem to then lose control of the game.

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Wasnt his night anyway, had several first touches that got away from him

This team is genuinely really, really poor.

It seems to have very little about it and none of the players stand out at all.

Mickson said:

Don't know if it's only me, but it's not that fun to watch our U21. Difficult to get excited tonight.

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Watching the U18s has always been far more enjoyable to me, U21 football is just depressing.

Pughnichi said:

Just came here to see if anyone thinks there’s a player that would make it from the 21s. I can’t see it with any of them myself. Perhaps Zachary Baumann

the 18s is where the party is at. Was hoping to see a couple of them get some minutes tonight

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Yeah, definitely far more likely ones in the current U18 group.

Though I guess to be fair the U21's from this group that were likely to make the first team squad are already in there - Mainoo, Garnacho, Kambwala. With Dan Gore out on loan.

Of what's left, it's only the younger ones stepping up from the 18's like Harrison, Williams, Amass, etc, who you see maybe making it in time.

Those 19+ still in that team look to mostly be the ones caught in limbo who probably should be looking to get permanent EFL moves (though many of their loans haven't gone well so far).

I think Harrison will be given the chance to play some games and vye for number 2 in the future. And then from the bench I think McAllister will stick around and get a few first team games in coming seasons but will most likely move on to a premier league or championship club where he might be a good player. Williams I'm not sure he'll get the games but same thing, might be a good player for another premier league team or it might be championship.

The rest championship or league 1 most likely. Happy for them if they do a lot better than that and are good premier league players

I think the Garner, Levitt, Galbraith generation was the last time I enjoyed the U21's.

Hasn't really felt like a team since then.

Funny that every time after a poor loss at any level there will always be someone that come in and say "I don't think any of these youngster will make it in the first team". Talking about recency bias.

U21s football is really a graveyard. There is no sense of progression from anyone playing at this level long enough (plus there is not enough games either). You play the same youngsters who looked good in U18s football and many of them would look crap here as well. I'm a bit worried for the next batch coming up.

Good that we seem to promote the players to this level earlier than before and being much more fluid about the dynamics of U18s and U21s squad otherwise it would be even worse.

Ekeke said:

Ennis played quite well. Harrison made 1 nice save. Thought Bennett had a good first 45 mins. All the positives I can come up with

Oyedele's decision making isnt very good and not too sure why he's used in an attacking position

Liverpool had a lot more speed in attack and Kaide Gordon looked good with his dribbles and his goal from outside the box

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Yes, Ennis played well but he hasn’t kicked his bad habit of head down football. He does not see obvious passes on time and ends up holding on to the ball for too long.

Like you, I don’t understand why Oyedele is being played in advanced positions. I would preferred starting a player like Scanlon in the attacking midfield, in order to give us a bit more creative edge.

Finally, it seems to me that Williams keeps jockeying between sub appearances at Under-18 and sub-appearances at Under-21. I would have preferred him to get more consistent game time at a starter.

khoazany said:

Funny that every time after a poor loss at any level there will always be someone that come in and say "I don't think any of these youngster will make it in the first team". Talking about recency bias.

U21s football is really a graveyard. There is no sense of progression from anyone playing at this level long enough (plus there is not enough games either). You play the same youngsters who looked good in U18s football and many of them would look crap here as well. I'm a bit worried for the next batch coming up.

Good that we seem to promote the players to this level earlier than before and being much more fluid about the dynamics of U18s and U21s squad otherwise it would be even worse.

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I actually think the fluidity is making the u21s not look as good. Before, we would promote you and you would stay in u21s unless there was an important FA Youth Cup match. Now, we're bringing back players who already have shown enough in u18 that they should stay in u21. Williams is 18 years old. These days, that's old to still be playing for the u18. Meanwhile Baumann is 17, and is being played for the u21s.

AltiUn said:

Watching the U18s has always been far more enjoyable to me, U21 football is just depressing.

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Our U-21 teams are a problem as they lose players to the first team regularly and others are out on loan. Maybe we should be happy as it means we use our kids more in the first team squad than other teams.

In Rainbows said:

I actually think the fluidity is making the u21s not look as good. Before, we would promote you and you would stay in u21s unless there was an important FA Youth Cup match. Now, we're bringing back players who already have shown enough in u18 that they should stay in u21. Williams is 18 years old. These days, that's old to still be playing for the u18. Meanwhile Baumann is 17, and is being played for the u21s.

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I agree with this. I think it's a bit messy. Not sure it helps the players.

DomesticTadpole said:

Our U-21 teams are a problem as they lose players to the first team regularly and others are out on loan. Maybe we should be happy as it means we use our kids more in the first team squad than other teams.

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Is that true this season and does that mean that our young players are more likely to make it at the club?

Genuine question because different clubs have different ideas of what works. Liverpool had 3x 17 year olds playing and we had 2x 17 year olds. Mostly similar other than that but the result wasnt.

Mainoo and Forson were both picked over the other options while Kambwala has mostly come in and certainly has started because of injury problems with other CBs.

Other clubs have played similiar amounts of young players other than Mainoo who is obviously a stand out and younger than a lot of the young players who have been used at other clubs. Still though Newcastle went even younger with Miley and Parkinson (19) has had 24 mins so he got a bit of a chance. Hall has played games but he was a signing and already in first team football although hes 19. And Livramento is 21 now so he's not in the same category

Other teams loan out loads of players without performing that poorly. And City are 6 points behind us despite their u21s almost being an u18 team and putting in players very early