2010 UEFA European Under-17 Championship

cj_sparky

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Poor positioning from Johnstone for me, poor defending all round though.
 

Crustanoid

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For those that have watched him, how near would Pogba be to being upgraded to the first team? The really top players often start appearing at his age. I haven't seen much of him, but he looks class from what I've seen
 

charleysurf

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Crustanoid said:
For those that have watched him, how near would Pogba be to being upgraded to the first team? The really top players often start appearing at his age. I haven't seen much of him, but he looks class from what I've seen
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He's still very young for the "box-to-box" type of midfielder he looks like he could become.
 

GledTheRed

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peterstorey said:
Funnily enough it wasn't. Having seen a few England Ux sides over the years they're usually big and strong and lacking craft. This one looked good on the ball, almost European, and had the best player on the pitch in McEachran. And they conceded from a set piece instead of scoring from one.
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Totally agree.
 

samabachan

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When I watched United - Arsenal u18s, I wasn't overly impressed with either Aneke or Afobe, despite having heard rave reviews of both. They both seemed to be from the 'teach athletes to kick a football' school of academy players, which is very disappointing considering the rhetoric coming from Wenger about how we're about to start seeing the results of the academy system he implemented.

Contrast with Keane and Thorpe, who are gangly, lanky, skinny lads and I'm pretty proud of our kids tbh.
 

Joga_Bonito

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The view from the coaches:

FRANCE 1-2 SPAIN

Ginés Meléndez, Spain coach
"We possibly didn't play the way we wanted to play, but it is very important to win the first game in this kind of tournament". Congratulations to France as well who had lots of possession in attack, but we were very efficient and took our chances. They had lots of the ball but our defence was in control. The difference was that when they made a mistake, it was a goal. Spain do not usually play counterattacking football like this – it was not the plan but it worked.

Guy Ferrier, France coach
We had a good game and the result came down to small details. We did enough to get a draw from the game. "Spain are a good team and really efficient; they had only a few chances and yet they scored goals". Their tactic was to counterattack – they were waiting in their half. We were pressing them in their half and Spain were only playing long balls.

PORTUGAL 3-0 SWITZERLAND

Rui Bento, Portugal coach
"Anyone who saw this game had to be satisfied". It was a good match with plenty of chances and good moments. Switzerland were tough opponents; they played well and were organised. We deserved this win but we have to keep playing like this for the rest of the tournament.

Heinz Moser, Switzerland coach
First of all, I want to congratulate Portugal for their victory. If you look at the whole match, they deserved to win, though maybe not by quite so many goals. We had a good game too, especially in the first half. We knew Portugal had skilful and quick players so we tried to control the ball. "Most of the time ""I think ""we were able to keep them under control, but when they scored their pace and skill was vital". I'm sorry for my team as they deserved to score one or two goals, but they fought until the end and I praise them for that. Our aim was to play well and I think we did.
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(Source)

GREECE 1-3 TURKEY

Abdullah Ercan, Turkey coach
We made a good start to the game and the tournament. "We played very well in the first half, in the second half we needlessly sat back". It could have cost us dear. But in the end we deservedly won 3-1. I want to congratulate the Greek team as they were very tough in the second half. At first we tried to press Greece as they had two players suspended in defence. Everything was under control in the first half. We planned to control the midfield in the second half and went 2-0 up but the penalty changed our game plan.

Leonidas Vokolos, Greece coach
"I am happy for my players as they gave everything". We didn't have a very good first half but Turkey were not that much better, they were lucky to go ahead from distance. After this we tried hard and in the second half we pressed them a lot, we tried to press them in their own half. But we let in the second goal and immediately got it back with the penalty and we had two or three chances to equalise. But this is football and in the last minute the penalty finished the game. But we tried hard and my players gave their all.

ENGLAND 3-1 CZECH REPUBLIC

John Peacock, England coach
I always knew the Czech Republic would be a tough game; they were very disciplined and very organised. We started well but I don't think we helped ourselves when we conceded a poor goal from a set play which made it more difficult for us to claw ourselves back into the game. Thankfully we did and had a few words at half-time to try and raise the tempo of the game a little bit and start doing the things we're best at. "The first game is always the toughest in any tournament but we can take a lot of plusses from that".

Jiří Štol, Czech Republic coach
Our team congratulate England. I said before the game that England were favourites and the game showed they are a very, very good team. We scored first but England then played better and better. "In the last year we have not played such good opponents". We had a very good performance and we are satisfied we played well. They are young players so know we now have to pick them up.
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(Source)
 

peterstorey

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samabachan said:
When I watched United - Arsenal u18s, I wasn't overly impressed with either Aneke or Afobe, despite having heard rave reviews of both. They both seemed to be from the 'teach athletes to kick a football' school of academy players, which is very disappointing considering the rhetoric coming from Wenger about how we're about to start seeing the results of the academy system he implemented.

Contrast with Keane and Thorpe, who are gangly, lanky, skinny lads and I'm pretty proud of our kids tbh.
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That's pretty much rubbish. Afobe is a very skilful and powerful centre forward reminiscent of the young Andy Cole. Chuks is a very strong player with wonderful touch and vision for a 16-year-old. Keane and Thorpe, while good players for their age don't have half the potential.
 

Joga_Bonito

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peterstorey said:
That's pretty much rubbish. Afobe is a very skilful and powerful centre forward reminiscent of the young Andy Cole. Chuks is a very strong player with wonderful touch and vision for a 16-year-old. Keane and Thorpe, while good players for their age don't have half the potential.
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While I agree that Afobe and Aneke are excellent talents that will likely go on to become very good players, neither was particularly outstanding in the Academy Semi-Final, and Afobe was certainly not at his best in the England game, tonight. However, that's irrelevant, because it was just one game for Aneke, and two for Afobe.

But I can't imagine that you have seen either William Keane or Tom Thorpe many times, either, which does rather undercut your argument. For what it's worth, both have a very good chance of becoming first team players, although that remains to be seen for any 16-17 year old, no matter how talented, and it can only ever be an assessment of their ability in this age group (with a view to similar development in the future).

I'm not sure that even Arsene Wenger or Sir Alex Ferguson fully understand potential, so I generally take any mention of it by those with less knowledge with a great big pinch of salt.
 

samabachan

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peterstorey said:
That's pretty much rubbish. Afobe is a very skilful and powerful centre forward reminiscent of the young Andy Cole. Chuks is a very strong player with wonderful touch and vision for a 16-year-old. Keane and Thorpe, while good players for their age don't have half the potential.
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Fair enough if you have seen them more regularly than me, that was only my impression from watching 90 minutes. They seemed rather clumsy on the ball and relied a lot on pace and strength for my money, but then again as has been mentioned it was only 90 minutes.
 

Elliott

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peterstorey said:
That's pretty much rubbish. Afobe is a very skilful and powerful centre forward reminiscent of the young Andy Cole. Chuks is a very strong player with wonderful touch and vision for a 16-year-old. Keane and Thorpe, while good players for their age don't have half the potential.
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How many times have you seen them play?
 

Elliott

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Keane, Thorpe and Johnstone better friggin' start tonight. Just told a friend I haven't seen in over a year I have the flu so I can watch the Greece match. The fact that she can be a bit of a bore probably played a part too, but mainly the footie thing.
 

Ekeke

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2 more goals for Francisco "Paco" Alacar, the Valencia striker. And Spain are 2-0 up over Switzerland at half time in their second game. I believe that makes him top scorer in the tournament so far. The new David Villa...
 
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