Academy vs Bolton

[PS18]

1. Conor Devlin
2. Reece Brown
3. Joe Dudgeon
4. Kenny Strickland
5. Oliver Gill
6. Matty James (c)
7. Cameron Stewart
8. Oliver Norwood
9. Federico Macheda
10. Davide Petrucci
11. Robbie Brady


Macheda's just given us the lead with a left-footed screamer from 25 or so yards after 8 minutes.

 

[PS18]

2-0 after 35 minutes, Matty James with a header after terrific work on the right and a great cross by Petrucci.

 

[PS18]

3-0, own goal by their centre-half after a great James cross on 56 minutes.

 

[PS18]

4-1, sublime goal from Ra'vel Morrison on the counter. Found brilliantly by Matty James, ran clear and chipped the keeper from the right corner of the box.

 

[PS18]

Finished 4-1, excellent performance.

 

[prateik]

has norwood lost any weight ..
i read that the coach thinks he is very talented but a bit chubby (cant remember who it was)


and is petrucci playing in midfield or as a second striker

 

[Virtuoso]

Great performance on the whole. Federico Macheda's goal to get it started was absolute quality, struck it standing from about 25 yards out with his weaker left and it went flying into the far top corner. Macheda and Petrucci (who brilliantly assisted the 2nd) were brilliant in combination, Petrucci playing as a support striker - the Italian front pairing showed some real understanding and both could have scored more.

Joe Dudgeon was also impressive, getting stuck in and Matt James was another standout. He bossed the game in the middle and looks a real prospect - quite a complete midfield player, box to box. Cameron Stewart and Robert Brady were not at their best but Ra'vel Morrisson looked electric when he came on and it was a very classy/composed finish for his goal.

Quality performance; Federico Macheda definitely looks way ahead of the level of development that I think most of us were expecting. His positioning, finishing, awareness, technique is all well ahead of his age group and he has added in some hard work and tracking back to go along with it.

 

[Elliott]

Cheers, PS18 and Virtuoso.

 

[samabachan]

How's Brady doing this season? There was a big buzz about him when he signed - looked fantastic in his first few games but sounds like he is not doing much at the moment.

 

[PS18]

Still playing his way into some sort of form really, had a very injury-disrupted start to the season and only now is he really fully fit. Just needs games now, he's lacking a bit of confidence and not really taking his man on enough.

 

[cj_sparky]

Cheers for the reports lads.

Macheda looks like a good player from what I have seen and Petrucci also looks very composed and creative.

 

[andersj]

Whats Machedas biggest weakness? Lack of pace?

 

[samabachan]

Whats Machedas biggest weakness? Lack of pace?

Nope. He's fairly fast. Not lightning but not bad. If he continues to improve he should become a pretty complete striker.

 

[PS18]

According to David Stowell on MUTV tonight the official club statistician has credited the third goal to Matt James (as opposed to an own goal). Bit dubious if you ask me but if the club statistician says so, who am I to argue...

 

[LouisRocca]

Nick(PS18), have you got any news about Josh King? Someone said that he was back after injury, but he hasn't featured in any of our U18 matches after he was supposed to have returned. It could of course be that he has played for the U16(witch is unfourtunely almost impossible to get any info about).

I have a good feeling about Josh, he got some great reviews back in Norway playing against players 4-5 years older, and has had a great first year in United too. I think he has been one of the most exciting players in a very exciting U18 team, we have some great talent comming through right now.

In UnitedSupporteren, the scandinavian supporterclubs magasin, they had an interview with OGS and he mention Josh King as one of the players that he might use in the reserves this season.

 

[Virtuoso]

Joshua King was sitting on the bench but not a part of the subs on Saturday watching the Academy play against Bolton, so I'm guessing he's on his way back from injury - not completely sure though.

 

[LouisRocca]

Thanks Virtuoso!

 

[PS18]

Josh came back and played a part in the games against Wolves, Liverpool and Celtic, not sure if he maybe aggravated his previous injury or picked up a new one but like you say, he's not been involved since.

It might not even be injury related, with us only playing with one striker most of the time (Macheda) there's a lot of competition between Josh, Evandro Brandao and Nicky Ajose for places on the bench and if Josh has maybe had a tricky start to the season and his fitness isn't quite there he might just be being held out of competitive games until he's fully up to speed.