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2-5 Williams. Amass assist.
2-5 Williams. Amass assist.
Miscellaneous Reserve/Youth News
- Thread starter Cevno
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
What does that mean for McNeil who was so promising at one point, nearly 21 and benched for an 18 year old that featured in the first team, I take it hes fallen down the pecking order?
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Scanlon and McNeill replace Mather and Wheatley.
Scanlon and McNeill replace Mather and Wheatley.
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2-6 McNeill (Devaney)
2-6 McNeill (Devaney)
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Murray on, Williams off.
Murray on, Williams off.
I don't know when his contract ends but I don't see us keeping him around for much longer. He had like one good game for the u21s in the few games I watched(that was televised). Same with Oyedele. They don't impact the games as much as they should be seeing as they have been regulars for the u21s and should be the senior players at that level.
He works hard and is still a decent finisher. Unfortunately his all-round game isn’t good enough and he’ll leave the club this summer, I think.
In terms of being on the bench, it’s normal to rotate at youth level and being on the bench for a game doesn’t mean he’s ”benched” per se by someone.
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3-6
3-6
Makes sense, thanks for the replies..
FT 3-6 (Wheatley 2, Williams 2, Mather, McNeill)
Up to 11th in the table. Finishing inside the top 12 would secure European football for our academy next season. Our decent goal difference could become handy in that hunt too.
11) United +13 29
12) Palace +2 28
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13) Brighton -3 28
14) Forest -3 27
All of Palace (Spurs H), Brighton (Wolves A) and Forest (Reading H) face teams above us in their final fixtures later tonight.
We’ll face one of Fulham, Chelsea, Arsenal, Sunderland and Reading in the first knockout stage.
Up to 11th in the table. Finishing inside the top 12 would secure European football for our academy next season. Our decent goal difference could become handy in that hunt too.
11) United +13 29
12) Palace +2 28
- - -
13) Brighton -3 28
14) Forest -3 27
All of Palace (Spurs H), Brighton (Wolves A) and Forest (Reading H) face teams above us in their final fixtures later tonight.
We’ll face one of Fulham, Chelsea, Arsenal, Sunderland and Reading in the first knockout stage.
Great win. Looks quite a strong side when players like Amass, Forson and Wheatley are available - and that's obviously without the likes of Mainoo, Garnacho, Kambwala and all the loanees!
Reminds me of when we had those few games with Amad, Hannibal, Shoretire (when he looked promising), Fernandez, etc, and wracked up half a dozen in consecutive high scoring matches.
Hopefully the results go our way tonight and we can finish top 12. Looks like a draw wouldn't be good enough for any to overtake us so we just can't afford two of Palace, Brighton and Forest to win.
Reminds me of when we had those few games with Amad, Hannibal, Shoretire (when he looked promising), Fernandez, etc, and wracked up half a dozen in consecutive high scoring matches.
Hopefully the results go our way tonight and we can finish top 12. Looks like a draw wouldn't be good enough for any to overtake us so we just can't afford two of Palace, Brighton and Forest to win.
Surely he’s gone at the end of the season? Hopefully he can work his way back up. I think if he is still motivated and doing the right things and was that prolific at youth level he can still play at a high senior level eventually. It’s telling we went to Wheatley instead in the injury crisis?
I like that we are aggressively playing the nucleus of u18s together up in the 23s. They can still learn something from that level of football before their loan or eventual introduction in to the first team. Once you’re 20/21 you shouldn’t be knocking around playing junior football no matter the size of the club you are at
The challenge for him in the lower leagues could be that he’s a bit small and frail to play as the lone striker. He works his socks off, presses well and is still pretty dangerous inside the box but he’d need a stronger/taller partner to play alongside him, in my opinion.
Before his meltdown Beaucoup, who was one of our academy ITKs, said McNeil had attitude issues which could be part of the reason.
Might end up falling down the leagues like Mellor if he's not careful. He had a pretty uneventful loan at Rochdale (just the one goal in 9 games) from Wycombe this season and I don't see that helping him get a new contract there, even though they need to replace Dale Taylor's input. The fact that he's only got 2 senior goals to his name isn't what they want in a striker.
I think that’s the path regardless, unless he goes abroad. He’s not a Championship or I’d say even League One starting striker at the moment.
The talent was always there - but if he is going to make it as a striker at United, he needs to score regularly. And that is still the ont thing I question about him. He can score a worldie one second, and then miss 2 sitters 5 minutes later. But nothing would make me happier if he turns into a great goalscorer, rather than a scorer of great goals (as Mark Hughes was described as)Hasn't been always like that with his finishing though. Only recently, like from the last couple of months he has been scoring regularly. Seems to have taken @lysglimt's criticism seriously.
Yea, it's impressive to see how far he's come this season.
It's all good mate. I remember you not rating him at the start of this season so I'm just glad he's improving and proving us all wrong.
Highlights are on Southampton's website by the way. Just need to make an account.
Thanks for the heads up.
- Not Harrison’s best performance
- Suprised Williams didn’t go with his right foot on his first chance
- Mather scores only beautiful goals
- Brilliant work from Amass leading up to Williams’ second goal
- So composed from McNeill for the last goal
Stats confirming that Southampton were very much the team in control. Decent finishing from us though.
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You're correct that it wouldn't make much sense for a 17 year old player to join us when he's already playing first team football and his development seems to be coming along well.
But from reading the reports linking the player to United, it does seem that the idea is to sign the youngster and loan him out to one of the INEOS clubs in Switzerland/France.
The U21s finished 12th in the PL2 table. That means we’ll face Arsenal in the knockouts. They beat us 4-2 in September.
We’ll also be in the Premier League International Cup next season, unless we beat Chelsea in the U18 Premier League Final. In that case it’ll be UEFA Youth League, which in opinion would be much better.
We’ll also be in the Premier League International Cup next season, unless we beat Chelsea in the U18 Premier League Final. In that case it’ll be UEFA Youth League, which in opinion would be much better.
I'm a bit confused, is it either / or then?
An U18 victory would get us into the U19 Youth League. That much I knew. And I knew finishing top 12 in the U21's would get us into the PL International Cup. But if we achieve the former, does that mean we don't then enter the latter?
And the former is for the teams in the CL spots as well isn't it? So does that mean the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool (who've also finished top 12) won't be in the International Cup either as they'll be in the UEFA Youth League as well?
As @Gungerz said it’s impossible to take part in both, in terms of fixture dates, logistics etc. For example this season Chelsea and Liverpool were the only ”top” clubs from England participating in PL International Cup. And that’s because they failed to get to the CL or win the U18 Premier League.
It would be more or less the same players in both competitions.
Thanks.
But what does that mean then for the 'top 12' spots? Arsenal and Liverpool finished in there, but they'll be in the CL places so in the UEFA Youth League. So does that actually mean teams finishing 13th and 14th will still be in that International Cup instead of them? And if we win the U18 play off, then 15th place will be in as well?
Probably yeah, exactly as you put it. It’s the first season in this format so I’m not 100% sure. Guess the ”Top 12 will qualify for the Premier League International Cup” sounds better than ”The top clubs will not take part so most of the clubs qualify” even when they know that 4-5 will not enter the cup.
Liverpool played in both last season, I don’t see how it would be impossible. A number of the foreign teams play in both too. PSV, Feyenoord, Celtic, Dinamo Zagreb, Benfica, all did both this season. PSG and Porto also last season. This is also with many of their B teams playing in actual 34-38 match senior leagues, not whatever the 20 game mess PL2 is. Portugal u19s league also has more matches than our u18s. If they’re doing it with significantly more fixtures then there isn’t anything stopping us doing both except for a lack of wanting to.
That also means they’ve got much deeper squads at those levels so that they can cope with it. With our injury record this season, at all levels, we would’ve been fecked if we played in both competitions.
As Nick Cox & Adam Lawrence have said in recent interviews, the U21s and U18s are one unit. The staff work with both age groups.
It’s not like we’ve got 20 U21s and 20 U18s fit and ready to play at the same time with full staff for both teams supporting them.
The U21s have two fit fullbacks, two centrebacks, one midfielder, two wingers and one striker available currently. If some of the loans turned out better, even less than that.
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Not sure, but the facilities at Carrington could be a nice bonus for him.
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Yeah the facilities must be the reason why Argentina and Brazil produce the best players in the world. Besides he plays for Rosenborg - their facilities are quite good. KFUM is a YMCA who somehow managed to get promoted to the top division - and are doing quite well 
United played in both competitions a few years ago. I don't think we had a different squad structure back then but we have suffered with more injuries this season.
Having said that...there are some players who have played very little football and have been fit most of the time whilst the PL2 structure is hardly taxing on players.
Ah, so it's more a case of you can play in both, but you can also opt out of one if you choose. That makes more sense. And I guess (as it seems) that there will be some teams who choose both and others who opt out of the International Cup. I wonder which we do if we win the U18 final and have that choice to make?
I wasn’t being serious.Yeah the facilities must be the reason why Argentina and Brazil produce the best players in the world. Besides he plays for Rosenborg - their facilities are quite good. KFUM is a YMCA who somehow managed to get promoted to the top division - and are doing quite well
I know
Me neitherThe U14s beat Man City 2-1 in the Albert Phelan Cup semi-final. JJ Gabriel scored one of the goals.
Final is against Villa who beat Boro 6-1 in the other semi.
Final on Sunday apparently. Kai Rooney scored the other one by the way.
PL2:
Arsenal vs United
Fri 3 May
19:00 BST
Meadow Park
Not on MUTV as there’s a Premier League game on Friday as well.
Here’s how it would continue if we can beat Arsenal.
Last 16 (3-6 May)
Match 1: Spurs v Aston Villa
Match 2: Liverpool v Crystal Palace
Match 3: Arsenal v Man Utd
Match 4: Chelsea v Brighton
Match 5: Reading v Middlesbrough
Match 6: Fulham v Nott'm Forest
Match 7: Sunderland v Wolves
Match 8: West Ham v Blackburn Rovers
Quarter-finals (10-13 May)
Match 9: Winner 1 v Winner 2
Match 10: Winner 3 v Winner 4
Match 11: Winner 5 v Winner 6
Match 12: Winner 7 v Winner 8
Semi-finals (17-20 May)
Match 13: Winner 9 v Winner 10
Match 14: Winner 11 v Winner 12
Final (24-27 May)
Winner 13 v Winner 14
Arsenal vs United
Fri 3 May
19:00 BST
Meadow Park
Not on MUTV as there’s a Premier League game on Friday as well.
Here’s how it would continue if we can beat Arsenal.
Last 16 (3-6 May)
Match 1: Spurs v Aston Villa
Match 2: Liverpool v Crystal Palace
Match 3: Arsenal v Man Utd
Match 4: Chelsea v Brighton
Match 5: Reading v Middlesbrough
Match 6: Fulham v Nott'm Forest
Match 7: Sunderland v Wolves
Match 8: West Ham v Blackburn Rovers
Quarter-finals (10-13 May)
Match 9: Winner 1 v Winner 2
Match 10: Winner 3 v Winner 4
Match 11: Winner 5 v Winner 6
Match 12: Winner 7 v Winner 8
Semi-finals (17-20 May)
Match 13: Winner 9 v Winner 10
Match 14: Winner 11 v Winner 12
Final (24-27 May)
Winner 13 v Winner 14