England U20

Eurosport 1

England v Argentina

Arma just got the 2nd to put England 2 up. Woodman in action too

 

I assume the rest of the team must be made up of Sunderland's young players?

 

Er not quite.

Using video evidence. Led to an incredibly soft sending off All hail the much vaunted video refs

 

U17 got beat on pens in final against Spain. Conceded a last minute equaliser to take it to extra time. So close.

Gibson played right through.

Sad thing is we do ok in these young tournaments and then these lads don't get much exposure to 1st team football at the highest level unlike their counterparts. Too many foreign players blocking the path.

 

Lewis Cook of Bournemouth really impressive in midfield.

 

Pen 3-0 Solanke

 

Defence were excellent. 3-0 flatters them massively, Argentina were pretty good and dominated large periods. They were getting outplayed a fair bit. The Argentine captain Ascacibar was superb. He will be playing for a European club soon.

Clarke-Salter and Tomori were very good

 

Everton and Chelsea players galore. They had 3 or 4 in there. The Everton lads might get a chance.

 

But as NUFC fans we must take some of the blame for this. If a youngster plays and doesn't do well they get slated and booed until any confidence they did have has gone.

Arma, Woodman and Gibson should all be playing for us next season in the first team squad and given the cup games as well as being on the bench.

 

Do you mean Liam Gibson or Lewis Gibson? If you mean the latter then 16/17 is a probably a bit young - he's not even progressed to the U-23 squad yet. The players have to be good enough at the end of the day - the stakes are too high if you drop points.

 

I do mean Lewis Gibson - apparently he is already better than any other LB we have.

You mention dropping points and if they are good enough, Gibson is good enough and he would only be on the bench as mentioned and would also play cup games. When was the last time Dummett missed a game?

 

Also, who is Liam Gibson?

 

Lewis is very young but having watched him, I'd like to see us put him around the 1st team squad to bring him on. However he is only 16. 17 in July. So you need a someone else to rotate with. That is likely to be Dummett. I think he will hurt us in the PL personally but I can accept we need to sort other positions first.

The fans here can be great. However I have to say its not all roses. Our fans are pretty bi polar with reactions.

Due to the evil of the PL and the ridiculous obsession with it and the riches, unfortunately young players are rarely afforded the exposure required. There is a reason why our players lack leadership in my opinion. Our players are never given the leadership roles or responsibility. Particularly at the leading clubs and at a young age. They play support roles to the foreign players. It is no surprise when they freeze on the big stage. Spurs have and Pochettino have been a breath of fresh air in that regard. But even Dier has found himself out of the holding role.

Dial back to the likes of Gerrard, Beckham, Adams, Campbell, Gascoigne, Ince, Shearer etc, these guys were leading players within their clubs from a young age.

The PL is all wrong for young player development in this country in my opinion. General Lee is right. We have created a situation where there is a fear of losing points by 'risking' young players. Its extremely sad. It is driven by money rather than a sporting environment. Instead of every club having say 8 young players in a 25 man squad, getting regular exposure and eventually succeeding their senior counterparts in leading roles, we have managers fearing for their jobs so they take the safe easy options.

 

Some of them are too young to be the first choice player in their position. However, once first choices get injured then I would much prefer an inexperienced left-back playing left-back than an experienced right sided midfielder. We have to get the balance right. Protect them from too much too soon, but also give them opportunities when the chance arises. Ideally this could be done in games you are winning when they are subs - bringing them on for the last 15/20 minutes. In practice I know it doesn't work like that and injuries can happen in the first 10 minutes. Take the chance though if they are on the bench.

 

Basically the old way of doing things before the money and the PL. They had to take their chance when it arose through injuries or players moving on etc etc. Sub appearances but part of the 1st team squad. Learning from experienced pros. Now we 25 players who are all over the age of 21, all of whom are international players and then anywhere between 10 and 50 younguns out on loan.

Surely we can see we are producing talented players but they don't develop and get the relevant mental characteristics

 

We have to face it. We're just a pair of old ****s sitting here saying 'In my day......'

 

Indeed. Unfortunately an even older bunch of ****s in our FA have ****ed up the game here

 

Not sure why you've added "...sitting here saying 'in my day...' " most of us would have just agreed with the first part.

 

I have to go through a phase of being nice to Hank now and again so that he doesn't become immune to being called a ****.

 

How much have you seen of Lewis Gibson though? I've not seen any of his 9 appearances for the U18s this season - but if you have fair enough - and because of that I can't be sure that it's a bit early to be talking about putting him into the match day squad in the Premier League but my guess is it would be. I take your point about putting the odd one on the bench and giving experience at the end of a game but it seems a bit premature with this kid.

Liam Gibson is his older brother, also a left back, in the U23s.