The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

[Loramski]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

A friend of mine played for Haverfordwest against the U23s the other day and said Waite was on another level to everyone else on the pitch. He scored twice and they couldn't get near him until he was moved upfront and got drowned out by the centre backs.

He's a terrific talent but vertically challenged and needs to be playing in a possession based set-up, two factors which might hamper his progress here in the short term. In case you missed his recent goal against Kortrijk that I posted on Monday, here it is again

https://twitter.com/CardiffCityFC/status/1158390047764295682

[the other bob wilson]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

City's under 18s begin the defence of the title they won last season with a few new names in the team at Hull today - it's 0-0 at half time.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

City's under 18s begin the defence of the title they won last season with a few new names in the team at Hull today - it's 0-0 at half time.

Finished 0-0.

The Under 23s are at home to Sheffield United today at Leckwith, kick off 1 o clock.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

My take on this afternoon's 3-1 defeat for the Under 23s against Sheffield United.

http://mauveandyellowarmy.net/

[Loramski]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

My take on this afternoon's 3-1 defeat for the Under 23s against Sheffield United.

http://mauveandyellowarmy.net/

Thanks for that. I'm baffled though, if Warnock is going in 9 months time then why are we teaching our youngsters to play anti-football now? We haven't got the right kind of players to be doing it at that level anyway. If we've turned Coxe into Peltier, Waite into Paterson or Bodenham into Flint before the end of the season then I'll eat my words but I'm pretty confident it won't happen.

One other slight worry is that having had so many injury problems at that level last season there are already a few absentees this. Bolger, Griffiths, Humphries & Martin all missing lately, although Martin may be serving a club ban for persistent overlapping in pre-season.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

Thanks for that. I'm baffled though, if Warnock is going in 9 months time then why are we teaching our youngsters to play anti-football now? We haven't got the right kind of players to be doing it at that level anyway. If we've turned Coxe into Peltier, Waite into Paterson or Bodenham into Flint before the end of the season then I'll eat my words but I'm pretty confident it won't happen.

One other slight worry is that having had so many injury problems at that level last season there are already a few absentees this. Bolger, Griffiths, Humphries & Martin all missing lately, although Martin may be serving a club ban for persistent overlapping in pre-season.

As I mentioned, the way we played suited Moore who did well in what I'm pretty sure was my first look at him, but Waite was anonymous, Spence missed a couple of decent chances and was not seen much otherwise, Coxe didn't get forward as much as usual and although Patten did some good defensive work in preventing a four on two for Sheffield from producing a goal, he was pretty subdued overall - we certainly weren't playing to their strengths.

[Loramski]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

As I mentioned, the way we played suited Moore who did well in what I'm pretty sure was my first look at him, but Waite was anonymous, Spence missed a couple of decent chances and was not seen much otherwise, Coxe didn't get forward as much as usual and although Patten did some good defensive work in preventing a four on two for Sheffield from producing a goal, he was pretty subdued overall - we certainly weren't playing to their strengths.

What's confusing me is that we seemed to be doing away with all that by the end of last season. I saw a couple of games where we shifted to a back 3/5 with the full backs bombing on to give width, it seems a logical system as that's similar to how the Academy play and with the personnel available (Mayembe excluded maybe) there's not much point in trying to replicate the first team's set up. Here was my upbeat summary of the last game against Bolton.

http://www.ccmb.co.uk/showthread.php?420828-The-Bluebirds-Academy-and-DVP-thread&p=4966208&viewfull=1#post4966208

Maybe there was an expectation that Warnock wouldn't be around this season but even in the knowledge that he is the under-23s seemed to be playing some good football pre-season. It was all Tomlin initially, then all Waite. I guess some of the opposition wasn't that great but, even so, I would've thought it hard for those two to be running games if the ball was continually being kicked down the channels. Hard to understand what's going on.

[City123]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

I see Mark Harris scored again for Wrexham, his third in three games!

[the other bob wilson]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

What's confusing me is that we seemed to be doing away with all that by the end of last season. I saw a couple of games where we shifted to a back 3/5 with the full backs bombing on to give width, it seems a logical system as that's similar to how the Academy play and with the personnel available (Mayembe excluded maybe) there's not much point in trying to replicate the first team's set up. Here was my upbeat summary of the last game against Bolton.

http://www.ccmb.co.uk/showthread.php?420828-The-Bluebirds-Academy-and-DVP-thread&p=4966208&viewfull=1#post4966208

Maybe there was an expectation that Warnock wouldn't be around this season but even in the knowledge that he is the under-23s seemed to be playing some good football pre-season. It was all Tomlin initially, then all Waite. I guess some of the opposition wasn't that great but, even so, I would've thought it hard for those two to be running games if the ball was continually being kicked down the channels. Hard to understand what's going on.

Leggy seems to be more high profile this season (in fact, I'm not sure if Jarred Harvey is still there) and so I wonder if the two things are related? To be fair, I wouldn't say City were playing a lot of high balls to a target man on Monday, it was more long balls knocked into the channels and their goal did come from one of those long throws. However,having have had a moan about the small number of footballers in the first team on transfer deadline day, the Under 23s approach didn't seem suited to the footballers in their side (and there were four or five of them).

I suppose that having maintained that it is easier to get technical footballers to play the sort of attritional, percentage game favoured by our manager than it is to get players who have been developed to play the Warnock way to switch to a technical, possession based approach, I suppose the next few months will see me proved right or wrong in that opinion.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

Anyone thinking of going to today's Academy game with Crewe at Leckwith should note that it kicks off at the later than normal time of 1 o clock.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

Bizarre events at Leckwith today as the Under 18s drew 2-2 with Crewe. With City 2-0 ahead well into the last ten minutes of the game, I did what I usually do when watching matches at the Athletics Stadium - that is, leave my seat and watch the rest of the game through the perimeter fence as I'm walking towards my car. For those who have not been in the stand at the stadium, you leave it by walking through the reception area so there are a few seconds during my walk when I cannot see the pitch. Today, those few seconds were extended a little by me looking at the television in the reception area to see what the score was in the Wales rugby game, but I couldn't have missed more than half a minute at the most.

When I could see the pitch again, I was surprised and disappointed to see City taking the ball to the corner flag to waste time when they were 2-0 up, but when, as I thought, Crewe got a goal back with a far post volley, the way all of the players and subs rushed to greet the scorer had me thinking "that's an equalising goal, they must have scored and the game restarted while I was in the reception area for those few seconds".

This was confirmed when I got home and saw the score on Twitter. If the first team had thrown away a 2-0 lead so deep into the game like that, I think there would have been a managerial rant to more than match the famous one in that You Tube video, but I would have thought things are more low key at this level - although the team should, in my opinion, be left in doubt as to how careless they had been in finding a way not to win from such a position.

In my blog piece on the Under 23s' loss to Sheffield United last Monday, I mentioned that they seemed to play in a way more in keeping with our first team than the one they normally employ which is akin to the playing out from the back style associated with City's youth sides. I wondered to myself if we may see something similar from the under 18s, but within a minute or so I knew the answer to my question - no! Within another minute, keeper Cogman had taken the first of several goal kicks to a colleague stood within the penalty area and there was no end of that passing within your own half that Neil Warnock does not want to see from the first team.

City played some really nice stuff at times with quick passing through the middle of the park, while there were moments of great individual skill from the likes of Rubin Colwell, Keiron Evans and Ryan Kavanagh, but Crewe stuck doggedly to their task with their goalkeeper making important saves when required and City soon became frustrated to the extent that for long periods in the second half it looked like both teams would have to settle for a record of two games, two goalless draws from their first couple of fixtures.

In saying that, the visitors did force Cogman into a couple of good saves, but going into the final quarter of an hour, it was hard to see where one goal, let alone four, would come from. As it was, the deadlock was broken when one of City's subs scored on the far post from a good cross by left back Sam Parsons and within two minutes Colwell had initiated a break which was carried on by Isaak Davies to free Ntazana Mayembe and the speed merchant, who was now playing down the middle after swapping positions with Davies, took the ball on to impressively beat the keeper and make it 2-0.

Davies, not as effective as usual, and Mayembe missed further chances as Crewe pushed forward, but they didn't seem important because I was still thinking City were home and hosed when, in truth, that mystery goal scored while I was in the reception area had put a completely different complexion on things!

[the other bob wilson]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

Two 3-1 defeats from two matches for the Under 23s who went down by that score at Barnsley this lunchtime. All of the scoring came in the first half after Shamar Moore had given City the lead with a first minute penalty.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

As mentioned elsewhere on the board, Sion Spence has joined Barry on loan, while Ryan Reynolds has completed a temporary transfer to Pen y Bont. Reynolds was playing for the Under 18s (still winless after a 2-2 draw with Wigan at Leckwith on Satutrday) while Spence is probably best out of the Under 23s based on their results this season - Friday's 4-1 defeat at Forest means it's three games and three defeats with ten goals conceded this season, with the three goals they've scored coming from a penalty and two set pieces as they've resorted to both full backs hurling in long throw ins from either side of the pitch.

[Jeff Mansfield]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

As mentioned elsewhere on the board, Sion Spence has joined Barry on loan, while Ryan Reynolds has completed a temporary transfer to Pen y Bont. Reynolds was playing for the Under 18s (still winless after a 2-2 draw with Wigan at Leckwith on Satutrday) while Spence is probably best out of the Under 23s based on their results this season - Friday's 4-1 defeat at Forest means it's three games and three defeats with ten goals conceded this season, with the three goals they've scored coming from a penalty and two set pieces as they've resorted to both full backs hurling in long throw ins from either side of the pitch.

Still no fixture list for the 23s on club website. I keep getting a splash about the club TV packages. 18s list is up though.

[the other bob wilson]

Re: The Bluebirds Academy and DVP thread...

Still no fixture list for the 23s on club website. I keep getting a splash about the club TV packages. 18s list is up though.

Thanks Jeff, at least that's something. This site is very good for coverage of under 18 and under 23 football and has a fixture list for our development side, but I'm not sure about our next scheduled match (Bolton H) going ahead under current circumstances.

http://youthhawk.co.uk/w/index.php/Cardiff_City_Under-23s