Reply With QuoteNeed a reaction to Tuesday's thrashing.Originally Posted by Loramski
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Under-21s game v QPR at the CCS tomorrow, 19.00 kick off. (I would have said 7.00 kick off but now Bluetit pops up here he'd probably tell me he's not getting up at that time of the morning to watch it).
Free entry. Stream available too.
https://www.cardiffcityfc.co.uk/news...s-park-rangers
Need a reaction to Tuesday's thrashing.
The “highlights” are on the club website. Three of the goals down to poor passing by defence and keeper - two by Semenyo and one by Turner - I’ve not seen anything from our current third and fourth choice keepers (fourth and fifth if you count Phillips) to indicate they’re better than George Ratcliffe.
I'll take a look
did we offer Ratcliffe a contract?
Ooh yeah. You're not wrong.
I’m sure he was one of about 8 named at the start of the summer as having been made an offer. About 6 of the academy lads signed pretty quickly (usual signing photos in club site along with Xavier Benjamin as the only incomes at that time).
That left Ralls and Ratcliffe to decide.
Ralls signed weeks later but there was never any other mention of Ratcliffe. Assume he decided not to take the offer (as 5th choice keeper at the time) and has moved on? Not seen any report of him signing for any other club though.
I understand that Ratcliffe is still with the club but is recovering from an operation for an injury he suffered at the end of last season.
Good to hear, hope he regains fitness soon.
Jack Leahy at right back/wing back, Tanner plays, Crole up front.
3-1 QPR at half time after Crole put City 1-0 up
More poor stuff from the under 21s - 3-1 down after QPR score three in five minutes. James Crole scored early on with a header from a Tanner free kick, but QPR gradually took over and were outclassing us by the end of the half - you could just about manage to throw a circus tent over our midfield three.
Can't see any of this lot competing for a place in the senior side. There seems to be a gulf in quality between QPR and our lot. QPR look to have have some useful players in fairness.
4-1.
I really don't get why we're focusing on bringing in other clubs' cast offs, there are reasons these guys have been let go. I get it if they're from top academies but if you look at today's starting XI we have Turner (Leeds), Benjamin (Fulham), Leahy (Brighton), Antwi (Blackpool) and Conte (QPR), if they're not making it there how likely are they to make it here? Surely it's better to focus on developing our own talent and bringing in a select few let go from the top academies? I can't see any of the players listed having a real impact on our first team.
All over 5-3. Hughes with a great free kick and a good finish from Crole for his second, looked much livelier after the subs came on
10 goals conceded in 2 matches!
There was a spell of this when Warnock was here and it was a real mess. To be fair, part of the problem this time seems to be that we've moved a few youngsters up to the first team squad, got Kieron Evans, Taylor Jones, Chanka Zimba and Eli King out on loan and lost Ryan Kavanagh and (I think) Owen Pritchard to injury. I'm not sure where Aidan McNamara is, maybe someone can give a better update than this.
Places to be filled then and I guess there's always going to be an element of hit and miss about it. I can't generalise about any of them, it was my first game of the season tonight, but I wasn't overly impressed although Leahy looks a decent enough player. Antwi and Conte were largely anonymous, Crole seemed to be giving the pair of them a mouthful after QPR's third goal, and Benjamin pretty much got bullied by their very impressive centre forward. Turner made an excellent penalty save but their fourth goal looked soft.
It was a tough night for everyone though, QPR were pacy and powerful. It was a good night to be a sub. Semenyo's pace would've have been handy from the start, Ashford showed some nice touches and Hughes' free kick was superb. I felt a bit sorry for Tanner, his confidence seems shot and it wasn't happening for him. Putting your head down and running until you get tackled is painful to watch. Purse and Crole both got vexed with him but he didn't hide and did a couple of good things in the second half, hopefully he can kick on from that. Great credit to Crole, no real service but two goals and up for the battle from start to finish.
ANd the under 18s also let in five in their last match. I gave up at 4-1 last night and so missed our last two goals. Sadly, the under 21s have not impressed me at all in the three matches I’ve watched this season.
To be fair, QPR did have four players who’ve played for their first team, including Wales international George Thomas, in their starting line up, so the result shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, but, again, I look at the players brought in from other clubs supposedly to improve the side and think they haven’t done that.
That said, Jack Leahy impressed me more as a full back than he has done as winger (not really surprised to see Semenyo left out, he’s gone backwards based on what I’ve seen of him this season). However, I mentioned how scattered and disunited our midfield looked in an earlier post and you have to wonder about the management and coaching the players receive when you see things like that.
Crole is a name that keeps cropping up, would a step up be a step too far at this moment in his development? He does seem to know where the goal is and from reports he seems to be a confident type, ie bollocking others if he feels they’re slacking. The whole object of the academy is to be a stepping stone not for a player who’s shining to be a permanent fixture in that set up. Having not seen the lad I can only comment on the reports from this thread and he certainly gets air time on here. So is it a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ from the regular watchers of the age group he’s involved with? If it’s a yes, the next question is ‘when’, if he’s good enough etc etc.
I've been surprised to see that he's been on the bench for some recent under 21 matches. We've been hopeless at producing our own strikers for ages (not sure Isaak Davies and Mark Harris qualify as genuine strikers), but Crole is up there with the better ones we've had in my opinion - think it might do him good to go out on loan although I wouldn't have thought he'd play every week for, say, a League Two side. For now, he's the type of player who may end up getting some first team experience with us in the FA Cup this season or if this season turns out to be like the last one with a series of meaningless games to end the league campaign.
Under 18s 2-1 up at Hull at half time. Glad to see that Gabriele Biancheri, who there was supposed to be interest in from big clubs in the summer and I began to think had left us
, score the first one and Nyakuwha has got the second with a penalty.
3-2 in the last minute!
George & Perrett too who I saw linked to others
Cody Twose (a new name to me) scores the winner for City.
👍
I see Eli King had an assist for the only goal of Crewe's game yesterday.
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