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I was slightly surprised to see he was still here at the start of the season. 21 now and 4th choice at left back, he wouldn't even have been first choice at under-23 level, so I'm not sure what the plan was for him but he's suddenly found himself in a good position here and he didn't do himself any harm today either. It will be interesting to see what happens with Bagan and Martin in January if Bennett and Cunningham are both fit again.Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
It's difficult to see a Route for Harris into the side at the moment, we play 1 up top most of the time. If Moore gets injured we'll play Glatzel - then at some point Vassell will be back as well (maybe).
For D'Almeida we've got 4 "central midfielders" in Vaulks, Pack, Ralls and Bacuna, and we have 2 or 3 of them on the pitch at the same time, so agin we are likely to be waiting for at least one probably 2 being out injured to even make a bench.
If we hadn't had 2 left backs and a right back out injured at the same time then Bagan would probably not had his chance. It shouldn't be any wonder that we never bring any players through if we rely on a freak injury crisis to be able to give them game time.
Think Harris would do well in the role Glatzel played against Boro. Long ol' season so would hope Moore gets rested at some point and either Glatzel and Harris tried or Harris off the bench as seen this past weekend. As harsh as it sounds, wouldn't it be better to develop Harris than waiting for Vassell's injury record to turn?
well im bang wrong about Harris it seems
2-0, header by Isaak Davies from a cross by Keiron Evans.
FT 2 - 0.
I enjoyed that. The u23s played some good stuff at times.
Good win that.. The other forum leader only posts when they lose
Finished 2-0, pretty comfortable for City in the second half with only an excellent late George Ratcliffe save to suggest that Hull could get back into things. Benkovic had a good second half before going off towards the end and I was impressed by Denham alongside him. Dan Martin, not quite as impressive after the break as he was before it, but I'd still give him Man of the Match.
Good to see u23s get off mark
I struggle to understand how anyone can claim that they way we use our fullbacks hasn't changed since Harris took over. At the start of last season we had Bennett and Peltier rarely moving beyond the halfway line. Now our fullbacks play much higher up the pitch, make overlapping runs and deliver crosses into the opposition penalty area.
I definitely think this is the plan but it's a bit half-hearted for now. I didn't pay particular attention to it last night but I don't remember many overlapping (or underlapping) runs from full back positions nor dangerous balls coming in. The odd thing was that we were deliberately setting up with Pack dropping in between the centre backs when we had possession, sometimes Ralls or Vaulks too, as if to say to the full backs 'you push on, we've got you covered' so I'm not quite sure why it wasn't happening.
My guess would be that the full backs are wary for a couple of reasons. Any run into space is likely to be fruitless because none of the above mentioned players are going to be able to find them with a cross-field pass, or any pass for that matter. The chances of them holding onto any sort of possession aren't great (Ralls' part in their goal, for example) so it would be understandable if the full backs are thinking a 50 yard burst forward is likely to be quickly followed by a u-turn and a 50 yard sprint back. If, by some chance, the ball does reach them, what are they going to find when they look up? No one to link with and Moore and maybe one other in the box marked by 4 or 5 defenders.
I think it's one of a number of examples where we're getting caught between two stools. Wanting to adapt the style of play but not quite having either the personnel or the confidence to fully commit to it.
It would be completely ridiculous to compare DVP level football to the Championship, of course, but I'm going to do it anyway. It makes my waffling relevant to this thread if nothing else. Here's James Waite's 40 pass goal from a while back. Note Ajayi's long passing, also the fact that Waite pops up a number of times between our centre backs but also makes the run into the box to score the goal. Both of these things, plus the availability of players to link with, make it well worth the fireball overlapping right back (Greg Halford) getting forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4557bLrXRQ
Taz Mayembe back for the under 18s today in their home game with Coventry which kicked off at 11.30.
City's Academy team have got into the habit of losing games they were winning at half time, but they've just scored three times in ten minutes to go three up against Coventry through Caleb Hughes with a penalty, Siyabonga Ligendza and Taylor Jones - surely the trend of recent matches ends today?
A goal back for Coventry with a penalty o n the hour mark, but a last minute goal by Mayembe secures the win - the first victory for the Under 18s since their opening game and both of their victories this season have been by 4-1.
Only just noticed that a City Under 23 side including Tavio D'Almeida and Jack Bodenham were beaten by a penalty in the last ten minutes to nil at Crewe yesterday - just three points from six games for them then.
The Under 18s have just kicked off in a tough looking game at Forest - no news of any goals yet.
3-0 Forest at half-time
6 - 2 at F-T. Ouch.
I can only put our poor Academy results down to me not being there to give them inspiration.
In their defence, there are a lot of players in this year's team who are having their first season at this level and they have been missing the player who is probably their biggest match winner, Taz Mayembe, for most of the time because of injury.
City drawn away to dodgy Derby with their Class 1 Academy in their opening Youth Cup tie of the season - it'll be something of a giant killing if it does not turn out to be their only game in the competition.
The under 23s are currently in action at Millwall with a name I've not seen in ages (Keenan Patten) selected in our midfield. With the first team in action today, it is a very young side and they're 1-0 down just coming up to half time.
Jack Walls came on for the second half today. I assume it's the Jack Walls who was released by Liverpool in the summer, a 19 year old right back. He was recalled for one under-23 game last month but made a mistake which cost Liverpool a 1-0 defeat and has presumably been re-released. Ticks the injury prone box, he's already broken his leg twice, so I assume we'll be signing him soon.
Jack Walls is in from the start today when, unusually, the under 23s, not the under 18s, are in action - they're away at Colchester and there's no news of any score yet after the game kicked off at 11.00.
Turns out I'm wrong, the under 18s are playing today at QPR - that game has just started and it's 0-0 at half time at Colchester.
Finished 2-0 to Millwall to go with a defeat by the same score by the same opponents on Saturday in which I believe Taz Mayembe played left back.
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