The Spurs Youth Thread - 2017/2018

Bus-Conductor said:

Ah...yeah....to be fair, if you remember, I only watched last 30-35 minutes I think, and Spurs barely strung three passes together in that phase, pretty easy to forget...cough..

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you can watch the full game here if you fancy it -



1st half was decent, 2nd half was just us strolling.

Easy to see why we sent CCV to Sheffield United and there was interest in Edwards - their manager actually says they play like Tottenham when trying to convince a player to sign for them!

https://twitter.com/NathanAClark/status/904062962700353537

Blake Griffin said:

you can watch the full game here if you fancy it -



1st half was decent, 2nd half was just us strolling.

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Thanks.
Looked more like shelling, the last 30 I saw. But others did tell me we were very good first half.

BringBack_leGin said:

Edwards appears to have some intent about him, scoring great goals and turning down the loan, from what I read. Do those who watch the youths think he's close to breaking through?

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He's more than ready. He was ready last year people have this issue about his size and apparent inability to press. No he's not lamela in that regard but he is working on it.

As poster said above when Poch decides to let him play he will show he is ready for first team. We can use him the sane way we did Onomah last season and get better results.

elDiablo said:

I know many of us were disappointed that sancho didn't go through (yet), but watching that clip, Edwards looks much more suited to our current style where we probe for an opening rather than use outright pace.

Now he has signed I'm hopeful he will get some game time.

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Funnily enough Edwards went from being overrated to suddenly underrated. Sancho is quality however 2 years beforehand Edwards was the Sancho equivalent in his age group. Clubs wanted him and he was by far and away the best attacker, Just small and apparently moody.

A year later Edwards got injured and England coaches use him as a sub. Then Sancho has a good Euros, and now everyone has heard of Sancho, who wasn't by far and away best player in his age group. all of a sudden having Edwards isn't as impressive. Football is a funny world. Edwards is quality and will be great if he gets his chance coming on against tired legs. Eriksen, Alli, Son, Lamela and Edwards are 5 quality options for 2 behind Kane.

Eng u20 highlights

IGSpur said:

He's more than ready. He was ready last year people have this issue about his size and apparent inability to press. No he's not lamela in that regard but he is working on it.

As poster said above when Poch decides to let him play he will show he is ready for first team. We can use him the sane way we did Onomah last season and get better results.



Funnily enough Edwards went from being overrated to suddenly underrated. Sancho is quality however 2 years beforehand Edwards was the Sancho equivalent in his age group. Clubs wanted him and he was by far and away the best attacker, Just small and apparently moody.

A year later Edwards got injured and England coaches use him as a sub. Then Sancho has a good Euros, and now everyone has heard of Sancho, who wasn't by far and away best player in his age group. all of a sudden having Edwards isn't as impressive. Football is a funny world. Edwards is quality and will be great if he gets his chance coming on against tired legs. Eriksen, Alli, Son, Lamela and Edwards are 5 quality options for 2 behind Kane.

Eng u20 highlights

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that run by edwards for the penalty

Edwards may be short, but looking at that video, he sure isn't slight, and I am fairly sure he would be able to cope perfectly fine with some first team football now.

Also until Lamela returns. personally I think he would be best suited to replace Eriksen if he ever gets injured, as we really lack anyone else in the squad who is creative enough to fill that void.

I think people will need to exercise a lot of patience with Edwards when he does break through. There are some awfully big, awfully ugly, awfully mean defenders in this league. They will take great relish in clattering young Marcus. He'll be exposed especially against teams like West Brom and West Ham who like to play fairly compact and the nature of their defensive shape means that he'll have to get into fairly close quarters with defenders who like bouncing lads like Marcus into touch.

If people think Edwards wizardry is going to dazzle seasoned premier league defenders from the off then they're in for a rude awakening (...has flash backs to his childhood, WCW and the marvellous Ravishing Rick Rude...as I was saying...).

It'll take Marcus a few months to acclimatise. I just hope the more fickle elements in the stands don't start getting on his back when he doesn't turn in Messi-esque displays.

Edwards should benefit from being exactly what we need. We failed to sign a creative, just hope he gets a decent chance.

Blake Griffin said:

you can watch the full game here if you fancy it -



1st half was decent, 2nd half was just us strolling.

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Cheers BG, Just watched the first 60 minutes.

Thought we looked like a coherent, cohesive, hard working unit without the ball, which is an improvement tactically from much of the last two years, and was nice to see. Also it is clearer to see some influence of joined up thinking with the way they were being instructed to play out from the back, try and press to win the ball back, and try to dominate the ball.

That middle 3 of Pritchard, Amos and Skipp really busied about in the first half and though we didn't have lots of quality in the final third, or create much of real quality, we sort of pressed and busy ****ed our way to a comfortable three goal lead. There was a lovely - and typical - goal by Edwards, but that is exactly how you would expect a side set up like us would score, busy, hustle and harry, trying to zip the ball forwards quickly, get Edwards on the ball and hope he can magic something.

For me that side could do with Shashoua up there instead of Tracey, and a striker with a bit more presence. I can see why the coaches like Sterling, he's a worker bee, and does have a modicum of ability, but he's not involved for long spells and he doesn't drop in and provide a fulcrum that others (like Edwards) can hub off. I think that physical and industrious 4321 with busy ****s all over, including the striker, could easily cope with two 10's/AM's who aren't exactly busy ****s but are more productive and creative, in the same way the first team accommodate Alli and Eriksen*.

I like Tanganga every time I see him, and see more promise in him than I did in CCV at that level. I also thought Brown looked like a very comfortable ball playing CB, but then I liked him at LB when I saw him there too.

Amos and Pritchard are good workers with ok football brains, but hard to see either progressing with us. The fact that Skipp is there aged 16 is impressive, but this is only my second or third proper look at him in a full game, and I can't make up my mind if he's there as much because of his physique combined with being a good all rounder, or if he's actually going to be a bloody good CM in a special way. In none of the games I've seen so far have I seen him show anything other than being very technically proficient with good energy. Those could be great building blocks, and maybe in his own age group he looked like something special and having been pushed up two levels, maybe just looking not out of place makes him "special". I just can't decide at this stage, need to see him more. But even if he turns out to be a Mark Noble type (which is who he reminded me of a bit - or going back a way, Ian Crook - who I liked) you would think he'll have a decent career. Clearly he also has a strong mentality, which is also very good.

I think Edwards had some nice moments, but there was very little for him to work with, there was lots of industry around him, but not a lot of intelligent craft for him to bounce off. Under the circumstances it was a decent knock from him, providing the one piece of real magic that then lifted us as a team. You just know that he would be so much more effective than a player like Sissoko to throw on in the later stages of games, dribbling at (not straight into) isolated defenders he'd cause havoc.

Good aggressive performance in general though, especially that first 60. Got a bit tired the last 30 and shelled it a bit.


* I don't mean let them off work duties, I just mean accommodate two less efficient or tenacious types for the pay off of having at least two players who will create or do something creative and intelligent. I do think Edwards needs to be a little more aggressive, both in his application without the ball but also in his desire to influence the game, but to qualify this, I think several of our first team could be as well.

If Edwards can develop an Alli like ability to get fouled, wind up opponents and add that as a skill alongside his footballing ability, it will help him have an effect when up against people physically bigger or tougher than him.

Can't think of too many players, aside from Alli, who are adept at winning free kicks in dangerous areas.

Krafty said:

If Edwards can develop an Alli like ability to get fouled, wind up opponents and add that as a skill alongside his footballing ability, it will help him have an effect when up against people physically bigger or tougher than him.

Can't think of too many players, aside from Alli, who are adept at winning free kicks in dangerous areas.

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Don't worry, a dribbler like Edwards will always win his share of free kicks and pens (see last week).

I'd be impressed if Alli could learn to do what Edwards does and keep the ball under pressure in the final third instead of tripping over it trying to nutmeg someone.

Our u16s beat QPR 6-0, Asante scored 4 goals

u14s beat Watford 5-1

Spurzinho said:

I think people will need to exercise a lot of patience with Edwards when he does break through. There are some awfully big, awfully ugly, awfully mean defenders in this league. They will take great relish in clattering young Marcus. He'll be exposed especially against teams like West Brom and West Ham who like to play fairly compact and the nature of their defensive shape means that he'll have to get into fairly close quarters with defenders who like bouncing lads like Marcus into touch.

If people think Edwards wizardry is going to dazzle seasoned premier league defenders from the off then they're in for a rude awakening (...has flash backs to his childhood, WCW and the marvellous Ravishing Rick Rude...as I was saying...).

It'll take Marcus a few months to acclimatise. I just hope the more fickle elements in the stands don't start getting on his back when he doesn't turn in Messi-esque displays.

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I'd like to say being patient is to be expected but as you say I think people will expect things straight away. And it's the big problem in youth football, you talk up a player and say they're ready for first team, and people assume you mean he is ready to cement himself as a first teamer in his first 3 games and if he doesn't he's been overrated.

Bus-Conductor said:

I like Tanganga every time I see him, and see more promise in him than I did in CCV at that level. I also thought Brown looked like a very comfortable ball playing CB, but then I liked him at LB when I saw him there too.

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You're not the only person who thinks that. I've thought that too, at different points. We are very blessed with CBs and as others know I like Brown too and Eyoma is arguably as good. We should use them as a back 3, then Hinds or Tracey can play RWB and Bennetts and Tsaroulla LWB. I'd send Maghoma on loan and then you have Dinzeyi (another international) as backup CB, and BLF an u18 can step up if needs be.

Skipp's mentality is probably his biggest strength. Composure, awareness and maturity make him an excellent DM at the moment. His ability to drop a should and let the ball roll across him to escape pressure. He has good technique and his passing and creativity is underrated and somewhat stifled constantly being a DM but he has more to his game. He's not Xavi but has a lot more tools that can be used.

Pleased this age group are now u23s though. A lot of quality players players to choose from and fill a team. Below would be my most likely to make it or most talented team but it lacks experience and you could easily rotate in Amos, Pritchard, Georgiou or Maghoma for experience and still have Duncan, Tsaroulla, Sterling to come in and not really weaken it. This assumes Edwards is with first team. I don't ever expect us to line up like that as it's very inexperienced but a lot to look forward to there.

--------------------Whiteman-------
---------Eyoma-Tanganga-Brown
Hinds--------Skipp----TOB-------Bennetts
---------------Roles---Shashoua-----
-------------------Harrison--------------

@Spurzinho do you know what has happened to Lloyd Ross?

I remember he was like Pritchard to me, just one of the average players supporting the group. He was released, but Pritchard due to his injury and work horse nature is still here and captaining our u23s.

u18s highlights against Brazil. Imagine Sancho or CHO will go on left wing and they'd move TOB to 4 and Kirby to 8 and drop McEachran though that would be harsh on him

IGSpur said:

@Spurzinho do you know what has happened to Lloyd Ross?

I remember he was like Pritchard to me, just one of the average players supporting the group. He was released, but Pritchard due to his injury and work horse nature is still here and captaining our u23s.

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He went over to America on a scholarship (Franklin Pierce Uni) but that didn't work out, after he came back he was with Billericay but apparently he wasn't very good. Where he is as of this season I have no idea.

THFCSPURS19 said:

Easy to see why we sent CCV to Sheffield United and there was interest in Edwards - their manager actually says they play like Tottenham when trying to convince a player to sign for them!

https://twitter.com/NathanAClark/status/904062962700353537

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Goes to show just how quickly transfers can change especially on deadline day, which is why all ITK should be taken with a shite load of salt as things can change so fast.

IGSpur said:

He's more than ready. He was ready last year people have this issue about his size and apparent inability to press. No he's not lamela in that regard but he is working on it.

As poster said above when Poch decides to let him play he will show he is ready for first team. We can use him the sane way we did Onomah last season and get better results.



Funnily enough Edwards went from being overrated to suddenly underrated. Sancho is quality however 2 years beforehand Edwards was the Sancho equivalent in his age group. Clubs wanted him and he was by far and away the best attacker, Just small and apparently moody.

A year later Edwards got injured and England coaches use him as a sub. Then Sancho has a good Euros, and now everyone has heard of Sancho, who wasn't by far and away best player in his age group. all of a sudden having Edwards isn't as impressive. Football is a funny world. Edwards is quality and will be great if he gets his chance coming on against tired legs. Eriksen, Alli, Son, Lamela and Edwards are 5 quality options for 2 behind Kane.

Eng u20 highlights

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It's not just Edwards skill on the ball I like, it's his ability to see a pass and play it where someone can run on to it, rather than playing it to their feet, which is so frustrating and stops play flowing, you still see it loads in first team football.

I'm sure @Breezer could elaborate if this is BS or not, but this is interesting if true...

David Powderly‏@David_Powderly
Ajax purposely went out to try and buy Marcus Edwards to make a point that English players are good enough.

David Powderly‏@David_Powderly 1h1 hour ago
They wanted to buy and bring Edwards through, then sell him on at high price. To make English clubs think again

David Powderly‏@David_Powderly 1h1 hour ago
The whole point... So English clubs stopped purchasing their youngsters at 15-18. Many other clubs highlighted by BVB are doing the same

THFCSPURS19 said:

I'm sure @Breezer could elaborate if this is BS or not, but this is interesting if true...

David Powderly‏@David_Powderly
Ajax purposely went out to try and buy Marcus Edwards to make a point that English players are good enough.

David Powderly‏@David_Powderly 1h1 hour ago
They wanted to buy and bring Edwards through, then sell him on at high price. To make English clubs think again

David Powderly‏@David_Powderly 1h1 hour ago
The whole point... So English clubs stopped purchasing their youngsters at 15-18. Many other clubs highlighted by BVB are doing the same

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Interesting.