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The Spurs Youth Thread - 2017/2018

WindyCOYS

Well-Known Member
Feb 24, 2016
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It's been a really interesting week of debate on here, and I generally have found myself in agreement with @IGSpur and @Blake Griffin. I've debated whether to bother posting anything on my blog or not as people in less-informed circles than this fantastic thread basically tend to give it the whole 'you just love youth players' response. But I wanted to articulate something because I think this area is one of Pochettino's very few failings so far at Spurs. Our squad is small but he could have made it a lot deeper by integrating more youngsters by this point.

Also, selfishly, it's quite useful to benchmark how I feel at this point in time and then to look again in 6-12 months to see how things have moved on.

http://windycoys.com/2017/12/when-does-spurs-young-talent-get-a-chance/
 

WindyCOYS

Well-Known Member
Feb 24, 2016
479
1,588
de bie; hinds, eyoma, lyons-foster, reynolds; skipp, p.maghoma; richards, patterson, lloyd-bennett; griffiths

subs: oluwayemi, bowden, a.shashoua, asante, clarke


strong side and good to see eyoma playing cb.
I've wanted to see Eyoma get a run at CB for ages. I would be playing him there at U23 level with Hinds (or even KWP) at RB.

Looks like Lloyd-Bennett is fully integrated into the U18s now, which is fairly early - generally we've seen this happen after Christmas. They must really fancy him.

Having never seen him, what sort of player is he?
 

bat-chain

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2009
2,232
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i get the impression Pochettino will give Edwards his first start in a 'big' game when we are not expecting it, like when he picked Mason for Arsenal away.
 

edson

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2005
3,945
12,117
I've wanted to see Eyoma get a run at CB for ages. I would be playing him there at U23 level with Hinds (or even KWP) at RB.

Looks like Lloyd-Bennett is fully integrated into the U18s now, which is fairly early - generally we've seen this happen after Christmas. They must really fancy him.

Having never seen him, what sort of player is he?
A F**king good one.
 

Univarn

Lost. Probably Not Worth Finding.
Jul 20, 2017
2,864
15,279
It's been a really interesting week of debate on here, and I generally have found myself in agreement with @IGSpur and @Blake Griffin. I've debated whether to bother posting anything on my blog or not as people in less-informed circles than this fantastic thread basically tend to give it the whole 'you just love youth players' response. But I wanted to articulate something because I think this area is one of Pochettino's very few failings so far at Spurs. Our squad is small but he could have made it a lot deeper by integrating more youngsters by this point.

Also, selfishly, it's quite useful to benchmark how I feel at this point in time and then to look again in 6-12 months to see how things have moved on.

http://windycoys.com/2017/12/when-does-spurs-young-talent-get-a-chance/
Good piece Windy even though I have my fundamental disagreements which I've voiced here and on twitter and probably don't warrant repeating.
 

edson

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2005
3,945
12,117
FT 4-4 Richards should have been sent off for punching two players but only got a yellow.

Cracking match.
 
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IGSpur

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Jan 11, 2013
7,939
13,758
Very few kids get chances without first teamers dropping form, being injured or the like.

Don't doubt that but depends what you mean by form. There are players who I personally don't think are playing that well or contributing much (I know I'm not Poch) where arguably you could send a message to said player by leaving him out of the squad, and giving a chance to a talented young player, who has performed well for the youth teams and worked hard. It would hopefully put pressure on main player and reward the young player.

What seems to be happening for us, is players aren't getting a chance, or Kane only got his chance due to a crisis or an extreme circumstance, involving a perfect storm of both our highest paid player AND our most expensive player both scoring zero goals AND our academy player scoring goals in a competition which we are no longer in.

I don't think these things should come down to chance, when we have invested so much money in the academy and are seeing that we are producing better players than ever before. It is essentially saying that everything is coming down to luck or chance, which I completely disagree with. Additionally if a young player is showing ability again I think they should be rewarded and less pressure games. Ironically, I believe, and you may not, that if Soldado and/or Ade had scored 5 goals before November, Kane may never have got his chance as their form wouldn't have been bad enough. Kane would likely have left, and ina lower league people would assume he would never have been good enough for us.

I think we are essentially saying the same thing, but my threshold for losing form would be lower than yours and most likely Poch's. As I always say there should be more clear pathways rather than relying on chance and crisis situations, we should be more proactive in using our academy like other leagues, whereas if/when we do use it it is reactive. Again I'm not saying, player A has a bad game drop him for an academy player. But if player A is having a month or 2 of poor form and academy player is doing well, why not give them a go. The difficulty though is what is considered poor from. For a striker it's a lot more simple to measure than it is for any other position, which also helped Kane's case.
 

Blake Griffin

Well-Known Member
Oct 3, 2011
14,133
38,225
FT 4-4 Richards should have been sent off for punching two players but only got a yellow.

Cracking match.

shame we didn't manage to hold on. just noticed that blf went off at 4-2 which couldn't have helped, was he injured or just not playing well?

we've had so many 4-3s 4-4s and 5-4s with chelsea over the past few seasons so you're pretty much guaranteed an entertaining game whenever we play them.
 

IGSpur

Well-Known Member
Jan 11, 2013
7,939
13,758
FT 4-4 Richards should have been sent off for punching two players but only got a yellow.

Cracking match.

Cheers for the updates, car tyre popped last night and spent all morning trying to find a replacement so missed out. Sounds like a good game.

How did Richards only get a yellow.

And I know he scored two pens but shows what Skipp was up against with Gallagher going to World Cup ahead of him. Another DM who also picks up goals. As we know so many good options for that age group.

I've wanted to see Eyoma get a run at CB for ages. I would be playing him there at U23 level with Hinds (or even KWP) at RB.

Looks like Lloyd-Bennett is fully integrated into the U18s now, which is fairly early - generally we've seen this happen after Christmas. They must really fancy him.

Having never seen him, what sort of player is he?

RE JLB I think the fact we don't have many natural winners plus Clarke being injured has helped him, but he has more than deserved his place now. He is quite tall for a winger I guess, a little but shorter than Oduwa at a similar age I would guess. I obviously haven't seen loads but from little I have seen, less street ball skills, but has skill and pace to beat his man. @edson how did he get on in this match?
 

IGSpur

Well-Known Member
Jan 11, 2013
7,939
13,758
shame we didn't manage to hold on. just noticed that blf went off at 4-2 which couldn't have helped, was he injured or just not playing well?

we've had so many 4-3s 4-4s and 5-4s with chelsea over the past few seasons so you're pretty much guaranteed an entertaining game whenever we play them.

I thought that too. In the league we always have good fairly even matches, but when we face them in FAYC they generally tend to batter us. I've thought in the past it may be due to the pressure of playing in front of big crowds, and big games, which they are more used to, but it is strange
 
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