Academy And Under-23s

Wow. Didn't know this was on today as a bit involved with, erm... stuff. Am glad I missed what sounds like a horror show.

We took a beating up there last season too, a measly 5-0 that day I think.

Oh well. Projects are gonna project longer than we hoped.

 

Having watched this, a few significant caveats to the scoreline:

Firstly, our first two goals conceded were simply down to abysmal goalkeeping - goal 1 was a pot-shot from about 25 yards out, not that powerful, yet went straight through him, then the 2nd the GK dropped the ball from a corner.

Then it's also worth noting that 3 of their goals were scored by Tyrese Campbell . His finishes were all incredibly clinical and he was frankly taking the pi55 at this level. Sheffield Utd were already unbeaten and top of their U21 development league section coming in to this game, and with Campbell in the team had also beaten Brentford 6-0 only 2 weeks ago.

https://www.sufc.co.uk/news/2024/august/20/under21s-6-0-brentford-report/

So if you discount the goals we wouldn't have conceded if we had an in any way competent GK, and they didn't have a first-team striker on the pitch, the score would have only been 3-2 lol! The 8th we conceded I'm not sure if it took a slight nick but it was also one any half-decent keeper would probably stop.

In general they just looked much stronger than us across the pitch, and also played with much more intensity. I can excuse some of our players that though as many of them have only just arrived in English football. Albeit, the 4th goal we conceded came from Kayky just being bullied off the ball, and in general he currently looks small for a CB both in strength but also general size. He's only 19 but he currently looks a bit like Ryan Andrews stuck at CB. His passing was hit and miss as well and he gave the ball away for their 6th. Far from ready.

Tikvic also showed again why he's not reliable, getting skinned a few too many times, and also giving the ball away for Campbell's hat-trick goal by trying to dribble past their players on the edge of our penalty box.

We also didn't help ourselves with a lack of organisation at times. That can again partly be excused with so many new faces, but some things were baffling. The worst for it was their 5th goal, where Campbell was left unmarked on the edge of the 6 yard box from a free-kick they had from by the corner flag. It was basically like a corner, yet for some bonkers reason we had two of our tallest players forming a completely pointless wall, while we only had 5 of our players in the box defending against 5 of theirs (and of course none of them were marking tightly anyway). Horrendous.

One slight silver lining was that Dwomoh looked decent in CM and was our best player, which also one would hope tbh. He also got bullied off the ball though a few too many times. He does seem remarkably similar to the slightly underwhelming Kone we had for the first half-season he was here after arriving from Canada. I'm not sure Dwomoh has Kone's shooting hiding away in his locker, mind.

Adu-Poku seems a bit like a slightly lesser Larouci at WB. He was decent going forwards and created our first, but gets caught out a lot defensively. He also created a practically open goal for Massiah-Edwards at 7-2 which M-E managed to blaze over.

Doumbia was a mixed bag, the occasionally flashes of something good followed by sloppiness. There is a bit of a Sarr-like stroppiness in his attitude that concerns me slightly; hopefully unlike Sarr and being still 18 he'll grow out of it. But he could do with turning his sulkiness and petulance in to determination and intensity.

We've seen already that in Ramirez-Espain there's definitely a player in there, but the game completely passed him by today.

Clarridge and Watkiss were really poor.

I don't think this was quite as concerning as the scoreline suggested, but it was still a painful watch.

 

Adeyemo won the penalty with the run, not Lawson.

 

No friggin' way. He was utterly hopeless, and that's me being kind.

 

My bad! At least that's one positive from Adeyemo then.

 

The future is bright.

 

Early days obviously (2.4 90s played), but Grieves isn't off to the best start in Scotland.

 

https://ptfc.co.uk/ptfc-news/roberts-marks-debut-jags-month-with-player-of-the-month-prize/

PotM Award. Good start for him.

 

Good start - how long is their #1 keeper out for ? Maybe he can keep his place ?

 

I think he is their No. 1 keeper for the season

 

The article says "...Deputising for the injured David Mitchell, Myles had big gloves to fill but he’s taken to the challenge admirably and shown considerable promise between the sticks."

 

That's me not reading things right then!

 

We clearly have a slow start epidemic.
Watford FC Academy




@WatfordFCAcad
We're underway. Charlton lead. 0-1| 1'

 

Good to see.
We need every age group singing from the same hymn book.

 

I thought he showed good technique and decent pace during our tournament in Georgia, but looked a bit lightweight even at that level. An England call-up seems a tad surprising, but then if Vancea was able to get last year then one no reason why Eboue couldn't either I suppose, as it's not as if Vancea seemed levels above.

He's Emmanuel Eboue's son and was already released by Arsenal a few years ago. Hopefully that experience combined with them probably living locally will both discourage the really big clubs and encourage him to stay put.

Can't say he seems good enough for a very top academy though from what I've seen of him, but these clubs are liking to hoard as man academy players as possible now when they can even just for the sake of being able to sell them down the line.

 

Scored the winner in the final - https://www.watfordfc.com/news/2024/october/03/academy--eboue-on-target-for-england/

 

Won’t be Arsenal !

 

Just had an email from my cousin Roger,a Barnet fan.

Asking me about Adu Poku on loan at Solihull Moors.

Destroyed the Bees he said.

Any info anyone?

Thanks.

 

I've heard he's on loan at Solhull Moors and had a great game against Barnet.

 

Wots yr source m8?

 

There was something in the Watford Observer the other day that he’s gone there on loan for the rest of the season. Had a cracking game yesterday by all counts, very pacy.

 

Apparently there was an “A Poku” who played really well for Solihull on Saturday. Anyone know if he’s any relation to our player who showed so much promise during the summer friendlies ?
#onetowatch.

 

Thanks everyone.

Next time I'll ask Persephone!

 

Had a very impressive game!

 

Myles Roberts in TotW with this display. Seems to be developing very well. Praised as a very good shot stopper and cross claimer but distribution is being criticised on their forums as well but does seem to be slowly improving.



https://x.com/spfl/status/1846189558133653754

 

Played and scored for our U’21’s the other day and I noticed the club got him to do one of those promo Instagram things - obviously trying to make him feel wanted to get him to stay. Be nice if we could keep just one player who has some real potential, but won’t bank on it.

 

The more potential he has the less likely we will keep him. The more we promote him on insta etc the less likely we will keep him.