Watford Fc Vs Everton - Fa Youth Cup 4th Round - 09/01/2023

Thought this warranted its own thread for general comments, and otherwise some may miss noticing it (thanks @wfc4ever for reminding me in the other thread).

Game kicks off in 30 minutes (7pm UK time) and is live on Watford's Youtube channel:

 

Here's the team:

It'll be interesting to see full-back Amass play - only 15 and seems like he could be our most highly rated current academy player.

Ortelli in goal and Mullins at CB are two 16 year-olds starting. The rest of the starters are 17/18.

Blake, Grieves and Adeyemo playing again after featuring vs Reading a couple of days ago. Adu-Poku unsurprisingly given a bit of a rest and only starting on the bench.

 

Lol, Watford's stream died.

It's also on Everton's channel:

 

1-0 Watford. Great volley from Grieves.

 

Watford's stream back working again.

 

Are we underdogs for this presumably or is there a lot of talent in the academy these days?

 

1-1 Everton goal from a corner. Can't say it's not deserved.

 

Woot, 2-1. Header from Abbott from a crossed free-kick.

We're capable of posing a threat when we want it. We got too passive and Everton got more urgent last time we went ahead. Let's hope this time we've gone in front we stay a bit more on the front foot.

 

3-1!!

Blake goes an alright run, takes a rather weak shot, but it takes a big deflection off a defender to wrong foot the keeper

 

Can't believe we've picked such a strong team for this. Four first-teamers in the starting XI and another on the bench.

 

Get in. Great win for the boys

 

Enjoyed that. Didn’t see the very start and it seems Everton were on top. First goal for us was a peach of a finish. I thought our defenders looked solid. Great result against one of the higher level academies.

 

'Twas well worth watching!!!

Most enjoyable watch since the 20ft chickens game...

 

Everton's U18s are currently 8th out of 13 in the Premier League North (Category One) - so they seem to have an alright but not fantastic bunch at this age group.

Our U18s appear to be currently 8th out of 10 in the Professional Development League South (Category Two) - so not good! However, we have been playing a fair few players above than their age group in recent seasons, which could in part explain why both our U18s and U21s have not had the best league performances. A few of the players today like Blake, Balogun, Abbott and Grieves are regulars in the U21s despite being 17.

We were definitely underdogs today though, and Everton unsurprisingly dominated possession and on the whole looked slightly better technically. But they lacked cutting edge. What we lacked sometimes in technique we made up for in our energy and desire. The fact we were playing at home would have also no doubt helped us a bit in this tie.

 

Well done boys!

Just been told we won.

 

Didn't watch a lot but thought Amass looked good considering his age, maybe worth offering a contract to stop him being snapped up. Can we even do that for a 15 year old? Grieves is nice to watch too, reminds me a little of a young Tom Cleverley (compliment, honest!) Blake also puts himself about a lot for a more technical player.

 

Good win, enjoyed the viewing, will watch the next round, they say our academy isn't up to much but on tonight's showing looked pretty good to me!

 

Orielli - GK - Looked more comfortable with the ball at his feet than a few of our outfield players! His decision making / ability was generally poor in coming for crosses, but that can be excused a bit given his 16 years and not being the biggest GK yet. Showed decent handling the couple of times he had to make saves though.

Balogun - RB - He scrapped well defensively, but his touch and passing were both a bit erratic.

Amass - LB - Impressive. Was one of the better players on the pitch despite being the youngest at 15. Didn't look out of place at all. Good tackling and some good bursts forward. Funny that our last two most impressive prospects at this age group recently have been at LB given Galvez recently. Doesn't quite have Galvez' immaculate touch, but might have a bit more dynamism.

Abbott - CB - Was alright defensively. No composure on the ball though, a proper hoof merchant.

Mullins - CB - I thought he seemed a tad sharper than Abbott defensively, despite being a year younger. Wasn't too great on the ball though either, but perhaps not quite as aimless as Abbott.

Davis - DM - Got involved a lot, showed for the ball well, and played some occasional good passes. But also gave the ball away a lot and was bypassed too easily when defending.

Grieves - CM - He certainly has something. Strong in the tackle, some decent touches, great technique for the goal. He's a Watford fan and plays like it. Main thing which could hold him back is a slight lack of athleticism. Maybe my memory is awry, but could be a slightly quicker young Dom Blizzard?

Aguillar - AM - One of our better players technically. Took some decent set-pieces. Could have gotten involved a bit more perhaps, but intriguing.

Benn - RW - Can't fault his effort and had some alright moments, but also one whose touch and passing were a bit too erratic.

Blake - LW - As per the weekend - has decent technique, but lacked physicality even at this level. Lost a lot of duels and struggles in tight spaces. Capable of showing some quality when given room, but he won't often be afforded that luxury. Has some promise, but not sold on the hype.

Adeyemo - CF - As per at the weekend - he's a unit and occasionally does some decent things, but often has heavy touches and not great with the ball at his feet.

Adu-Poku was very lively again in his cameo off the bench.

Amass, Grieves and Adu-Poku probably the stand-outs, but a decent bunch.

 

I've not posted anything WFC related anywhere for a while but feel I must defend George Abbott on this occasion.

In the first 20-25 minutes he carried the ball out comfortably a number of times, making space with Ortelli and Mullins, the passing between the three manoeuvring the Everton #9 so Abbott could get ahead of him when in possession. Mullins didn't take the ball forward at all as far as I can remember. Abbott would take the ball towards the centre-circle and play a short pass, usually to Davis or Grieves (from memory).

This only stopped once we took the lead and after we had a free-kick where Abbott was spoken to by Charlie Daniels. Abbott made a gesture towards our goal and with hindsight I'd say he was under instruction to keep a flat line with the rest of the defence and not risk losing possession by carrying the ball the way he had been up to that point.

One other main point which will not have been picked up on the stream was the way Abbott marshalled Amass through the game. His communication was clear, concise and invaluable to a clearly nervy 15yr old early on and just as important as Amass began to tire in the 2nd-half.

I can only remember Abbott really hoofing the ball several times as the side were being pressed in the 2nd-half and a short ball into midfield would've been stupid. He generally instigated the ball being played out with half decent movement or good communication with the keeper and/or Mullins and when a short ball wasn't on he, along with the rest of the team, looked to Adeyemo as an out ball.

Personally I thought he showed good composure on the ball and made himself available for teammates when pressed. He also looked better defensively than he did last season with his positioning being much better in tonights game.

A word about Amass. He has the same neat inside flick that both Femenia and Galvez have to move the ball away from the opposition and into space when either a pass or taking the ball along the line isn't open to him. It didn't always work tonight but with more playing time against older and sharper opposition he hopefully improves the decision as to when to do this. He appears to have been first choice #3 for England at U16 level recently and tonight his positioning was generally sound. I don't remember him going to ground to make a tackle and made good blocks when in 1-on-1 situations. Very promising.

Generally speaking I thought had Davis and Aguillar played at a higher tempo we would have kept the ball for longer and controlled the game a bit more just by being in possession. But they are either naturally slow (with & without the ball) or are being told/trained not to rush their passes or chase the ball. If it's the latter then all well and good but a bit more dynamism in the midfield would help the more attacking players like Blake, Adeyemo, Grieves and Benn because Everton wouldn't have been able to funnel back behind the ball or put pressure on Davis and Aguillar so easily after they'd either received the ball from a teammate or won possession, something they both did well for the most part with well timed blocks or nicking the ball away as an Everton player was trying to take his first touch.

And even more generally... the ball didn't really stick for either side tonight. Either both sides were nervous and played with hard feet or their techniques are really poor!

And finally (and lastly because I won't be posting again), the referee was abysmal. He really didn't like Adeyemo, gave free-kicks for little (generally in Everton's favour but sometimes ours too) and on one occasion guessed at a handball decision on the touchline against Balogun. I know he guessed because he was on the inside of the defender and couldn't possibly see what the ball had hit. As it happened, my position meant I could see the ball clearly hit Balogun on his side. Really really poor.

 

Shame you don’t post anymore and thanks for this write up

 

I understand where you're coming from - but the thing is that those passes by Abbott and Mullins in the first 20-25 minutes were while Everton were sitting back and putting our defenders under basically no pressure on the ball - so Abbott had all the time in the world to play passes (same with Mullins). But even then their short passes too each other and to the full-backs were generally imprecise and sloppy, e.g. behind the player so they had to check back to collect the ball, or needlessly lofted off the ground.

The difference with the Everton CBs was stark, with them typically playing crisp balls out along the ground either precisely in to feet or for their team-mate to move on to without having to check their run.

Then after we scored, Everton generally harrassed us higher up the pitch, so our defenders suddenly didn't have all the time in the world any more, and so the panicked lumping the ball forwards started. There were definitely a few occasions when Abbott still seemed to have a reasonable amount of time to find a pass under only mild pressure, but instead just hoofed it forwards without even looking where he was kicking the ball. At least Mullins looked up at who to vaguely hoof it towards when put under pressure.

The other points you made about his organisation and communication could be correct - I'm guessing you were at the game? Maybe this is just something which couldn't be picked up on watching a stream. It's something you'd still hope for though given he was the oldest and most experienced of the defenders, plus the Captain.

 

Apparently some of the players took part in a full training session this morning with the 1st team squad and then played this evening.

 

I absolutely agree, he played the ball well out from the back either by passing or moving up with the ball. Only second half when Everton pressed strongly and we came under heavy pressure they all hit long for a while as there was nobody showing for a pass. However they did manage to gain a modicum of control again to play out again. All in all, an enjoyable game with decent quality on show for this level.

 

Poor Grieves, comparing him to young Dom Blizzard!

How that lumbering monstrosity made as many appearances for us I'll never know

 

I guess that shows where we were at the time, if Dominic Blizzard couldn’t make it I guess we always had Jamie Hand to play with Colin Simpson in reserve!

 

One mention, for all the stick they get on social media, here etc.
It was good to see Tom Cleverley and Troost Ekong there. Shows where the heart of the dressing room/club is.

 

Don't forget Gary Fisken. Amazing that none of the prem giants swooped for our gems in those days.

 

I actually described Grieves as reminding me of Blizzard on the shoutbox at the weekend. Deeply concerning. Definitely has something about him like you said.