Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
dpit

U21 international football vs Championship football?

Recommended Posts

Couldn''t go last night but was wondering about the overall quality on show as compared to the fare served up in the Championship. Difficult to judge in one match but I suppose summed up in the question could our present side beat either of the sides playing.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Watched the game on TV last night and the quality was good, although as with most U-21 football the players weren''t too familiar with each other. Considering that nearly all the England team are Premier League regulars I would very much doubt Norwich would have much of a chance against them. Hard to say with the Romanian team, they very much came out to defend, so didn''t really show their true potential.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Ive read several posts asking why Korey Smith isnt in the Under 21 squad. Any thoughts based on last night? Ive always maintained that those posters have had the yellow-tinted specs on, and that as the under 21''s is full of premiership players it is unlikely that he is good enough.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
They were certainly much more skilfull and you could see the pure class in players like Sturridge and Wilshere although I don''t think Norwich would get embarassed by them.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I thought Romania were a far better side than England and would have serious doubts as to whether a one goal lead would be enough to take there in the 2nd leg.  However I don''t think Pearce picked either his best squad available or indeed his best starting XI.

To leave Andy Carroll out of the squad because of some personal vendetta is pretty scanadlous on Pearce''s behalf. If England are going to play one up front (which I also thought was another mistake , when you need to take a good lead into the 2nd leg) he would be ideal.

Danny Welbeck wasn''t up to the task and Sturridge looked far more dangerous when he came on.

Mark Albighton should surely have started too.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Carroll has some serious issues he needs to resolve before pulling an England shirt on to be fair, I doubt that was a decision Pearce took alone.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="BA"]Carroll has some serious issues he needs to resolve before pulling an England shirt on to be fair, I doubt that was a decision Pearce took alone.[/quote]Must have missed this story, what happened?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Norwich wouldn''t get embarrased as some have said but there were some players who were top notch.  I thought Muamba looked very good in the middle and Cleverly showed he had something there at times, also when Albrighton came on he looked very good as did Sturridge.  But the one player who I thought looked a cut above the rest was Jack Wilshere.  Every time he got the ball he was a threat and you can see he is going to be a top player.

However Welbck didn''t work up front on his own and if they are going to play that formation then Andy Carroll definately needs to be in the squad.  The game was crying out for him.

I didn''t think Romania were too bad.  They stifled England for most of the time and looked very quick on the attack.  England will have to step it up in Romania for sure.

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

[quote user="Trent Canary"]Ive read several posts asking why Korey Smith isnt in the Under 21 squad. Any thoughts based on last night? Ive always maintained that those posters have had the yellow-tinted specs on, and that as the under 21''s is full of premiership players it is unlikely that he is good enough.
[/quote]

I honestly think he could make it in the U-21''s.  Whilst players like Wilshere were well above his standard, others didn''t impress me at all.  They could have probably done with Korey Smith''s energy and determination last night.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary"]

I thought Romania were a far better side than England and would have serious doubts as to whether a one goal lead would be enough to take there in the 2nd leg.  However I don''t think Pearce picked either his best squad available or indeed his best starting XI.

To leave Andy Carroll out of the squad because of some personal vendetta is pretty scanadlous on Pearce''s behalf. If England are going to play one up front (which I also thought was another mistake , when you need to take a good lead into the 2nd leg) he would be ideal.

Danny Welbeck wasn''t up to the task and Sturridge looked far more dangerous when he came on.

Mark Albighton should surely have started too.

[/quote]

agree 100% englands 1st goal was good but romainia goal was arsenal like - brilliant!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary"]

I thought Romania were a far better side than England and would have serious doubts as to whether a one goal lead would be enough to take there in the 2nd leg. 

 

[/quote]

Disagree. Can''t see how you could come up with such a strong statement as "Romania were a far better side". They came to defend, take a draw, men behind the ball. They were out to stifle us, they kept it tight on Wilshere because they know he''s the danger man. They showed something once or twice in their swift counter attacks and it may well be a tricky return fixture but if anyone deserved to win last night it was England.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="Boyo"]

[quote user="Trent Canary"]Ive read several posts asking why Korey Smith isnt in the Under 21 squad. Any thoughts based on last night? Ive always maintained that those posters have had the yellow-tinted specs on, and that as the under 21''s is full of premiership players it is unlikely that he is good enough.
[/quote]

I honestly think he could make it in the U-21''s.  Whilst players like Wilshere were well above his standard, others didn''t impress me at all.  They could have probably done with Korey Smith''s energy and determination last night.

[/quote]

To be fair most of those lads played with a lot of energy against a very defensively minded team. Not everything came off for them but I can''t see who you''d drop out to bring Korey in.

Who would you take out to bring Korey in?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="GJP"][quote user="GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary"]

I thought Romania were a far better side than England and would have serious doubts as to whether a one goal lead would be enough to take there in the 2nd leg. 

 

[/quote]

Disagree. Can''t see how you could come up with such a strong statement as "Romania were a far better side". They came to defend, take a draw, men behind the ball. They were out to stifle us, they kept it tight on Wilshere because they know he''s the danger man. They showed something once or twice in their swift counter attacks and it may well be a tricky return fixture but if anyone deserved to win last night it was England.

[/quote]

Youv''e got to be joking, they ran us ragged ,particularly in the first half  hitting the woodwork twice, Fielding had to make at least 3 good saves and they had numerous shots across the face of the goal. As I previuously said, I don''t think a single goal lead wil be any where near enough to take into the 2nd leg.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The under 21''s were certainly technically better than what we see in the Championship but overall I don''t think they would produce the same end results. The Under 21''s have obviously been trained and trained to pass, pass pass what ever happened. I got very frustrated on Friday night watching them cause noone wanted to pull the trigger, there was very little individiality and were trying to walk the ball into the net!

 

They also were not as physical and I''d imagine more than a few of them U21 players wouldn''t fancy the likes of Andrew Crofts, Korey Smith, Grant Holt, Chris Martin, Lappin and others getting stuck into them!

 

Remember many of them would only be reserve players at Premiership clubs and I can recall how poor the likes of Keiron Gibbs and James Henry were for us during our disasterous spell of building the squad with loan players. I bet more than a few of the England U21 players would be very average at best in the Championship, Bertrand was nothing special against us at Forest back in August. Just cause a player has been in the England U21''s is no guarantee of a wonderful top level career. Afterall Daryl Sutch played for the U21''s!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
[quote user="GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary"][quote user="GJP"][quote user="GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary"]

I thought Romania were a far better side than England and would have serious doubts as to whether a one goal lead would be enough to take there in the 2nd leg. 

 

[/quote]

Disagree. Can''t see how you could come up with such a strong statement as "Romania were a far better side". They came to defend, take a draw, men behind the ball. They were out to stifle us, they kept it tight on Wilshere because they know he''s the danger man. They showed something once or twice in their swift counter attacks and it may well be a tricky return fixture but if anyone deserved to win last night it was England.

[/quote]

Youv''e got to be joking, they ran us ragged ,particularly in the first half  hitting the woodwork twice, Fielding had to make at least 3 good saves and they had numerous shots across the face of the goal. As I previuously said, I don''t think a single goal lead wil be any where near enough to take into the 2nd leg.

[/quote]

"Ran us ragged" is a total exaggeration. They put a couple of neat moves together and were perhaps unlucky not to score but it was only in small patches. It wasn''t like we couldn''t get out of our half for 45mins.

We forced the issue a bit more in the second half and it paid off.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×
×
  • Create New...