ressies tonight

[Mike]

they are a shadow of the team from last year

[Maldini]

Yeah, they've been s**** again onight. Pacheco's the only one looking lively. I think some of them are just stagnating

[Cunny]

I could be wrong but I think they won a lot of games 1-0 last season.

They rarely scored loads of goals and without Nemeth, would have drawn a lot of games.

 

They are no longer keeping clean sheets and Nemeth has been missing all season. He looks well short of fitness, understandably.

[Mike]

I could be wrong but I think they won a lot of games 1-0 last season.

They rarely scored loads of goals and without Nemeth, would have drawn a lot of games.

 

They are no longer keeping clean sheets and Nemeth has been missing all season. He looks well short of fitness, understandably.

 

i watched tons of games on setanta last year and they were excellent. they are f***ing dreadful now.

[Mike]

plessis is a total joke btw, pacheco the only one with anything about him

Edited December 4, 2008 by Mike

[Zoob]

what's the score?

[Mike]

0 1

 

we should have equalised right at the death

[Cunny]

Nemeth looks like he's done his ankle again.

[Maldini]

That ref was a f***in disgrace, they kicked us off the park all night and he just let everything go

[Cunny]

couldn't agree more, only seen it once but it looked like the lad stamped on Nemeths ankle

[carrafan]

Egos the size of Texas with these kids.. moaning at the ref and his assistant if a half decision goes against them, Spearing and Brouwer with their arms in the air showing derision at a misplaced pass and whatnot. Nemeth and Pacheco had an argument on who'd take a freekick right at the death as well.

 

Thought their right winger had the better of Mendy all throughout the game and i was really impressed with Steve Irwin. He reads the game really well.

 

Plessis' long passing was well off and he was looking for throughballs which only lost us possession time and again. Nemeth was never in the game but i never realised what good close control he has.

Edited December 4, 2008 by carrafan

[Paddy 66]

Ablett looked furious towards the end.

[alias75]

This is the problem you're going to get when you have young players aged 18-20 in the reserves with little or no sign of making the first team. Somebody like Plessis that has tasted first team action, is obviously going to struggle to motivate himself for all these reserve games, yes in an ideal world your attitude stays the same but we're not talking about 17-18 year olds here, most of the reserves are in that 19-20 bracket and in the modern game if you've got anything about you, you should be playing first team football at that age or at least getting the odd game.

 

Its a problem the big teams face because the standard required to make the first team is so high, maybe as fans we need to lower our expectation of what to expect from these young players the truth is 99% of them are not going to make it here, i guess the aim is to bring the exceptional ones through into the first team and make sure the majority that don't make it have a career lower down the leagues and we can get some money for them.

 

Not so long ago players in that 19-20 age bracket were considered very young in footballing terms but in todays game good players of that age expect to be playing regularly in the first team.

 

I do think there are 2 or 3 that are good enough to be part of the first team squad here, and i guess when your a top team with a squad full of proven internationals thats as good as you can hope for and if you're lucky you get somebody exceptional like Gerrard or Owen.

[carrafan]

Good points, alias.

[Maldini]

Egos the size of Texas with these kids.. moaning at the ref and his assistant if a half decision goes against them, Spearing and Brouwer with their arms in the air showing derision at a misplaced pass and whatnot. Nemeth and Pacheco had an argument on who'd take a freekick right at the death as well.

 

Thought their right winger had the better of Mendy all throughout the game and i was really impressed with Steve Irwin. He reads the game really well.

 

Plessis' long passing was well off and he was looking for throughballs which only lost us possession time and again. Nemeth was never in the game but i never realised what good close control he has.

 

Nothing wrong with players having egos. The players were justified in having a go at the ref tonight, they were put in danger by his incompetency.

[muleskinner]

Nothing wrong with players having egos. The players were justified in having a go at the ref tonight, they were put in danger by his incompetency.

 

Players like Brouwer having an ego is a problem, he is s***.

[gkmacca]

I still feel there's plenty of potential talent there. Spearing, on form, is bright, very tactically aware and imaginative, and several others have looked very good in previous seasons, but I agree this time they look lost. More than anything I think they seem mentally jaded - good moves break down because they seem to think more slowly the closer they get to goal. Plessis has been jogging around, telegraphing his passing in the most laboured of ways - he seems unable to pass the ball without first moving with all the speed of an oil tanker and then practically waving at his target. Pacheo still has some good touches but loses the plot when he gets into the area. Weijl has shown a bit of urgency in recent games, and Darby still has a fine attitude and looks to have improved, but the team as a whole looks like it's come back from a long pub lock-in.

[Sion]

Is Nemeth injured? he played the whole game didn't he?

[Cunny]

Is Nemeth injured? he played the whole game didn't he?

 

 

he played the whole game but spent the last 2 minutes of the game receiving treatment on his ankle from the reseerves physio and the club doctor after a Blackburn player appeared to stand on his ankle

[Eskimo]

Its a problem the big teams face because the standard required to make the first team is so high, maybe as fans we need to lower our expectation of what to expect from these young players the truth is 99% of them are not going to make it here, i guess the aim is to bring the exceptional ones through into the first team and make sure the majority that don't make it have a career lower down the leagues and we can get some money for them.

 

Couldn't agree more...

 

I look at it as a seperate, dare I say, business. The more volume you get in through the doors the better chance you have of weeding out 1 or 2 gems that can hopefully go all the way.

[Maldini]

Couldn't agree more...

 

I look at it as a seperate, dare I say, business. The more volume you get in through the doors the better chance you have of weeding out 1 or 2 gems that can hopefully go all the way.

 

This is the thing, it's not that we have too many players, we just don't have enough games.

[Hassony]

This is the thing, it's not that we have too many players, we just don't have enough games.

 

maybe more players (spearing, Plessis, Nemeth, Darby) should have been loaned out this season

 

WBA are looking for a striker, they could do with nemeth for 6 months

[Maldini]

maybe more players (spearing, Plessis, Nemeth, Darby) should have been loaned out this season

 

WBA are looking for a striker, they could do with nemeth for 6 months

 

Yeah, Villareal were interested in Spearing after we played them, that didn't come off though. Some of them definitely should have gotten a loan though. To be honest I'd keep Nemeth here rather than loan him out, I think he can break into our squad before the end of the season

[Ronnie Whelan]

Yeah, Villareal were interested in Spearing after we played them, that didn't come off though. Some of them definitely should have gotten a loan though. To be honest I'd keep Nemeth here rather than loan him out, I think he can break into our squad before the end of the season

 

 

Even though he wasnt fully fit last night he still showed some good touches and movement.

[alias75]

I think as fans of a top 4 team we need to be realistic about what to expect from the reserve team and academy. The way football has gone managers of top teams cannot afford to take too many risks with players, we've seen Arsenal try more than anyone else to give younger players a chance but if you look at their strongest 11 its still packed full of players signed from other teams for lots of money, and because they haven't won anything for a while even Wenger is getting criticised.

 

My problem at the moment is we've been bringing in players like Flora, N'Gog, Brouwer from overseas when there are already players of a similar if not better quality here and that simply restricts the opportunities. Somebody like Nathan Eccleston as an example should be playing regularly in the reserves but hes stuck in the U18s because there are 3 or 4 above him that are no better. Others like Nemeth needs to be playing at a higher level now. I know hes been injured but he should be out on loan to a Championship or PL side. The same applies to Insua and a couple of others reserve team football isn't a good enough level for them to continue to develop and stay motivated.

 

But we shouldn't expect the reserves to produce 4 or 5 players for the first team squad its just not realistic, i agree with the poster that said it should almost be treated an a seperate business, yes ideally the main focus should be producing players for the first team but when you have a first team full of proven internationals thats never going to be easy, hopefully you get 1 or 2 gems that make the grade here but the aim of the reserve team should be to scout good players that are given the best chance to succeed here, but if they don't are good enough players to make it elsewhere so we can sell them for decent money which helps fund the first team and the recruitment of potential talented youngsters.