What are we supposed to be looking at in that video?
All I see are professional footballers sometimes managing to kick the ball in the goal when there are no defenders on the pitch, which is the very very least I expect them to do.
Hey,
I know you are clued up on poker ecology etc not sure if you're a football fan or a "22 men kicking a ball around a pitch for 90 mins" guy.
I think you can see from the game that almost every player is super talented and very comfortable on the ball.
Lets look at the best defence the premiership has ever seen (after Newcastle)
IMO, not one of these would make it in the Chelsea academy and not one of the Chelsea academy defenders will play for Chelsea in 3 years.
So what does this show us? Fantastic, our kids are REAL footballers (whatever that nonsense may mean) but they will never produce on the highest level as to be a world class defender you need a little bit more. It would be super interesting to find out what % of players who develop through academy's in England are defenders. In the past I actually think it was quite alot, and most of the defenders in the prem were English whilst we bought lots of attacking players. Look at the Arsenal team who were undefeated for example, all defenders were English and they spent the majority of the transfer kitty on Henry/Bergkamp etc etc. Ofc we get the odd defender coming through the ranks, but our defence at the last world cup was Johnson (technical fullback who can't defend) Rio (Maybe past it) Terry (Maybe Past it) Ashley Cole (good) there was nobody really challenging these four and they almost picked themselves. The next world cup everybody is going on about our great new players, Wilshire, Cleverly, Sturridge etc all of which who have progressed through the U21 set up and played lower league football/loaned out to poorer teams to enhance their "game experience" but looking at the possible defence we will be fielding in 3-4 years is quite worrying imo.
With the exception of Phil Jones who despite me thinking he is a leader and potentially a very good defender is way off the finished product (Shola Ameobi bullied him last week ffs) I am not filled with optimism about our defensive options.
The current u21 defenders are:
Craig Dawson (who?)
Martin Kelly (Meh)
Adam Smith (Who?)
Joe Bennet (Who?)
Nathan Baker (Who?)
Jo Flanagan (Meh)
Nathaniel Clyne (OK)
Lewis Dunk (Who?)
Now lets look at the teams they have come through..
West Brom, Liverpool, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Millwall, Crystal Palace.
Ofc its great they are choosing players who aren't in the premier league, but the real fact is there are no goo, young defenders coming through and it could be the downfall of a potential very exciting England team.
It's getting a little TL;DR, but I'll just quickly give you the teams of the midfieldersa in the U21 squad.
Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, Villa, Everton, Blackburn, Tottenham.
And the forwards?
Villa, Man United, Newcastle, Watford.
When I was at Southampton the players who I mentioned have broken through from the "best academy in the UK) Dexor Blackstock, Leon Best, Gareth Bale (was a left back, too good a player so they make him a winger
) Walcott, Chamberlain, Lallana, Surman.. Whats the common trend there? Oh yes, all attack minded attacking midfielders or strikers.
Instead of the top teams spending 50m on a Fernando Torres when they already have Anelka, Drogba et al, perhaps they should start trying to bring through some English defenders.
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