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Wolves u23 Vs WBA U23 - PL Cup Final 13/5/22

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reanswolf

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I love my club so much, but feel the same. I want us to do so well, but always feel we fall at the final hurdle for everything. We rarely win ‘must win’ games. Maybe its a psychological thing in our DNA,
The DNA of the players, maybe even the club itself, certainly not the fans.

With Albion, 1st team or kids like yesterday, they are just bigger and taller.
That's how they win - Hawthorns Globe-trotters.
 

Boss Hogg

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One of the Best moments for me was Hubner’s “tackle” on Richards I think it was. That’s how you stop De Bruyne walking through your midfield! :D

Sondergaards save from the pen was one of the best I’ve seen - perhaps someone with some clever IT skills can upload it here?
 

lets all have a disco

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The DNA of the players, maybe even the club itself, certainly not the fans.

With Albion, 1st team or kids like yesterday, they are just bigger and taller.
That's how they win - Hawthorns Globe-trotters.
Whilst they were bigger granted and they scored by two lumps into the box , from a development point of view ,did any Albion player look decent and stand out where you thought he will make a player ...they were dreadful , couldn't string two passes together...

I'm not saying our players will all make premier league players but I nw which team will probably generate the most funds for the club going forward....
 

old wittonian

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Whilst they were bigger granted and they scored by two lumps into the box , from a development point of view ,did any Albion player look decent and stand out where you thought he will make a player ...they were dreadful , couldn't string two passes together...

I'm not saying our players will all make premier league players but I nw which team will probably generate the most funds for the club going forward....
Their keeper wasn't too bad.
 

SteveBullsKnee

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Whilst they were bigger granted and they scored by two lumps into the box , from a development point of view ,did any Albion player look decent and stand out where you thought he will make a player ...they were dreadful , couldn't string two passes together...

I'm not saying our players will all make premier league players but I nw which team will probably generate the most funds for the club going forward....
Bang on the money. My Agent pal who’s has a niche in so far as he predominantly looks after 18-24 year olds and also does scouting always says that albions recruitment team always talk to him about wanting big athletic players and wolves talk to him about wanting technical players regardless of size. Those big lumps for Albion won’t progress once they hit Mens football but our techinical players can only get better. Last night hurt but I’d much prefer our approach
 

Hoganstolemywife

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Bang on the money. My Agent pal who’s has a niche in so far as he predominantly looks after 18-24 year olds and also does scouting always says that albions recruitment team always talk to him about wanting big athletic players and wolves talk to him about wanting technical players regardless of size. Those big lumps for Albion won’t progress once they hit Mens football but our techinical players can only get better. Last night hurt but I’d much prefer our approach
Well said. Kind of like the classic English vs Iberian approach.
 

Hot Fuss

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Bang on the money. My Agent pal who’s has a niche in so far as he predominantly looks after 18-24 year olds and also does scouting always says that albions recruitment team always talk to him about wanting big athletic players and wolves talk to him about wanting technical players regardless of size. Those big lumps for Albion won’t progress once they hit Mens football but our techinical players can only get better. Last night hurt but I’d much prefer our approach
Exactly what we used to do when scouting kids.

Trying to turn athletes into footballers rather than the other way round.

Don’t know if it’s still the case but 10 years ago when a kid got a trial at Wolves you filled a form in and on it they asked the height of both parents.
 

Sussex Wolf

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Exactly what we used to do when scouting kids.

Trying to turn athletes into footballers rather than the other way round.

Don’t know if it’s still the case but 10 years ago when a kid got a trial at Wolves you filled a form in and on it they asked the height of both parents.

My daughter who sees a lot of premier academy teams at Boro, says it’s very noticeable the difference between clubs, and what type of player they target. I thought our U23 players very skilful last night, passing the ball around the Albion players with comfort.
 

Hot Fuss

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My daughter who sees a lot of premier academy teams at Boro, says it’s very noticeable the difference between clubs, and what type of player they target. I thought our U23 players very skilful last night, passing the ball around the Albion players with comfort.

We certainly seem to have changed for the better in terms of targeting lads who can actually play football!

Big, strong and quick was always the first thing they used to look for.
 

lets all have a disco

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Bang on the money. My Agent pal who’s has a niche in so far as he predominantly looks after 18-24 year olds and also does scouting always says that albions recruitment team always talk to him about wanting big athletic players and wolves talk to him about wanting technical players regardless of size. Those big lumps for Albion won’t progress once they hit Mens football but our techinical players can only get better. Last night hurt but I’d much prefer our approach
Work with a young lad (19) who lives over bloxwich way who is a very good footballer....his best mate is Cameron archer the villa kid who has done well at Preston on loan......he played in loads of kids teams with Cameron, loads of medals , trophys etc....

Anyway he is a small lad , currently plays for rushall Olympic u23s , he was kicked out of the Albion and Walsall because he was too small....I've been to see him play numerous times and he is a cracking player, not saying size was the only reason but he is scathing when taking about Albions academy cause he was in it for a few years .. he kept saying to me all week 'you watch the Albion wheel the lumps out against ya'...and he was right .

We say it's like the roller coaster when ya was kids and if you wasn't a certain height , you couldn't go on it...But the height is 6ft at Albion..

He is a villa fan so he hasn't got any aleigence towards wolves but over the course of the season I've been going on about our academy etc and he nw regularly watches the wolves u23s ... absolutely loves em ...Says they are a cracking watch etc ....Loves Lee harkin obviously and we regularly joke ...'that could of been you shorty' etc etc..
 
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Sedgers

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It was one of the most one sided games I've ever seen. Albion were woeful. But that's what makes football such an amazing game isn't it? You can be outclassed and still win.
 
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reanswolf

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Work with a young lad (19) who lives over bloxwich way who is a very good footballer....his best mate is Cameron archer the villa kid who has done well at Preston on loan......he played in loads of kids teams with Cameron, loads of medals , trophys etc....

Anyway he is a small lad , currently plays for rushall Olympic u23s , he was kicked out of the Albion and Walsall because he was too small....I've been to see him play numerous times and he is a cracking player, not saying size was the only reason but he is scathing when taking about Albions academy cause he was in it for a few years .. he kept saying to me all week 'you watch the Albion wheel the lumps out against ya'...and he was right ..

He is a villa fan so he hasn't got any aleigence towards wolves but over the course of the season I've been going on about our academy etc and he nw regularly watches the wolves u23s ... absolutely loves em ...Says they are a cracking watch etc ....Loves Lee harkin obviously and we regularly joke ...'that could of been you' etc etc..
Interesting perspective, thx for posting that.
It really was striking yesterday, simply the size of the big Albion lumps.
Having said all that, at present you would have to say their approach trumps ours.
Long term, I didn't see any Albion player who caught my eye.
 

JadeWolf

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Interesting perspective, thx for posting that.
It really was striking yesterday, simply the size of the big Albion lumps.
Having said all that, at present you would have to say their approach trumps ours.
Long term, I didn't see any Albion player who caught my eye.
I disagree. Ultimately the point of U23 football is to develop players. Our approach is far, far better than what they’re doing. They beat us on the night but that doesn’t prove they’re right or justify it. It’s very short term whereas we have a longer term strategy and im all for it.
 

SuperGran

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Interesting perspective, thx for posting that.
It really was striking yesterday, simply the size of the big Albion lumps.
Having said all that, at present you would have to say their approach trumps ours.
Long term, I didn't see any Albion player who caught my eye.
Extremely short term perspective
 

Bawtry Wolf

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Extremely short term perspective
By extension teams taking this approach have often been good at winning the Chamionship with big athletic players but immediately fail in the Premiership because they don’t have the technical ability, they then rinse and repeat and wonder why they’re stuck in this rut of bouncing backwards and forwards.
 

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Interesting perspective, thx for posting that.
It really was striking yesterday, simply the size of the big Albion lumps.
Having said all that, at present you would have to say their approach trumps ours.
Long term, I didn't see any Albion player who caught my eye.
Why cause they won a penalty shoot out .....they are down the bottom in the u23s league, we finished 2nd......same as in the u18 set up..

Can't see how it trump's us.... our academy is definitely producing more players....as I said before, nearly all won't make premier league stars but it's hardly an endorsement for albion academy when they are full of big lumps and need to sign Andy Carroll on a pay as play deal...

Some of us are getting lost , with BCD derby emotions really when in reality it wasn't a BCD but a kids development game..... personally the minute I left the game it really wasn't anything else , in just the same way we shouldnt have gone overboard and invaded the pitch if we had scored 1 more penalty than them..
 
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wolvesaywe

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I disagree. Ultimately the point of U23 football is to develop players. Our approach is far, far better than what they’re doing. They beat us on the night but that doesn’t prove they’re right or justify it. It’s very short term whereas we have a longer term strategy and im all for it.
Exactly.

And the players on the pitch only partially show the full strength of the academy setup. We've just had two u23 graduates, who could still theoretically play for them, get POTS on loan for their respective clubs, while the likes of Giles impressed hugely at Cardiff earlier in the season

The future is very bright, whether it's for our first team or the bank balance

Albion's future is about as bright as Putin's chances of a Nobel peace prize
 

sedgwolf1980

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Seems to be a lot of straw clutching here.

We lost to the ****, yet again. We could have played Neto and Silva upfront, RAN and Hooever as wing backs, and we would still have found a way to lose.

The only real positive I can take is it just reinforced the hatred between our 2 clubs and helps put to bed some of the faux rivalries of these last few years.
 

Spitfire

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Seems to be a lot of straw clutching here.

We lost to the ****, yet again. We could have played Neto and Silva upfront, RAN and Hooever as wing backs, and we would still have found a way to lose.

The only real positive I can take is it just reinforced the hatred between our 2 clubs and helps put to bed some of the faux rivalries of these last few years.
But if we had won with the players you mention what would we really have achieved. The kids who had got us there would have felt a bit miffed to miss out, but by playing at least they can bank that experience and hopefully help us as a club in the future.

Like your second paragraph though :D.
 

Supadavewolf

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Long term, I didn't see any Albion player who caught my eye
(other than the keeper?)

But, for me, it's long term we're most interested in. That's what makes the defeat (just) tolerable, watching Bueno, Campbell, Cundle and the others gain more experience - both playing in a pressurised environment, and having to stomach a defeat like that.
 

ewarwoowar

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Exactly.

And the players on the pitch only partially show the full strength of the academy setup. We've just had two u23 graduates, who could still theoretically play for them, get POTS on loan for their respective clubs, while the likes of Giles impressed hugely at Cardiff earlier in the season

The future is very bright, whether it's for our first team or the bank balance

Albion's future is about as bright as Putin's chances of a Nobel peace prize
re your last line,my dad used to say as bright as a toc-h lamp
 

sedgwolf1980

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But if we had won with the players you mention what would we really have achieved. The kids who had got us there would have felt a bit miffed to miss out, but by playing at least they can bank that experience and hopefully help us as a club in the future.

Like your second paragraph though :D.
Oh I agree, not suggesting we needed to play them. More so we could have faked Neves and Rauls passports and still conspired to lose that match.
 

JOSWolf

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We played well but our lack of decisiveness in front of goal cost us dear. We were a lot better than the **** but if you dont convert your dominance into goals then results like last night will happen. To be fair to the u23's, though, they have been scoring lots of goals in recent months but last night they should have scored at least 5. Typical this happens against the **** but it always ****ing does!
 

Mugwump

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Interesting perspective, thx for posting that.
It really was striking yesterday, simply the size of the big Albion lumps.
Having said all that, at present you would have to say their approach trumps ours.
Long term, I didn't see any Albion player who caught my eye.

I'd be interested to know why you think their approach trumps ours?
 

Eastyorksyeltz

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At least there should be no complacency going into the Playoffs. An easy victory last night might have taken the edge off a performance against Norwich, in what I assume would be the more important match for them. If, that is, it is thought that a return to top flight U23 competition is what the youngsters need next season? It could be a big ask of a squad that could be in for as big a transition as the seniors, with some of this year's mainstays presumably looking to get loan opportunities.
 

JadeWolf

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We played well but our lack of decisiveness in front of goal cost us dear. We were a lot better than the **** but if you dont convert your dominance into goals then results like last night will happen. To be fair to the u23's, though, they have been scoring lots of goals in recent months but last night they should have scored at least 5. Typical this happens against the **** but it always ****ing does!
Think this is a fair point actually @JOSWolf! Before last night in the last 10 games our U23s had scored 3,2,2,4,3,1,0,4,3,4. 26 goals in 10 games. Yes they were very wasteful last night and didn’t take the shooting chance enough but that’s not a general trend recently.
 

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I watched Mosquera and (when he came on) Shabani with interest, as in theory they should both be a cut above this level, and therefore really stand out.

Yerson I was disappointed with. He clearly has both pace and the vision to pick out a pass. He made a couple of great bursting runs, and two or three slide rule passes. This is what I was expecting to see. The reality though was that 90% of the time he received the ball he passed it straight back to Marques without even looking at options to play it forward. Quite often you could see him ambling around not even looking at where the ball was on the field (and I mean when we had the ball, in our own half) which meant his team-mates stopped playing the ball out to him for a good long spell until he started paying attention again (I'm guessing he got a rollicking from the touchline). So, in summary, some moments of real quality that were like finding an oasis in a desert of slow, negative, predicable backwards/sideways passes. Did not stand out for me at all, looked just about ok at this level.

Shabani (penalty aside - awful pen, must have let the pressure of the moment get to him) on the other hand really did look a cut above. He has great movement, both on and off the ball, he's not afraid to get stuck in, and his first thought it to be positive/progressive. He took a fair few knocks but dished them out too - he seems to have that Jota-like ability to be a real thorn in the opponents side, winning the ball back in dangerous areas and either driving forward with it, or picking out a progressive pass. He's had a woeful injury record since he joined us so I think people have forgotten about him, but I really think he showed enough to be part of our first team squad next season.
 

Contrarian

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We played well but our lack of decisiveness in front of goal cost us dear. We were a lot better than the **** but if you dont convert your dominance into goals then results like last night will happen. To be fair to the u23's, though, they have been scoring lots of goals in recent months but last night they should have scored at least 5. Typical this happens against the **** but it always ****ing does!

Is Podence coaching our Under 23's in the art of finishing? :eek: At times it was like we had an attack of 3 Podence-lites. We will be European champions when they award goals for back heels and flicks.
 

Contrarian

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I watched Mosquera and (when he came on) Shabani with interest, as in theory they should both be a cut above this level, and therefore really stand out.

Yerson I was disappointed with. He clearly has both pace and the vision to pick out a pass. He made a couple of great bursting runs, and two or three slide rule passes. This is what I was expecting to see. The reality though was that 90% of the time he received the ball he passed it straight back to Marques without even looking at options to play it forward. Quite often you could see him ambling around not even looking at where the ball was on the field (and I mean when we had the ball, in our own half) which meant his team-mates stopped playing the ball out to him for a good long spell until he started paying attention again (I'm guessing he got a rollicking from the touchline). So, in summary, some moments of real quality that were like finding an oasis in a desert of slow, negative, predicable backwards/sideways passes. Did not stand out for me at all, looked just about ok at this level.

Shabani (penalty aside - awful pen, must have let the pressure of the moment get to him) on the other hand really did look a cut above. He has great movement, both on and off the ball, he's not afraid to get stuck in, and his first thought it to be positive/progressive. He took a fair few knocks but dished them out too - he seems to have that Jota-like ability to be a real thorn in the opponents side, winning the ball back in dangerous areas and either driving forward with it, or picking out a progressive pass. He's had a woeful injury record since he joined us so I think people have forgotten about him, but I really think he showed enough to be part of our first team squad next season.

Interesting points. Contrast with watching Chiquinho for the Under 23's a few months back, and he instantly stood out as a level above, far too good for this level. Would be interesting to see Fabio in a match like last nights. He too should be a cut above and should have been able to make something with all our possession around their penalty area that others couldn't convert.

From what others say, this was one of Mosquera's better performances, sounds like he's been a bit shaky at other times. How much of that "sideways/backwards/safety first" has been coached into him this season, though? The back 3 played very much like the first team. Either way, confirms that he would have been a disaster area if pushed into the first team so soon.

Shabani has potential but has looked rusty, to be expected as it feels like he's spent the best part of 3 years out injured.

Bueno is looking the most likely, he's going to be a wing back at the top level for sure.
 

lobodelsur

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We certainly seem to have changed for the better in terms of targeting lads who can actually play football!

Big, strong and quick was always the first thing they used to look for.
'Quick' is still quite important...
 

SteveBullsKnee

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I watched Mosquera and (when he came on) Shabani with interest, as in theory they should both be a cut above this level, and therefore really stand out.

Yerson I was disappointed with. He clearly has both pace and the vision to pick out a pass. He made a couple of great bursting runs, and two or three slide rule passes. This is what I was expecting to see. The reality though was that 90% of the time he received the ball he passed it straight back to Marques without even looking at options to play it forward. Quite often you could see him ambling around not even looking at where the ball was on the field (and I mean when we had the ball, in our own half) which meant his team-mates stopped playing the ball out to him for a good long spell until he started paying attention again (I'm guessing he got a rollicking from the touchline). So, in summary, some moments of real quality that were like finding an oasis in a desert of slow, negative, predicable backwards/sideways passes. Did not stand out for me at all, looked just about ok at this level.

Shabani (penalty aside - awful pen, must have let the pressure of the moment get to him) on the other hand really did look a cut above. He has great movement, both on and off the ball, he's not afraid to get stuck in, and his first thought it to be positive/progressive. He took a fair few knocks but dished them out too - he seems to have that Jota-like ability to be a real thorn in the opponents side, winning the ball back in dangerous areas and either driving forward with it, or picking out a progressive pass. He's had a woeful injury record since he joined us so I think people have forgotten about him, but I really think he showed enough to be part of our first team squad next season.
Shabani is a really good midfielder, undo his development has stalled a bit due to injury but you can definitely see a player in there.
 
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