The Academy/Development squads watch thread 2024/25

[JordCot]

Ignoring the supremely talented Roberts, their RB looked quality defensively especially for the youngest player on the pitch. Our left side never had much of a sniff most of the game

[Norfolk Royal]

Well done to the lads and excellent effort. Very impressed by some of our lads. Liked the look of the left back Owusu before he went off with cramp. Pretty big and powerful for a left back at that age, Kuhl and Stacey excellent and the centre half Dickie? probably MOM.

[P!ssed Off]

On't train now. Great game and good atmosphere especially 2nd half.
A group of Reading youth players dominated the middle of the stand 2nd half giving great support.

Gutted to lose and in the manner that we did.
Tempted to blame one player in particular for 2 Fulham goals + a red card but they are only youngsters so I'll let it go and hope that he learns from his mistakes today.

It's a great effort to get to the semis and almost reach the final. But if I'm honest Dodds has let himself down in terms of substitutions over the 2 legs. The likes of McClennan, Taylor-Crossdale and Husin should have had much more game time and we should have used fresh subs in the 1st leg to exploit 10 man Fulham abd subs in the 2nd leg to cope with playing most of tye game a man down.

Other than that it was a great performance and a great cup run.
Kuhl and Dickie our best players today. Stacey had a very good 2nd half. Fridge did well filling in at cb.

[winchester_royal]

Dickie thoroughly deserving of his England u19 call up on that display. Thought he looked a little clumsy earlier in the season, but he seems to have progressed massively since and was a rock today.

Stacey does look like a younger, quicker version of Little at times. A better prospect than Fosu imo, who has plenty of work to do.

Nothing more needs to be said about Kuhl, who will surely go on to have a fantastic career.

[Royal Ginger]

Ignoring the supremely talented Roberts, their RB looked quality defensively especially for the youngest player on the pitch. Our left side never had much of a sniff most of the game

Agreed. I thought he was MOTM despite Dembele's hat-trick

[Maguire]

Good to see people praising Dickie - I've not seen a lot of youth football before but he looked an excellent player. Incredibly comfortable on the ball and probably Reading's MOTM.

Also agree Fulham's right back was very solid - had a touch of the Nathaniel Clynes about him.

Think it's hard to make any judgements about how big a future these lads have in the game as you can't really judge their natural athleticism/ability to step up to the physical side of the man's game. Certainly impressed by the way they play football though.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

We certainly have some young talent coming through the academy system and so do Fulham.

Kuhl, Hyam and Dickie all have good quality.

Roberts, Dembele and Skecleford (is he really only 16) stood out for Fulham.

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the U18's and U21's play recently with some great football played.

[andrew1957]

Very sorry for the lads. Unfortunately they blew it in the first leg as they should have won that but 2 or 3 at least. Last night was always going to be difficult and the stupid "stopping a goal scoring opportunity" rule again did not help. Both games would have been better if they had stayed 11 v 11 IMO.

For us I thought Dickie was MOTM but also excellent performances from Kuhl, Stacey, Owusu and Watson. But none of the boys let us down.

For them Roberts was stand out and Dembele got a very lucky hat trick but did little else.

[No Fixed Abode]

There's a bloke who thinks he's David Luiz.

[ZacNaloen]

LOL so funny

[Pepe the Horseman]

There's a bloke who thinks he's David Luiz.

Accept he's not a fcuking liability.

[soggy biscuit]

There's a bloke who thinks he's David Luiz.

Didn't see that many wayward passes or elbows flying m9

[melonhead]

Good to see people praising Dickie - I've not seen a lot of youth football before but he looked an excellent player. Incredibly comfortable on the ball and probably Reading's MOTM.

Also agree Fulham's right back was very solid - had a touch of the Nathaniel Clynes about him.

Think it's hard to make any judgements about how big a future these lads have in the game as you can't really judge their natural athleticism/ability to step up to the physical side of the man's game. Certainly impressed by the way they play football though.

the good thing is that if they fail to develop the height and power, they will always have great technique to fall back on, which should make the attrition rate a touch lower than it used to be

[Hoop Blah]

Good to see people praising Dickie - I've not seen a lot of youth football before but he looked an excellent player. Incredibly comfortable on the ball and probably Reading's MOTM.

Also agree Fulham's right back was very solid - had a touch of the Nathaniel Clynes about him.

Think it's hard to make any judgements about how big a future these lads have in the game as you can't really judge their natural athleticism/ability to step up to the physical side of the man's game. Certainly impressed by the way they play football though.

Very much agree with this.

So many times we see or hear about good young players that just don't kick on or quite cut it under the pressure and physicality of the mens league but you can't help to be impressed by some of the players and their approach at this level.

What I hope this also shows is how the much maligned FA and youth development structure IS having an impact on the type of players we produce. Yes there is still an element of picking the more physically capable players, and there have always been the odd technical player like Roberts make it through regardless of the stucture, but I do think it's noticable over the last 5-10 years how there's a greater volume of technical players coming through.

Felt a bit sorry for Kelly last night, he's such a better player than we saw last night and, especially with the sending off, he failed to show it and then unfortunately contributed to giving away the winner. He's got the ability to be a cracking little player from what I've seen so it was a shame he didn't have a greater impact in such a big game.

[stealthpapes]

I really enjoyed that as a game of football. No pressure on the result, really, just two teams having a good go at trying to win.

Losing to a proper hat-trick - penalty, tap in, shank - bit gutting.

[bobby1413]

I watched all of the first half. Then during half time, switched to Tottenham vs Sunderland and never been so bored in my life. I can barely remember a single stoppage in the U18s game, it was just end-to-end, no diving, no one going down injured, no messing around... just youngsters wanting to play football.

Also, the lack of fouls in the U18s game was brilliant. Everytime one of them ran directly in front of the opposittion I expected a foul but there wasn't one.

Needless to say I also watched the full second half. Really impressed.

Planning to go to some of the home games soon.

[Ian Royal]

Echo winch on Dickie. earlier in the run I thought Hyam edged him in quality but he's come on well. Also agree on Stacey ha ving a touch of Little about him.
the more I see kuhl the more impressed I get.

whilst you never can tell who will make it I think you can say that there are only a couple giving any sign they can't or won't. which is impressive.

[Norfolk Royal]

Echo winch on Dickie. earlier in the run I thought Hyam edged him in quality but he's come on well. Also agree on Stacey ha ving a touch of Little about him.
the more I see kuhl the more impressed I get.

whilst you never can tell who will make it I think you can say that there are only a couple giving any sign they can't or won't. which is impressive.

Agree with you that it's very difficult to predict who will make it but I'll stick my neck out now and say that the boy Kuhl will make it. Harder to predict how far he will go imho.

Why do I say that? His style is economical and he is very comfortable on the ball. There are no histrionics, he seems to do the simple things well, has a good tackle, and good range of passing. He probably needs to beef up a bit and add more power to his game to go with the undoubted skills, but that will come no doubt.

Think his father was Martin Kuhl. Saw him play a few times and their style is very similar.

[Ian Royal]

Yep daddy kuhl is one of the coaches.

one thing I thought was notable for many of our players was that they looked to turn into space when they received the ball with back to goal. Much like guthrie does. In Kellys case on one occasion it led to conceding but on many more it opened up passing options.

encouraging to hear shouts from the touchline reminding players of the need to move off the ball.

[ZacNaloen]

Yep daddy kuhl is one of the coaches.

one thing I thought was notable for many of our players was that they looked to turn into space when they received the ball with back to goal. Much like guthrie does. In Kellys case on one occasion it led to conceding but on many more it opened up passing options.

encouraging to hear shouts from the touchline reminding players of the need to move off the ball.

Yeh the Fulham player predicted it (because he goes the same way everytime) and he just turned into him.

He'll learn from that.