England U21's vs Latvia is on BT Sport 1 tonight @ 7.30pm
Somewhat less interesting with only Tom Davies in the starting 11 .
Barnfred 55
Player Valuation: £80m
Young Tom controlling things here. Very understated performance but full of control and composure. Keeping things moving and switching play brilliantly. Hasnt put a foot wrong or made a wrong decision.
Indeed!! Davies had a great game. For the first 20 mins he looked a bit lost as England played as they normally do passing everything through Cook. Then he got into it more and more, short passes a few long passes , strolling about the pitch making himself available, so that into the second half he was the main go to man in midfield . He even skipped past his marker easily to put in a cross that theGK dropped for Palmer to score the third goal in a 3-0 win. Then had a 25 yard whanger saved by the GK in the last few mins, would love to see him get the confidence to do that at PL level.
Lookman showed once again how dangerous he is when he picks the ball up in the middle and runs at defenders , easily skips past them , once he learns how to shoot properly he'll set the Old Lady on fire.
DCL came on late for Arbraham and just as I thought he hadn't been in the game much he picked the ball up just outside the right hand side of the box, held it up well waiting for others, cut back inside and bent a curler with his left foot from 20 yards which would have ended up in the top corner if not for a good save. It seems that every time DCL plays at the moment he produces something new. Tough completion for that no 9 spot though from Abraham and others.
Not a bad night for our young blues.
Barnfred 55
Player Valuation: £80m
Enjoyed that. There's a lot of depth in this U21 squad. He's got a job finding his best XI.
Thought Cook had a decent game but Tom was the one that kept the tempo up imo and controllef the game. Make a good pairing actually.
If that shot from DCL would have gone in it would have been a beaut. Great save tbf.
Osamabindiesel
Player Valuation: £60m
I will say DCL was too predictable with his shot, but what a shot it was! It wouldn't surprise me to see Tom as MOTM on the news sites as he was great. England has talent coming up... will they get their chances in the league to shine?
The nice bit for me was that 6 months ago he'd have kept running forward and been shepherded out wide, now he held , moved inside and shot with his left foot with a degree of power. He's progressing, and that's a big factor .
SiEdmo
Player Valuation: £10m
he is a very very quick learner, if he keeps this up, that shirt is his for the taking this season, been a fan since the first minute he came on against arsenal last season
johnnydawg68
Chairperson, People's Front of Saint Domingo
I agree, which is why I'm totally comfortable giving the lad his opportunity. Unlike so many others he seems to improve exponentially rather than a slow, steady, linear fashion. Compare him to 9 months ago. Said it before the lad is very intelligent and has the work ethic and natural ability to match.
Honestly in another 9 months we could be looking at a top, top player.
evertonarntwe
Player Valuation: £35m
that cook cant get a game for Bournemouth can he
Hard to give an unbiased view. Cook has been captain at U20s, played last week for the u21 and is used to having all the build up starting through him, so the was very much the man with the ball in the first half. 2nd half Tom for me was the dominant of the two and I think poses much more of a threat going forward than Cook , though Davies didn't get many driving runs in the game. I wonder if they will have a Cook/ Davies dilema - can they play both as they are similar in style in some. ways but there's others like Onomah who offers something different to either of them.
mightymoyes
Player Valuation: £70m
i would just fast track davies to the senior squad, hes already better than the likes of livermore and chalobah, henderson has near 40 caps and is yet to have a good game too.
plus i have money on him to be in the world cup squad!
Barnfred 55
Player Valuation: £80m
Probably looking through blue tinted glasses Zat but I thought Tom was the better of the two on the night, although Cook did have a very good game too. The commentators and "experts" were all raving over Cook though.
The reason why I chose Davies is he strolled his way through the game. Was at the heart of everything we did and controlled the tempo of the game. I don't remember him misplacing a pass, and his decision making was equally impressive. He probably played a bit deeper than we are used to. You could see he was the one player on the pitch who is getting regular game time in the premier.
His performance was all the more impressive as this was the first time he has played at this level. The squad was mainly comprised of last years U20s in which Cook was the heartbeat as you know and none of these players would have played with Tom before. I think Blueloon touched on it last night that initially the players were understandably looking for Cook, but as the game wore on Davies took control and by the second half he was running it.
I'm pleased for the lad because he's had a fairly indifferent start to the season and I think he'll get a bit of confidence from his performance last night.
The other players I was impressed with last night were the two CBs, Gomes and Tomori. They look an excellent pairing, big strong lads who can both play a bit too. We know Tomori from the world cup last year. Gomes is from the same age group and was one of the centre halfs when they won the U17 euros a few years ago (when Kenny and Ledson starred). He was injured for the world cup but looks to have stepped up in class since I last saw him.
