Everton Youth Teams Thread

We need to be tougher... players that haven’t got loans and have no future at Everton should be released and let go to find their own way. We can’t babysit what is at the age of 20 or 21.. a young man.. no longer a boy.

If they are under contract we are stuck with them, but then their needs to be clear guidelines about how much game time they get.

We are doing a disservice to the next gen.
I've touched on this subject before but it really isn't as easy as that. If you're an 18 year old who is pretty highly rated, and you get offered a 3 year deal with us, how likely are you to sign it if you know that if you haven't made the breakthrough to the first team by the time you're 19 1/2, the club will just stop playing you in any of their teams because they've decided you're not making it and they want you gone? I would say not very likely at all. So you have to balance these things. You have to nurture and look after the lads who aren't going to make it as well as the ones who are. The huge majority of players who play for our under 23s will never be PL players, that's just a fact, so not looking after the 80-90% of the team who don't make it is not conducive to running a successful academy.
 

Unsy defies the odds with his youth team every year he loses a team of prem reserve winners and sems to crate a good team why would you want him out?
To be honest is the negative football and playing a totally different system to the first team. Now whatever system we all think is the best system to play. Silva & Brands decide the style and sign players to implement it. Unsworth to me plays a David moyes style. And surely it should be the same all the way through the club.

Don’t get me wrong the under 23’s have some talented players IE Gordon and can play good football, but I remember towards last season when they were going for the league, it was all long ball and defensive tactics. And the cup final against Newcastle, was a shocking performance. Once we went one up, he took an attacker off and shut up shop. I think Newcastle even went down to 10 and we still didn’t really change, we got lucky as the missed a late pen. All the goalkeeper did was kick it long to the striker. Hornby I think it was.

It’s like someone said imagine Gordon training with the under 23’s and learning a defensive style while watching the ball go over his head on match days. At a very important time (17 to 19) of his development. And then he goes up to the first team, and is then training and playing a totally different style and system.

Luckily it looks like he’s already training with the first team. Maybe I’m being harsh on unsworth. But before Brands it didn’t seem anyone was on the same page. Koeman, Walsh, unsworth, the under 18. Abs that needs to change.
 
Unsy defies the odds with his youth team every year he loses a team of prem reserve winners and sems to crate a good team why would you want him out?
I know it seems daft Joey, but the main purpose of the U23s is not to win the U23 league. It is to bring through players from the academy into the first XI squad.

If you followed the youth teams you would know that, over the past 2 seasons, he has left highly regarded up and coming kids out of the team whilst playing lads like Garbutt, Galloway, Henen, Jones, Browning, Grant, Baxter and now Charsley. These were all players who had no future at Everton but some of them were grown men playing against 18 year olds week in week out, so were effective at this level.

Personally, my view is if Unsy wants to win league titles he should go to manage an open age team and do it there. The question being raised now is whether it is Unsy who is driving this, or whether he is taking instructions from the club, and I guess we'll never know the answer unless Unworth is replaced of course. But if it is indeed the latter, then my assessment of Brands will very much take a downturn.
 
To be honest is the negative football and playing a totally different system to the first team. Now whatever system we all think is the best system to play. Silva & Brands decide the style and sign players to implement it. Unsworth to me plays a David moyes style. And surely it should be the same all the way through the club.

Don’t get me wrong the under 23’s have some talented players IE Gordon and can play good football, but I remember towards last season when they were going for the league, it was all long ball and defensive tactics. And the cup final against Newcastle, was a shocking performance. Once we went one up, he took an attacker off and shut up shop. I think Newcastle even went down to 10 and we still didn’t really change, we got lucky as the missed a late pen. All the goalkeeper did was kick it long to the striker. Hornby I think it was.

It’s like someone said imagine Gordon training with the under 23’s and learning a defensive style while watching the ball go over his head on match days. At a very important time (17 to 19) of his development. And then he goes up to the first team, and is then training and playing a totally different style and system.

Luckily it looks like he’s already training with the first team. Maybe I’m being harsh on unsworth. But before Brands it didn’t seem anyone was on the same page. Koeman, Walsh, unsworth, the under 18. Abs that needs to change.
You look at that starting XI against Blackburn and I saw about 4/5 players out of position and a team set up to not lose the game. I have no idea what system he played and our one creative player was playing centre forward himself FFS. I think we had four defensive midfielders on the pitch at the start.
 

You look at that starting XI against Blackburn and I saw about 4/5 players out of position and a team set up to not lose the game. I have no idea what system he played and our one creative player was playing centre forward himself FFS. I think we had four defensive midfielders on the pitch at the start.
Yes I’ve noticed the same. A game a few weeks back he had 4 defensive midfielders and not a recognised striker on the pitch. It’s all about the result and that’s not what academy football is about.
 
It doesn't matter if we never ever win the under 23 league again as long as players are brought through to the first team.

We can only assume that Marcel Brands is satisfied with the work being done by David Unsworth as he is kept as under 23 manager.
My guess is that as soon as the academy transfer ban is over, we might see more significant changes. But yes, that's a fair point, although he admittedly was not as focused on the academy when he first got here.
 

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