Writing off our young players

[Lanolin]

It's definitely fair he is criticised. However it's also reasonable people can counter balance that. He has had significant injury problems which have probably halted his career. He is also a completely different position to Lukaku and one that breaks through more at a later age.

Pennington was very poor yesterday, perhaps so poor we may never see him again. However there is a revisionism. Last season he was identified to be playing ok, in fact was pointed out by MOTD as one of our best players in a win against Bournemouth. I saw that game too and was very impressed with him. He has been one of the better players in our under 23's, and when we were short of numbers came in and struggled. The criticism needs to be balanced and fair.

Oh I agree, I just feel the OP is lacking that balance.

Anybody who blames the youngsters for yesterday needs their heads testing, but I don't see the harm in pointing out flaws and giving an opinion. Personally I thought Pennington looked poor last season too and am on record saying so, no revisionism required.

 

[thebluenosebolt]

Far better rightbacks, Center backs have failed at the pit....its a horrible game. Completely unfair to judge any single player when it comes to an away derby. You can see the fear creeping up on the whole team. Its a mind set issue, nothing more. Every team has a bogey, It's just a shame they seem to be ours...in the past and present.

 

[Billy Dean]

Oh I agree, I just feel the OP is lacking that balance.

Anybody who blames the youngsters for yesterday needs their heads testing, but I don't see the harm in pointing out flaws and giving an opinion. Personally I thought Pennington looked poor last season too and am on record saying so, no revisionism required.

Nothing wrong with my balance mert. I recognize the difference between criticism and writing off. It's the latter I have an issue with.

 

[John23]

This is a situation that has been simmering for a while and I feel come to a head after yesterday's game. There are a lot of posters writing off our kids at the moment. When you post things like "I see nothing to suggest this kid is good enough" when they've played less than a handful of games, have a think about why Steve Walsh hasn't headhunted you to join his scouting team.

Is right Billy. There's always a fume on here when we lose but yeh mate the youngsters should be left alone. At least we have local youngsters playing for us unlike that shower who rely on a witch doctor n some chap from the favelas'

 

[Lanolin]

Nothing wrong with my balance mert. I recognize the difference between criticism and writing off. It's the latter I have an issue with.

Maybe something wrong with the presentation of your point then. The example you used - people saying 'I've seen nothing to suggest this player is good enough' - seems perfectly reasonable to me. That's not saying they're rubbish or criticising them, simply commenting on what you've seen with your own eyes. So basically, exactly what the forum was designed for.

 

[ClausThomsen]

Yesterday was a lesson in the gap from U23 to competitive 1st team games. There's a big difference in intense, competitive games like the derby and end of season dead rubbers like last season were Unsworth had us all excited bringing in "The Kids".

Makes you realise why some managers completely undersell a youngster's performance in post-match interviews as they really don't want the pressure of being seen as the answer to a problem weighing down on a young player. Expectations go up and then when the player puts in a performance more in line with his lack of experience the criticism is based on wholly unrealistic expectations and as such is potentially much more damaging to confidence.

The kids are alright - Squad depth isn't and we need several improvements across the board. Not good back-up but competitive 1st team players which will give us the option of letting the young players gain their initial experience under less pressure. The same way that the RS brought on Alexander-Arnold yesterday when the game was as good as won.

The "kids" team that Man U had in 95/96 still had a solid spine of top quality, experienced league winning players. Teams win things with kids the same way that Leicester win PL titles - Immense one-off anomalies.

 

[Tubey]

I can guarantee you now that Pennington ain't good enough for the top echelons of the Premier League.

If that makes me a bell end then so be it.

Give it 12-18 months and you will see Pennington forging a good career in the lower divisions.

We can then reassess who is the real bell end here.

Can't disagree with this. Shane Duffy kind of player.

 

[dannyboy]

People are just calling it as they see it. When we watched Davies for the first time you can tell there is a player in there.

The likes of Lewin and Pennington are obviously out of their depth at this level right now. Honestly, if either in the Championship would they be a first team regular?

We all want the young lads to do well but you cant be blind to performances and lie.

 

[Raino85]

Calvert lewin reminds me of harry kane the first 18 months of his career, nobody seemed to rate him then he got his chance and found his feet in the europa league. He had filled out alot and worked his absolute socks off to get to were he is at today.
Give the lad the opportunity and the platform to show he can do it and you never know what they can do with the right platform n application

 

[Minimeister]

Young Rom and Ross looked out of their depth in a big game again yesterday. Give the others a chance.

 

[Milk]

I think you can get a fair idea whether a player will be a regular first teamer (either starter or bench) pretty much straight away. As soon as Lookman came on against City, you could see that he was a player for example. Same is true of Davies and Holgate and I can see that in Browning too.
Pennington, however, looks too slow to make it as a top line PL CB regardless of his mistakes yesterday and you can see that a player like McAleny wont make it at PL level (like McGeady) but will be fine in the lower leagues.

Call it gut feeling

 

[Billy Dean]

If the coaching staff has got anything about it they'll be supporting the young players who played yesterday. Showing them what they did right, pointing out where they can improve and giving them the tools on the training pitch to do that