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Match day thread: Aston villa U21 (EFL Trophy)

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  • Pryzbek, Penders and Parsons were the youngsters that stood out for me

  • @TheAndyGrahamFanClub said:

    @HolmerBlue said:
    That was coming I'm afraid, they are all over us... their number 35 looks very good

    Cameron Archer?

    Yep that's the one, looked very decent

  • @HolmerBlue said:

    @TheAndyGrahamFanClub said:

    @HolmerBlue said:
    That was coming I'm afraid, they are all over us... their number 35 looks very good

    Cameron Archer?

    Yep that's the one, looked very decent

    Scored a hat trick v Barrow last week on TV. Looked lethal.

  • For what it’s worth, here’s my hot take (i.e. completely uneducated opinion) on the development players this evening:

    In no particular order…

    Przybek - thought he made some pretty good stops and didn’t do much wrong for the goals. Didn’t get the aerial bombardment you’d expect in a first team game but looks capable as a #2.

    Clark - really shaky defensively although it may be a case of a very good Villa winger in the making giving him a hard time. I’ve wondered quite a few times why he hasn’t been making the bench as one of the true wing backs in the squad considering how light we’ve been in that position, but I think defensively there’s still a bit to develop there.

    Forino - seems to have all of the raw physical attributes to one day challenge the first team, and out of a shaky defence he seemed the most composed. He’ll get written off by some after tonight but I think with some older heads around him, he could be decent.

    Ram - I don’t like to be like this about our players but I thought he really struggled, looked a bit out of his depth even at this level. Can’t remember many touches where I didn’t groan.

    Burley - the danger mainly came down the other side of the back 5, I can see him being used as CDM to break up play in future.

    Parsons - really sharp and nippy moving forwards but very raw. May struggle to adapt to a more physical game but seems to have the kind of confidence that you need to prove people wrong.

    Pendlebury - as we already know from his league games, by far the cream of the crop. Looks the most senior out of the development team and is so confident on the ball. I never worry when I see him in possession and seems to also be able to chip in defensively. Tonight I saw him as a first teamer, not in the same league as the other development players.

    Linton - a few sparks and some good runs, but positionally he wasn’t where I expected to see a #9 on some of the crosses going in, although in fairness to him he wasn’t getting brilliant service. Missed a great chance at the end but was on his weaker foot.

  • Archer was superb for them but he did get acres of space. Attendance 1409 was pretty decent for this competition.
    Villa under 21s have a few decent young players as you would expect and they do play together regularly, which our development team are yet to do.

  • Good night out for £5 a piece and great to see our development lads play with some of our senior players. Garath McCleary and Tommo were excellent. Hanlan look a bit rusty as did Wheeler. Kaikai looked lovely when he came on.

  • Lively not lovely ?

  • @Malone said:
    How do the advertising boards look on ifollow?

    They look scorchingly bright from the terrace.

    Bright enough to put a striker off! That cherry red ad is electric red!

  • It was great to hear @BrianJeeves68 again too.

  • Quite a torrid evening for some of our young players!

    An odd match though. First half hour it looked just a case of how many we'd score. The Villa kids seemed to work us out and spot our weaknesses though and deserved to be level at half time. 2nd half they were frankly all over us, defensively we struggled horribly. But even the senior players were poor, with Thompson getting completely overrun in the middle. However we came back strongly in the latter stages and had several good chances to equalise.

    Pendlebury was our best player, very classy. Parsons also caught the eye. Very pacey and looked confident. Hopefully more to come from Hanlan. Decent in the 1st half and should've had a goal or 2. Villa's youngsters coped with him pretty comfortably in the 2nd half.

    All in all a good night's entertainment and great that the club let the fans move from the seated areas to behind the goal. Like the old days of changing ends at half time!

  • What position did Kaikai play? His final ball and positioning was poor vs Sunderland, any better tonight?

  • @YorkshireBlue said:
    What position did Kaikai play? His final ball and positioning was poor vs Sunderland, any better tonight?

    He seemed to play wide right v Stevenage and was not ripping up trees. When he joined his ‘showreel’ was largely coming in from the left. The right side seems our issue clearly.

  • @TheAndyGrahamFanClub said:

    @YorkshireBlue said:
    What position did Kaikai play? His final ball and positioning was poor vs Sunderland, any better tonight?

    He seemed to play wide right v Stevenage and was not ripping up trees. When he joined his ‘showreel’ was largely coming in from the left. The right side seems our issue clearly.

    Part of me wonders having now lost Fred and Mccarthy to injury whether we need to leave the back 3/5 system for the time being for a 4-4-2 where Grimmer and Kaikai appear more comfortable.

  • I suppose going to Luton should qualify as an injury!

  • 1,409 was a decent crowd. Not only was it a chance for people to see some of the squad players but it was nice for those players to play in front of a reasonable crowd at Adams Park. Perhaps we can get Cameron Archer on loan to help progress his career!!! ?

  • Whilst I think this cup is pretty much nonsense as a contest, I thought tonight was a great chance to see some of the youngsters/fringe players in action playing competitive football.

    It was actually an entertaining game too, the Villa kids needed some time to wake up, but they certainly did that after we'd scored.

    I think they used to have some pretty onerous requirements in this tournament not to just stick out the reserves, I'm glad they seem to have watered those down - like I say, it's great to see the not-so-well-established names given a first team game.

    According to this: https://www.efl.com/papa-johns-trophy/the-competition/rules/

    it seems that this time round you only have to field 4 recognised first teamers. The rule that players on loan elsewhere (Malachi Linton in our case) can still play for their parent club in this cup is a bizarre one, but I'm not complaining.

  • edited August 2021

    @jessvl1 said:
    For what it’s worth, here’s my hot take (i.e. completely uneducated opinion) on the development players this evening:

    In no particular order…

    Przybek - thought he made some pretty good stops and didn’t do much wrong for the goals. Didn’t get the aerial bombardment you’d expect in a first team game but looks capable as a #2.

    Clark - really shaky defensively although it may be a case of a very good Villa winger in the making giving him a hard time. I’ve wondered quite a few times why he hasn’t been making the bench as one of the true wing backs in the squad considering how light we’ve been in that position, but I think defensively there’s still a bit to develop there.

    Forino - seems to have all of the raw physical attributes to one day challenge the first team, and out of a shaky defence he seemed the most composed. He’ll get written off by some after tonight but I think with some older heads around him, he could be decent.

    Ram - I don’t like to be like this about our players but I thought he really struggled, looked a bit out of his depth even at this level. Can’t remember many touches where I didn’t groan.

    Burley - the danger mainly came down the other side of the back 5, I can see him being used as CDM to break up play in future.

    Parsons - really sharp and nippy moving forwards but very raw. May struggle to adapt to a more physical game but seems to have the kind of confidence that you need to prove people wrong.

    Pendlebury - as we already know from his league games, by far the cream of the crop. Looks the most senior out of the development team and is so confident on the ball. I never worry when I see him in possession and seems to also be able to chip in defensively. Tonight I saw him as a first teamer, not in the same league as the other development players.

    Linton - a few sparks and some good runs, but positionally he wasn’t where I expected to see a #9 on some of the crosses going in, although in fairness to him he wasn’t getting brilliant service. Missed a great chance at the end but was on his weaker foot.

    Well summed up, pretty much what i thought

  • @Shev said:
    I suppose going to Luton should qualify as an injury!

    I nearly spat out me yorkshire tea lol!

  • Over 1,400 for a game in a competition which, in its current format, could be the precursor to destroying the pyramid as we know it. Disappointing, but what can you do? ?‍♂️

  • @ReturnToSenda said:
    Over 1,400 for a game in a competition which, in its current format, could be the precursor to destroying the pyramid as we know it. Disappointing, but what can you do? ?‍♂️

    Have to admit I probably wouldn’t have gone if Ipswich was going ahead, also was interested to see the youngsters for the first time. I also would hope anyone considering some sort of awful re-write of the pyramid would look at the recent super league saga and think again before they try and play around with it. I think we’re giving the Papa Johns trophy too much credit if we think it’s any more than a bit of a checkbox exercise to get U21 / U23s playing regular football in an environment that isn’t as sacred as the league pyramid

  • @jessvl1 said:

    @ReturnToSenda said:
    Over 1,400 for a game in a competition which, in its current format, could be the precursor to destroying the pyramid as we know it. Disappointing, but what can you do? ?‍♂️

    Have to admit I probably wouldn’t have gone if Ipswich was going ahead, also was interested to see the youngsters for the first time. I also would hope anyone considering some sort of awful re-write of the pyramid would look at the recent super league saga and think again before they try and play around with it. I think we’re giving the Papa Johns trophy too much credit if we think it’s any more than a bit of a checkbox exercise to get U21 / U23s playing regular football in an environment that isn’t as sacred as the league pyramid

    You'd hope so, but the EFL never cease to amaze!

  • In fairness, it's unrealistic to expect all fans to outright boycott a whole competition - especially when the tickets are so cheap, but there's just always this worry in terms of what it could mean for the future of our level of the game.

  • Lots of kids and families there this evening. Excellent atmosphere in the main stand. Cheap tickets made the difference I suspect.

  • @A_Worboys said:
    1,409 was a decent crowd. Not only was it a chance for people to see some of the squad players but it was nice for those players to play in front of a reasonable crowd at Adams Park. Perhaps we can get Cameron Archer on loan to help progress his career!!! ?

    Probably be a league game in 10 years if we’re honest

  • I couldn’t work it out last night but who was given the captains armband when Wheeler was subbed off?

  • @DPR38 said:
    I couldn’t work it out last night but who was given the captains armband when Wheeler was subbed off?

    Thommo I think

  • First time back since pre-pandemic and was able to reclaim my perch in the corner of the Valley End. The game was much as expected - our kids are not quite as good a Premier League club's equivalents, but there was still significant promise there from a number of the development players. A few points though on the matchday experience from someone who first watched the club in the 80s at Loakes Park, and has subsequently been, at different times, a writer for the programme, a season ticket holder and a (very minor) sponsor.

    Pitchside advertising Three things struck me: first, the light intensity was turned up way too high during the daylight, and especially the dusk phase last night. Rather than promoting the advertisers, this distracted from the on-field action and actually made it very hard to follow the action at the away end from the home terrace. Second, the sequencing of ads also made the action hard to follow - lots of ads on a white/bright background with one side playing in white and as the light faded (before the floodlights fully kicked-in) was a detraction/distraction. Programming ads with complementary rather than clashing colours across the gloom/dusk period would overcome this. Third, all the 'Up the Wyc' and 'Yeah, I'm a Chairboy' crowd-rousing stuff seems to have absolutely the opposite effect. In the best part of 40 years of watching Wycombe games, I have never heard anyone use either phrase. I've seen a lot of US sport over the years where crowds are manipulated far more by chant-leading MCs and musical cues. I really hope our American owners desist from trying to bring that culture to Adams Park. Brits are naturally far more cynical and sceptical than our American cousins and I suspect manufactured cheerleading will fall very flat.

    Drumming I've seen so much about this on Facebook and have no intention of wading in there. In principle, I have no objection to the crowd being roused by a drummer. However, for that to happen, said drummer needs to have skills as a drummer and an awareness when it is appropriate to strike up the band. Young Tom has none of the latter, and even the 10 (yes that's all there were) drones around him last night were largely silent all too often when he bashed his slightly too loosely-tensioned drum last night to accompany his own 'chant'. In terms of skill, the last time I heard such arrhythmic thumping, the patient was in cardiac arrest.

    PA/Wifi From where I was on the terrace, neither was working which, three games in, was disappointing.

    Scoreboard Looks great - basically useless for much of last night, not least because the operators forgot to restart the clock as the second half kicked off, and then went into panic mode for 20 minutes. But having something so vast and shiny with no live action seems particularly bemusing.

    Food/Drink Not my thing at matches normally - I actually come for the football. However, I went to Oxford City on Monday and had an excellent Pretzel Burger with cheese for £4.20. Last night on the terrace, the people around me had all brought their own food and drink with them - I suspect Tesco did quite well last night.

    Signage Really good to see the signage on the roads on the way to the ground pointing out that there's no longer turn-up-and-pay parking at AP.

    Overall? It was good to be back. None of the issues above are overly serious and the best news from last night was no crucial departures from the squad.

  • Thought the Villa side looked a little more streetwise than other u21's we've played. The number 32 who scored the two second half goals was some player. I did check when I got home last night in the vain hope we'd secured him on loan.

    Thought our development players all showed good things. Good goal from a very right footed left wing back and the new boy up front looked lively. The keeper can play too. Just needed a bit more experience on the pitch to get a win but the result last night wasn't the key part.

  • @MJS I'm amazed so little comment has been passed on the advertising. I can only imagine most on here watched on line.
    As just like you say, from the terrace it was one to file close to seizure inducing (hope that's not out of order way of describing that!) . Horribly bright, actually made it hard to see the other end and surprising if it won't attract complaints going forward from everyone!

  • edited September 2021

    Without wanting to be overly negative, I thought I’d mix it up last night and sit in the main stand (prosonos I think is the official name nowadays). The view really is quite impacted by the new technical areas. Made me appreciate the terrace

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