Adams Kebab
Well-known member
We saw it last season with Joe Nuttall. U23 football is a totally different game to League 1.
In Academy football you’re not going to get players wasting time, doing a Gillingham on you or lining up against you with experience in midfield like Pratley and Watson (ran the show) tonight. It’s just sidewards keep ball, similar formations and positions.
There’s no big lump of a centre back who’s gonna flatten people, there’s no manager on the sideline acting like Steve Evans, its a totally different world.
I’m making this point because I’ve just read Critchley say he thought Ballard did well and “played like a man”.... WTF. He’s an international defender, he marked King and Haaland last week, this isn’t the Poulton Primary League. To start a left back at centre half tonight with Ballard sub was a rookie mistake, how many times has Husband played centre half (in a 2) in his professional career? I’ll guess at 3? And he’s been sent off twice. He’s always been rash, not going to change, but at left back it’s out wide and a yellow card, centre half you’re in trouble. There also appears to be a fascination of a left and right footed centre half for “balance”?? I could name 100 centre back partnerships and very good ones where both are right footed, you don’t need it! They just have to be able to defend.
I’m concerned with this U23 vibe going on and the fact Husband has been shoe-in’d with being one of the more experienced players, Madine out the wilderness to regularly starting, Maxwell captain, there’s a few red flags.
I am desperate for Critchley to do well, really want the way we operate to bring success, but this is League 1 and he needs to learn. He’s not Jurgen Klopp. He spent the warm-up watching Plymouth which is a copycat. This is not Liverpool, it’s not the sanitised world of Academy football, it’s League 1 and you have to earn the right and mix it.
Let’s hope he starts getting it quickly because we don’t need another window of letting Mansford and Johnson playing Championship Manager. I’ll save recruitment for another day, but no point signing players on loan if they don’t play.
In Academy football you’re not going to get players wasting time, doing a Gillingham on you or lining up against you with experience in midfield like Pratley and Watson (ran the show) tonight. It’s just sidewards keep ball, similar formations and positions.
There’s no big lump of a centre back who’s gonna flatten people, there’s no manager on the sideline acting like Steve Evans, its a totally different world.
I’m making this point because I’ve just read Critchley say he thought Ballard did well and “played like a man”.... WTF. He’s an international defender, he marked King and Haaland last week, this isn’t the Poulton Primary League. To start a left back at centre half tonight with Ballard sub was a rookie mistake, how many times has Husband played centre half (in a 2) in his professional career? I’ll guess at 3? And he’s been sent off twice. He’s always been rash, not going to change, but at left back it’s out wide and a yellow card, centre half you’re in trouble. There also appears to be a fascination of a left and right footed centre half for “balance”?? I could name 100 centre back partnerships and very good ones where both are right footed, you don’t need it! They just have to be able to defend.
I’m concerned with this U23 vibe going on and the fact Husband has been shoe-in’d with being one of the more experienced players, Madine out the wilderness to regularly starting, Maxwell captain, there’s a few red flags.
I am desperate for Critchley to do well, really want the way we operate to bring success, but this is League 1 and he needs to learn. He’s not Jurgen Klopp. He spent the warm-up watching Plymouth which is a copycat. This is not Liverpool, it’s not the sanitised world of Academy football, it’s League 1 and you have to earn the right and mix it.
Let’s hope he starts getting it quickly because we don’t need another window of letting Mansford and Johnson playing Championship Manager. I’ll save recruitment for another day, but no point signing players on loan if they don’t play.
