Fully expect most people not to read this, but posted this write up on the Terborg tournament on Spurs Community, and may as well stick it on here too:
I won't go into much details about the games themselves, as RayLo has already done a great job of that on Spurs Odyssey. I'll talk more about individual performance. The theme you will see throughout this post is that I was extremely impressed by almost everyone, and encouraged for the future. It's quite long, so I won't be offended if you don't read it!
In our first game against Fluminense, we lined up like: Voss, Walker-Peters, Ball, McQueen, Ogilvie, Winks(C), Lesniak, Lameiras, McEvoy, Akindayini, Oduwa. Probably just about our strongest eleven of the squad out there. However none of the U18 lads had played a game for 3 weeks, and this definitely showed. We weren't our usual confident selves on the ball and were definitely second best. That said, I saw nothing from Fluminense that showed they were a far greater team than ourselves. Quite the opposite in fact - if we played them again, I'd fancy our chances to get something. Whatever threat we had in this game came mainly down the wing, with KWP and Oduwa in particular a threat. Those two combining was one of the repeating themes of the weekend, and it was great to watch at times. Oduwa was a threat all through the tournament, and I believe won MOTM vs Cruzeiro (I missed that match unfortunately - the 4am start on Friday morning caught up with me and I was in bed alseep!). We won 3 penalties in the tournament, and Oduwa won 2 of them (Walker-Peters the other).
After a disappointing 1st day, the Saturday was much more like it, albeit against 2 weaker opposition. Harrison started against Vitesse and I maintain he looks a better played than Akindayini depsite being 2 years younger. Naturally not as strong on the ball, but always looks more of a goal threat to me. Very good movement in behind too. That said, Akindayini did actually scored 2 goals to Harrison's 0 in this tournament, and looked over the moon with both. He always seems to enjoy scoring and that's great to see. The two are very different strikers though, so there could definitely be room for both of them in a starting XI.
Connor Ogilvie is really growing on me. Always thought he was a good player, but in the last few weeks and months he has really begun to impress. Doesn't do the flashy stuff that you'll see Oduwa / Winks / Georgiou etc do, but is hugely effective down the wing and very solid in defence too. I'd hope that in 2 or 3 years we would have solved our LB problem, but if we haven't, we may have a ready made solution coming through. That said, I think he considers his natural position to be CB, which in itself is extremely encouraging!
Harry Winks was in my opinion, our best player across the weekend. Dropped deeper in a couple of games and played more of a Modric role, and did it very well, but he was most effective when released further up the pitch, and was one of only a few of our players who could match the Brazilians on a purely technical level. Him, Onomah and Lesniak is a pretty perfect 3 man midfield IMO. Unfortunately couldn't see that this week as Onomah didn't travel, but hopefully we will see it in the U21 team in the next year or two.
Tom Glover played in goal for both these games, but unfortunately for him he had no opportunity to impress as neither side created any real chances. I feel like Voss is better with the ball at his feet, but Glover has more presence in the box (this is from seeing him in Dusseldorf too). Shot stopping I haven't seen enough to separate them. All in all, 2 more than competent keepers, but it's too early to tell if either are future first teamers.
Luke Amos played in both games on the Saturday. He played out of position at LB against Vitesse and whilst he was more than competent, he didn't look too willing to bomb down the wing, which is obviously a key part of being a full back. That said, I had a chat with his Dad last night and he says the club have no plans to develop him as a full back in the long term, he just plays there occasionally to get more game time. In the second game, he played in his more natural midfield role, and he impressed me. He's never really one who has stood out to me before, but I was impressed with his willingness to pick up the ball and his ball retention when being closed down. That said, Dalian were the weakest side there, so hopefully we can see him replicate that sort of performance against stronger opposition in the future.
Had the group stages been decided by GD, rather than H2H record, we would have qualified over Fluminense. Even the Dutch Eredivisie is decided by GD, so it was just this tournament. If that isn't Spursy then I don't know what is!
However, this stroke of bad luck actually led to our best moment of the weekend on the Sunday. In the 5th / 6th
playoff against Feyenoord, we completely ran the show. The games were just 60 minutes, so a 4-0 win is a thrashing. This, against one of the best academies around. I am extremely confident that if we had found ourselves in the other group, we would have qualified for the semi finals, and this game reaffirmed that. Akindayini, Lameiras, Winks and Georgiou scored (I thought Winks got 2, but I'll definitely go along with Ray, who thinks Lameiras got the 2nd). Winks was the best player on the pitch in this game. Hardly put a foot wrong, and got himself a goal and assist to show for it. All over the pitch it was pretty much the perfect performance and a great way to round of the weekend. Even better when you're the only Spurs fan surrounded by Feyenoord fans!
The highlight of my weekend personally was having a short chat with Roy Makaay about youth football and football in general! He was there as coach of the Feyenoord team. He said he was very impressed with Spurs, and said we seemed much more technically able than other English teams he'd seen in the past. He commented in particular that he liked the look of Filip Lesniak. This was all before we beat them 4-0, so wonder what he thinks now :ROFLMAO: Haven't really said anything on Lesniak, but he was fantastic at breaking up attacks and starting off our own (usually by giving it to Winks!). Winks certainly seemed to be able to play his game better with Filip behind him, and this was never more obvious than in the first half against Feyenoord.
That pretty much sums it up for me! Looking forward to seeing these lads progress as we've certainly got a talented bunch. I certainly think we deserved better than 5th place overall.
Also, Fluminense did this before every game. How good is this! Better than a poxy huddle on the pitch:
I won't go into much details about the games themselves, as RayLo has already done a great job of that on Spurs Odyssey. I'll talk more about individual performance. The theme you will see throughout this post is that I was extremely impressed by almost everyone, and encouraged for the future. It's quite long, so I won't be offended if you don't read it!
In our first game against Fluminense, we lined up like: Voss, Walker-Peters, Ball, McQueen, Ogilvie, Winks(C), Lesniak, Lameiras, McEvoy, Akindayini, Oduwa. Probably just about our strongest eleven of the squad out there. However none of the U18 lads had played a game for 3 weeks, and this definitely showed. We weren't our usual confident selves on the ball and were definitely second best. That said, I saw nothing from Fluminense that showed they were a far greater team than ourselves. Quite the opposite in fact - if we played them again, I'd fancy our chances to get something. Whatever threat we had in this game came mainly down the wing, with KWP and Oduwa in particular a threat. Those two combining was one of the repeating themes of the weekend, and it was great to watch at times. Oduwa was a threat all through the tournament, and I believe won MOTM vs Cruzeiro (I missed that match unfortunately - the 4am start on Friday morning caught up with me and I was in bed alseep!). We won 3 penalties in the tournament, and Oduwa won 2 of them (Walker-Peters the other).
After a disappointing 1st day, the Saturday was much more like it, albeit against 2 weaker opposition. Harrison started against Vitesse and I maintain he looks a better played than Akindayini depsite being 2 years younger. Naturally not as strong on the ball, but always looks more of a goal threat to me. Very good movement in behind too. That said, Akindayini did actually scored 2 goals to Harrison's 0 in this tournament, and looked over the moon with both. He always seems to enjoy scoring and that's great to see. The two are very different strikers though, so there could definitely be room for both of them in a starting XI.
Connor Ogilvie is really growing on me. Always thought he was a good player, but in the last few weeks and months he has really begun to impress. Doesn't do the flashy stuff that you'll see Oduwa / Winks / Georgiou etc do, but is hugely effective down the wing and very solid in defence too. I'd hope that in 2 or 3 years we would have solved our LB problem, but if we haven't, we may have a ready made solution coming through. That said, I think he considers his natural position to be CB, which in itself is extremely encouraging!
Harry Winks was in my opinion, our best player across the weekend. Dropped deeper in a couple of games and played more of a Modric role, and did it very well, but he was most effective when released further up the pitch, and was one of only a few of our players who could match the Brazilians on a purely technical level. Him, Onomah and Lesniak is a pretty perfect 3 man midfield IMO. Unfortunately couldn't see that this week as Onomah didn't travel, but hopefully we will see it in the U21 team in the next year or two.
Tom Glover played in goal for both these games, but unfortunately for him he had no opportunity to impress as neither side created any real chances. I feel like Voss is better with the ball at his feet, but Glover has more presence in the box (this is from seeing him in Dusseldorf too). Shot stopping I haven't seen enough to separate them. All in all, 2 more than competent keepers, but it's too early to tell if either are future first teamers.
Luke Amos played in both games on the Saturday. He played out of position at LB against Vitesse and whilst he was more than competent, he didn't look too willing to bomb down the wing, which is obviously a key part of being a full back. That said, I had a chat with his Dad last night and he says the club have no plans to develop him as a full back in the long term, he just plays there occasionally to get more game time. In the second game, he played in his more natural midfield role, and he impressed me. He's never really one who has stood out to me before, but I was impressed with his willingness to pick up the ball and his ball retention when being closed down. That said, Dalian were the weakest side there, so hopefully we can see him replicate that sort of performance against stronger opposition in the future.
Had the group stages been decided by GD, rather than H2H record, we would have qualified over Fluminense. Even the Dutch Eredivisie is decided by GD, so it was just this tournament. If that isn't Spursy then I don't know what is!
However, this stroke of bad luck actually led to our best moment of the weekend on the Sunday. In the 5th / 6th
playoff against Feyenoord, we completely ran the show. The games were just 60 minutes, so a 4-0 win is a thrashing. This, against one of the best academies around. I am extremely confident that if we had found ourselves in the other group, we would have qualified for the semi finals, and this game reaffirmed that. Akindayini, Lameiras, Winks and Georgiou scored (I thought Winks got 2, but I'll definitely go along with Ray, who thinks Lameiras got the 2nd). Winks was the best player on the pitch in this game. Hardly put a foot wrong, and got himself a goal and assist to show for it. All over the pitch it was pretty much the perfect performance and a great way to round of the weekend. Even better when you're the only Spurs fan surrounded by Feyenoord fans!
The highlight of my weekend personally was having a short chat with Roy Makaay about youth football and football in general! He was there as coach of the Feyenoord team. He said he was very impressed with Spurs, and said we seemed much more technically able than other English teams he'd seen in the past. He commented in particular that he liked the look of Filip Lesniak. This was all before we beat them 4-0, so wonder what he thinks now :ROFLMAO: Haven't really said anything on Lesniak, but he was fantastic at breaking up attacks and starting off our own (usually by giving it to Winks!). Winks certainly seemed to be able to play his game better with Filip behind him, and this was never more obvious than in the first half against Feyenoord.
That pretty much sums it up for me! Looking forward to seeing these lads progress as we've certainly got a talented bunch. I certainly think we deserved better than 5th place overall.
Also, Fluminense did this before every game. How good is this! Better than a poxy huddle on the pitch:
