Lewis Koumas started and netted his first goal for Wales U19 in a friendly vs Sweden earlier today.
The Liverpool forward was on hand to finish the rebound of a missed penalty to equalise for Wales.
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Musialowski linked to clubs in Ekstraklasa on loan is the sound coming out Poland including some in ĹĂłdz. Signed from SMS Lodz, think itâs the right time for Musialowski to go and play week in week out and hone his talent against men with less pressure.
Contract till 2024. Surely we are extending his contract.
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Seems like he has fallen away a bit since the days when Dortmund was rumoured to be bidding 10million for him and the polish Messi talks were thrown about
Heâs been absolutely wank since moving up from U18s to be honest.
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Interesting piece here about yet another change to the structure of youth football
In short the 2 top divisions have been combined back into a single league to eliminate relegation. That was brought in to provide a more competitive element and make it more like senior football but the result was teams prioritized winning rather than player development. The hope is with the jeopardy of relegation removed different decisions can be taken.
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Makes sense, but you could counter that the lack of stakes and therefore removing the need to develop the ability to cope with pressure etc is also detrimental to developmentâŚ
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That was the argument for the structure they had. The reality is though there is nothing you can do to perfectly replicate senior top level football so no developmental system will be perfect. If they are observing unintended consequences of the existing structure the stakes are low enough to just try something else even if only for a year or two. Itâs likely always going to be an iterative process.
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Iâm not a fan of the âSwiss Modelâ but whatever the structure doesnât really matter that much.
I just wish they would add more fixtures and make sure the U21 side cannot play on the same day as the senior side. Does my head in to see U21s games on at the same time as Premier League fixtures when there is a possibility some of those U21 players could have travelled with the first team or even been in the squad.
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This structure supposedly reduces the number of games. The argument they are making is that it helps avoid that sort of scheduling conflict, and gives teams more opportunities to schedule their own games at the level of competition they think is helpful for them.
Yeah Iâm strongly against that move. It doesnât need to become a full 38 game season but the proposed new system is 21 games. Last season seemed fairly well balanced at 26 games + Premier League International Cup + Papa Johnâs Trophy - but that also was âaidedâ by the World Cup suspending play for 6 weeks. Regularly I see 3/4 week gaps in the schedule for youth sides.
All this is doing is reducing the amount of minutes players have to impress and win a contract elsewhere. Maybe theyâll add another trophy to help with that but I donât get why we canât just say that if the first team plays Saturday then the U21s play on Sunday etc.
Iâve seen the âset our own fixturesâ argument before. Both Southampton and Man City went down that route for a period but theyâve both come back into the regular system because itâs actually hard to get fixtures scheduled against teams of a decent standard. Last season Liverpool U21s played one friendly, during the World Cup, and it ended up being against Fleetwoodâs B side and finished 7-4. Not sure thatâs really the level of fixture we should be encouraging regularly.
Anyway long story short is that they tinker and play with it but I never get to see any data or real detail on why apart from insinuations of ideas. Good players tend to get through to the first team, whether that is at a Premier League club or on loan somewhere. Not as many are dropping straight into non-league as there were 20+ years ago so the messing with the structure isnât all bad but some of it seems redundant and I donât like taking away game time from young lads trying to build a portfolio to impress coaches and managers with.
Also, and I guess this is more of a personal thing, but clubs hide their friendlies. They donât broadcast them and sometimes donât even name squads publicly. I get that at U18 level, theyâre just kids, but playing at U21 level you should be seen. Youâre on the verge of first team football, you should be on TV or the internet and have that tiny bit of pressure.
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I donât know if he was involved in this conversation, but Iâve got a good friend who is in on these sort of committees discussing how youth development should be structured. You wont be surprised to learn there is typically massive disconnect between the outcomes they collectively decide they want to achieve and the methods used to achieve them. Itâs a textbook case of the compromise you need to reach to satisfy enough people to get a majority producing an approach that isnt aligned with the agreed upon goals.
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Not everyone will like this medium and I understand why but I fuck about with TikTok and decided to make a few videos about those we released this summer - OâRourke, Hughes, Hayes-Green, Olufunwa, Roberts and Bearne as well as a video on Davies and Clarkson as they head out too.
If youâre interested my tiktok channel is michaelsweeting70 (@michaelsweeting70) | TikTok
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doubtful, kids like him need experience and playing time. not injuries.
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Iâm not really a one for TikTok, but just to say that I would absolutely subscribe if you did a similar thing on Youtube, like little video pieces and updates on current academy players. I actually think thereâd be a good niche for something like that.
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I may do that if I decide to expand the coverage more - just messing around right now. Youâre right though there is a bit of a niche. Itâs funny because American Sports have lots of creators doing these kinds of videos but all the videos I find about football are either aimed at kids or just incredibly bad takes based on not being able to read data properly.
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Portsmouth and Reading are both interested in signing highly-rated Liverpool winger Harvey Blair on loan this summer. #lfc [portsmouth news]
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Liverpool are among a number of Premier League clubs that have sent scouts to assess 16-year-old winger Trevan Sanusi of Birmingham City. #lfc [simon jones - mail]
Liverpool also rumoured to be interested in St Pats (Ireland) Mason Melia.
Ireland youth international and St Pats youngest ever goal scorer I believe. Same team Jaros was loaned out to, so the standard is decent.
Should only cost a few hundred thousand so little risk.