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Carabao Cup 2nd round game in a few days and  none of them look worthy of a call up for that. 

Meghoma now playing more attacking role , not sure if permanent or to accompany Larios (who looks like he'll need a lot more games to get back into it) 

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9 hours ago, JRM said:

Carabao Cup 2nd round game in a few days and  none of them look worthy of a call up for that. 

Meghoma now playing more attacking role , not sure if permanent or to accompany Larios (who looks like he'll need a lot more games to get back into it) 

Meghoma wants out, so I doubt there's any long term plan from our part. He's probably just being shunted forward to keep playing whilst Larios can get some minutes in his favoured LB slot.

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Interesting to see the shift in strategy for U21 players has been more towards picking up young players who have professional league experience like O’Brien-Whitmarsh and Akachukwu from the Irish leagues, and 3 of the deadline day signings in Buck (MLS), Macleod (Scottish Prem), and Dipepa (League 2) rather than trying to pick players from leading academies, additional all of these 3 have now played at international age group level. Also, strangely our other deadline signing Tabares from Fulham had only just signed a professional contract in July but seems we wanted him enough to prise him away. 

Players who have been competing against professional/older or more physical players, also tend to develop quicker. This change in strategy is interesting because you can see how much physicality helps increase your chances of getting into our first team. For example, although Dibling hasn’t been exposed to professional football, he does have an advanced physicality for his age. You then compare him to Sam Amo-Ameyaw who is a similar level of skill (probably a better finisher and quicker but not as good at passing which you would expect from one being mainly a winger vs primarily an eight) but definitely more slight physically. Dibling’s advanced physicality has definitely accelerated his integration into the first team and now looking to get a start whereas SAA is still looking for significant minutes in the PL but did finish very well vs Cardiff. Will be interesting to see longer term if this strategy leads to more first team players being developed from the academy - even though this strategy would require them coming in to the academy at a later age or exposing our academy players to more loans.

Hopefully the new players will embed into the U21s quickly and start to push for minutes in the PL. I think Dipepa looks particularly exciting with United having been looking at him only in May, he looked good in his clips for Port Vale (although hard to judge on YouTube videos) but a couple of really nice touches and assist in the England game today against Portugal U18. Also excited to see our academy players from the age groups come through such as Jay Robinson, Leo Rodella, and Dylan Moody - although GK is a notoriously hard position to bring through.

Despite a few obvious big losses to the big teams this summer it looks like we hopefully have a talented u21 and u18 team again this year. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

It is a bit humorous that Ben Reeves was re-signed to play for the U21s team, but now can't play because he isn't registered in our 25 man squad. But, it would have also been idiotic to give a squad space to Ben Reeves.

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3 hours ago, HarvSFC said:

It is a bit humorous that Ben Reeves was re-signed to play for the U21s team, but now can't play because he isn't registered in our 25 man squad. But, it would have also been idiotic to give a squad space to Ben Reeves.

Are you sure this is correct. I don't think the PL squad nominations affect other competitions, just the PL itself. Have you seen this mentioned as to why he is not playing?

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12 hours ago, VectisSaint said:

Are you sure this is correct. I don't think the PL squad nominations affect other competitions, just the PL itself. Have you seen this mentioned as to why he is not playing?

I can't source any info on it, but the u21 league is technically PL2 I think so it kind of makes sense that players must be PL registered to feature. In reality, the club wouldn't have expected to have been stuck with so many players so this seems more a case of bad luck that we couldn't shift the likes of TP and Manning etc than bad planning. On that, I see that Manning played midfield for the under 21's yesterday rather than Reeves so it may be that we tick some fringe players over in that team. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 20/09/2024 at 19:26, HarvSFC said:

It is a bit humorous that Ben Reeves was re-signed to play for the U21s team, but now can't play because he isn't registered in our 25 man squad. But, it would have also been idiotic to give a squad space to Ben Reeves.

:Mmmm .  When looking back at your post,  I reminded myself that any registered player regardless of age can play for a U21 side.

 

Saints stated they signed Reeves (who had a good Academy background), but like many promising youngsters was only ever deputy for a

first team player with international experience.   By age 21, you are either established, or being moved out for career's sake, so it is a win-win

situation for both club and player.   Reeves had much lower league experience to offer the U21's , (much as Ollie Lancashire did a while back).

Former players like Surman and McQueen had half-a-lifetime with Saints and feel a devotion, unlike mercenaries looking for a career stepping stone.

 

Apparently , clubs are allowed to use up to three "overage " players in any match, but it can deteriorate to overkill in some instances.

A few seasons ago, Chelsea U21's fielded three international players in their PL2 side, and only narrowly beat out lads. 

But it does give useful game time for injured players on their way back to fitness, or those in the 25 squad who might be short of minutes.

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Taylor played a half alongside Edwards and Woods. That's 3/4 of our back up defence losing 2 nil at home to Palaces kids. Not ideal. 

Diaz payed too. 

Southampton: Mohamed (GK), Moore (Tabares, 77), Taylor (Sesay, HT), Edwards, Woods, O’Brien-Whitmarsh, Merry (Charles, 65), Akachukwu (Ehibhatiomhan, 77), Dipepa (Robinson, 56), Amo-Ameyaw, Brereton Diaz. 

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11 hours ago, egg said:

Taylor played a half alongside Edwards and Woods. That's 3/4 of our back up defence losing 2 nil at home to Palaces kids. Not ideal. 

Diaz payed too. 

Southampton: Mohamed (GK), Moore (Tabares, 77), Taylor (Sesay, HT), Edwards, Woods, O’Brien-Whitmarsh, Merry (Charles, 65), Akachukwu (Ehibhatiomhan, 77), Dipepa (Robinson, 56), Amo-Ameyaw, Brereton Diaz. 

Assume Taylor, Woods and Edwards will play against Stoke on Tuesday , they must all be disappointed with the moves they made in the summer 

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Just now, Football Special said:

Assume Taylor, Woods and Edwards will play against Stoke on Tuesday , they must all be disappointed with the moves they made in the summer 

I think that must be the case. Woods I never understood, and can only assume it was a pessimistic nod to next season, possibly Edwards too. Taylor should be in the team for me, but the treatment of him last week and last night is telling. 

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30 minutes ago, Master Bates said:

So Diaz, Wood, Taylor in the first team

and potentially Edwards and (Russ's least favourite), the direct, pacey attacking hopeful, Sam Amo-Ameyaw (unless he's injured?)

Edited by disconnect
typo
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That’s a shame, especially after their performance mid-week. 
Annoyingly I can’t find any possession stats on the website, though. Nothing about how brave they were either.

Did notice none of the first team squad featured, so aside from injuries we have the full squad of way too many sub-standard players to choose from later

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