It's going to be an interesting season for the reserves.
A couple seasons ago I remember looking at the team and counting only two Englishmen in Spearing and Darby. This evening I think there were only two foreigners in the starting line-up. That's quite a shift even if there are a lot of foreigners still around in the squad.
This team is also full of pace and raw athleticism with the likes of Ngoo, Wisdom, Amoo et al., which is very different to the painfully slow and dull side we saw under Ablett and the one McMahon inherited.
The flipside to that I suppose is that team was pretty well organized, composed and knew how to control games. This team is a lot younger and the game was pretty scrappy as the players go through growing pains. Suso for example is doing a lot of running and chasing, which is something you'd hope he doesn't spend most of his time doing game in, game out.
That said, there is a lot of potential on show - something you didn't always see in the past and obviously as has always been said, the aim of the youth setup is to produce players for the first team first and win matches second.
Lastly, Ngoo is a bit of a beast, isn't he? Infinitely preferable to Brouwer who is still somehow at the club!
A couple seasons ago I remember looking at the team and counting only two Englishmen in Spearing and Darby. This evening I think there were only two foreigners in the starting line-up. That's quite a shift even if there are a lot of foreigners still around in the squad.
This team is also full of pace and raw athleticism with the likes of Ngoo, Wisdom, Amoo et al., which is very different to the painfully slow and dull side we saw under Ablett and the one McMahon inherited.
The flipside to that I suppose is that team was pretty well organized, composed and knew how to control games. This team is a lot younger and the game was pretty scrappy as the players go through growing pains. Suso for example is doing a lot of running and chasing, which is something you'd hope he doesn't spend most of his time doing game in, game out.
That said, there is a lot of potential on show - something you didn't always see in the past and obviously as has always been said, the aim of the youth setup is to produce players for the first team first and win matches second.
Lastly, Ngoo is a bit of a beast, isn't he? Infinitely preferable to Brouwer who is still somehow at the club!
