U21 Trialists, 3 become 2

Sheffield United U21 0 v Nottingham Forest U21 2

Monday 9 March 2015

Twitter @ball_sup

Forest are clear leaders of U21 Professional Development League 2 North. At the last bulletin (3 March), they were 5 points clear of Wednesday, with United a point behind them. And they’ve got 2 games in hand on us.

Quite a strong team put out by United. Kieran Wallace, Che Adams, Louis Reed, Ben Davies all been fairly regularly involved at first team level. Connor Dimaio an’ all. The vastly experienced Shaun Barker on whatever trial basis he is on.  Ben Whiteman (again) setting up as centre back.

Right, the trialists…Adam Drury must have been voted off in this week's live eviction. Because we're down to two now.

Shaun Barker

Modern football does my head in. It’s all wheeler dealering ain’t it. Backscratching & Backstabbing in equal measures. Who knows? Is Barker here because we have a view we might want to & be able to sign him. Or are we just doing him/his club a favour which we’ll call in in the future, or are we already paying one back?  Anyway, Red n White striped shirt today.

Looked better than last week. Fully switched on. At his level, with his experience, much of his effectiveness is down to positioning. And he’d got all that going on. Rarely caught out. Rarely needed to get arse into gear. Comfortable. He won a lot of headers & some key tackles. Busy, organised & committed. He looked the class act out there. He grafted & lasted 65 minutes.

By a distance, he was the best Wrestler out there at corners.

Josef Shirdel

I was amazed to see this fella again. Probably some wheeler, dealering I’m blissfully unaware of.  With Che Adams out there, he didn’t set up as the lone striker this time. Slightly more withdrawn in a link role. But, also drifting left & right. And I mean drifting in the “what the hell is he doing out there?” way.  To be fair, he was better than last week. More involved. But, he often seemed to be running towards the man with the ball - almost like “kids in the playground” mode. Maybe someones been watching him for months. Maybe he’s tearing it up in training. Maybe he’s cheap. But, currently, I can’t see it. Lasted to 75 minutes. Ineffective.

At times, the midfield of Reed, Dimaio, Kieran Wallace & Coustrain looked the part. But, at times is the key bit there. I thought Connor Dimaio looked a bit sharper & committed than recent weeks. Che Adams had a few tearing down on goal, have a shot moments - but he must be a way down the pecking order now for a first team striker spot.

At all levels, at set pieces, we seem to over concentrate on the man, ignore the ball. It’s all blocking off & disrupting. But, there’s a ball to be dealt with as well. One set piece header & one no one dealt with it it’s gone straight in set piece have cost us. Mugged off.

99/230