Asunto: [U21]LaBamba

Currently sitting at 13 players aged 21 or less, plus 4 older players that I'm giving some training.
I can take on a few more and will keep filling gaps with players from my youth school.

Ok, manager is planning to sell him soon, so you can buy him for your squad, I'll be watching him just in case..

Great result! Keep it up!

thx

He is on transfer topic:

Andre Lutumba, age: 17

club: Φωστήρας, country: South Africa,
value: 1 657 505 Kč, wage: 21 751 Kč,
brilliant form, solid tactical discipline,
height: 176 cm
bookings:
NTDB:
hopeless stamina tragic keeper
good pace poor defender
average technique good playmaker
average passing unsatisfactory striker

and on TL:

Bonang Ludick, age: 20

club: Max Power, country: South Africa,
value: 4 665 012 Kč, wage: 48 001 Kč,
magical form, very good tactical discipline,
height: 175 cm
bookings:
NTDB:
adequate stamina hopeless keeper
solid pace poor defender
very good technique unsatisfactory playmaker
average passing excellent striker

But according to his owner, he only has talent 5 to solid pace..
(editado)

I'm proud of my guys. I have to say we were better and much more dangerous team. India didn't have a single chance to score. It was a nice defensive battle where defenders were clearly better than strikers and I think the most crucial thing was again correct guessing of the positioning of their defenders (since they played the same tactic as last time), which gave us opportunity to get some nice through passes and break away situations. We had I think 4 of them. Luckily Lekgwathi was not scared of that superdivine GK in superdivine form and scored an early goal. We controled the game ever since. Our defense was impregnable:-) Although there were some moments where our wing defenders tried to prove that they were Roberto Carlos or something and attacked too much (that's always nerve wrecking :-). Other than that I'm satisfied. Even Mathula played better against 4 defenders, even though his passing is still mysteriously inaccurate..
Generally speaking India was not as good as I expected, they were pretty harmless offensively and I think our MIDs are better. Their defense obviously is much better than our strikers but that's the case with any team. That scary GK wasn't busy much.
Retroactively I kinda regret the tactic against Paraguay (even though we were unlucky) I should've played bit more offensively, because our defense is world class and our attack pathetic, but I was scared I would get destroyed in my first match :-)

Next stop is another very tough team Mexico. The deal was our U20 against their U18-19, so we'll see how it goes, I think the manager might be little hesitant to accept that after our last results :-)

On TA, but the guy is still asking crazy price 4.5M EUR. What do you thing Marc?
I think he will very probably end up with a pace trainer anyway, let's hope he won't be trained in GK or something..:-)


Dominic Cole, age: 20

club: Team Pentagram, country: South Africa,
value: 24 585 062 Kč, wage: 251 251 Kč,
superdivine form, solid tactical discipline,
height: 176 cm

NTDB:
very good stamina unsatisfactory keeper
good pace divine defender
good technique very good playmaker
good passing average striker

Very well done against India. Your tactic wasn't quite what I expected, but it worked well.
As you said, despite their average marks being higher than ours, I agree that we were the better team on the field and fully deserved the win.

What did you expect?:-) What do/don't you like on that tactic? Wanna know your opinion.

Congrats mate, the result is nice and important for you ;-)

thx;-)

When your described your idea of attacking India, I expected a more forwardly placed defence.
I have no problem with the formation you used, just a little surprised.

The only thing I don't think is working is the wing. There isn't really a good supply line to get the ball out there, and too many long passes are wasted and kicked out when they try to reach him. As you say, his passes also go missing when he does get the ball, but he also finds himself too far in front of the strikers with no-one to give the ball to.
(editado)

Bought Ludick. Let's see how his training goes this season.

Good points. Thanks Marc.
I don't like to position defenders way too forward. I think it's a mistake at U21 level. Defenders are ussually better than strikers. And with the through passes, when defenders are too deep, it's a good way how to avoid them. India did this mistake and despite some offsides we were able to get lot of of break away situations as a result. Plus we don't have super quick defenders to chase strikers form behind and they don't have any special PM/passing to take advantage from the deeper postion and put pressure on other team like that..It could result in more failed passes from defenders and subsequent break aways on the other side..
I agree with the wing, it's not working, despite my nonstop hopes with Methula:-) I don't like to put player directly behind him as I think it is bit wasted position, I put Matsau as much on the side as possible, closer to Methula, but I do want him to still be able to get some direct through passes from the middle to strikers so it was bit of compromise. As I said a keep insisting on the wing as it is great chance how to be more dangerous and our strikers don't have to "fight" with defenders (since they can't) and just wait for the header. But so far it's not working, his passes are off ( I dont get it) and as you said he was too far in front even though i positioned strikers right in front of the goal, the moment Methula receives the ball on the wing . He is simply far to quicker than our strikers :-D
May be it would be more convinient to use him as off mid against forwarded defense and put him on the wing only against defenders that stick around the penalty area and are not that deep in the field..
Again thanks for the points.

As I wrote you his owner told me he has only 5 weeks talent to solid..and he is a tutor so i don't think he has bad coaches..may be your pace academy will discover a hidden talent in him :-D
What about Cole?
(editado)