Fulham 0 Arsenal 0 (u21)

[cmg]

Entertaining little 0-0 draw at MP tonight. Emphasis on playing football rather than uber-competitiveness - which is right at this level. Although it didn't prevent the Arsenal striker from folding up Jorenen like a faulty deckchair at one stage with a "I got there as soon as I could" challenge.
Positives? It was good to see Dembele get a chance at this level. He learned, in the first half, that the loan striker role is a hard gig and he definitely missed the kind of help he  gets from Hyndeman and Roberts in the u18s. He showed a bit more in the second half, especially when Tankotov came on to share the chores with him. He was impressive in the air, showed some nice touches and missed a couple of chances. Needs more learning time.
Minkwitz (who made way for Tankovic) looked to have got his form back. He worked hard in midfield, broke up play and distibuted well, if a bit sideways (no jokes about being  ideal for the first team please, we are being positive here.) Although strong, he isn't very big and that might prove to be his major problem.
Mesca, as might be expected, was the most skilfull on view (along with the Arsenal no.10). Still runs up some blind alleys, though.
Most 'ready'? Naturally this would be in the one position in which we are already pretty well served. Steven Arthurworrey was excellent. Strong, dominent, distributes well. Pretty handy for a 5th or 6th choice.
David and Christiansen were OK in midfield without being too inspiring . Neither full-back impressed as much as in the past.
Jorenen must be one of the best 4th (or is he 5th?) choice keepers around.
No sign of Diarra.
Fulham on top most of the time against a well-organised Arsenal side, but couldn't find the finishing touch.

[Fernhurst]

No sign of Diarra."

Saving him for the bench Saturday.

[hongkongfulham]

appreciate the round up CMG

[earlbeatty]

A fair assessment CMG - have to say that Fulham were far the better team in the second half and should have run out comfortable winners. It always good to see the youngsters playing, sadly we never get to see many of them play for the Senior team.

As for the challenge on the keeper any other game and the Arsenal guy would have seen red, the referee didn't even book him!!

Also very impressed with the keeper, very loud and vocal with his organisation of the players in front of him.

An enjoyable evening, ended with a few pints in the Beatty with Barney Travers!

EB

[Deanothefulhamfan]

Nice to hear Dembele has been given a chance at the next level... If he can keep a spot in that side we will be laughing

[MJG]

Should be noted it was quite a young Arsenal side as a number of their usual U21 team played in cup night before.

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[cmg]

Should be noted it was quite a young Arsenal side as a number of their usual U21 team played in cup night before.

Be interesting to see what they do with Iwobi, their standout last night. A year older than Pat Roberts (and about twice his size). It seems he is Jay-Jay Okocha's cousin.

On the question of size, I was fascinated by your recent piece on the scout's impressions of our young full-backs. The development of this role has always interested me since my own efforts there in the ancient, all-clogging, biting and spitting era. The scouts, apparently, turned up their noses at Kavanagh's '5ft 8 and 10 stone' physique. He didn't have one of his better games yesterday (they can't all be gems) and he certainly looks rather frail for a defender. However '5ft 8 and 10 stone' puts him quite neatly in the Dani Alves/Ashley Cole size range, which hasn't been too detrimental to their careers.
Tom Richards seems to have settled into the winger's role. Such a transition shows how much this role has changed. Passley has returned to rightback having been experimented with virtually everywhere else so far this season. I suppose he is probably the best bet now, provided his attitude stays right.
At 18/19, I guess we'll get the answers about these guys fairly soon.

[MJG]

Should be noted it was quite a young Arsenal side as a number of their usual U21 team played in cup night before.

Be interesting to see what they do with Iwobi, their standout last night. A year older than Pat Roberts (and about twice his size). It seems he is Jay-Jay Okocha's cousin.

On the question of size, I was fascinated by your recent piece on the scout's impressions of our young full-backs. The development of this role has always interested me since my own efforts there in the ancient, all-clogging, biting and spitting era. The scouts, apparently, turned up their noses at Kavanagh's '5ft 8 and 10 stone' physique. He didn't have one of his better games yesterday (they can't all be gems) and he certainly looks rather frail for a defender. However '5ft 8 and 10 stone' puts him quite neatly in the Dani Alves/Ashley Cole size range, which hasn't been too detrimental to their careers.
Tom Richards seems to have settled into the winger's role. Such a transition shows how much this role has changed. Passley has returned to rightback having been experimented with virtually everywhere else so far this season. I suppose he is probably the best bet now, provided his attitude stays right.
At 18/19, I guess we'll get the answers about these guys fairly soon.

As your fully aware our U21's are really only 18/19 anyway.
When you compare Passley to Kavanagh you can see where those scouts were coming from. Passley is a lot stronger than them. I would like one of them to turn into Alves if possible ;-)
Kavanagh & Richards have a couple of years to build themselves up and I like them both as footballers.
Your right they are still very young and I hope we can get a lot of them games in the lower lges over next 18 months.


EDIT: By the way everyone is twice the size of Roberts.      Good player