Hello everyone,
I know it is long overdue, but there wasn´t much to update you on with regards to the U21. Now I do have some news though and some very good news too :)
First off all we have seen that the NT under Elboss his guidance is doing a great job. We have some great players out there and I hope we can train some new England players properly so it will benefit the U21 and the NT in the long term.
Let me tell you what I have been doing recently. I was in December for 3 weeks in Berlin for work and didn´t get much done with regards to BB, even with regards to my own team. But together with Dabombys and Soels help we getting slowly where I want us to be. Soel did some scouting for me and Dabomby contacted a few coaches for U21 players with regards to the lack or poor management off game shape for these players. I hope this will be a wake up call for these managers and that they will take more attention to this. Poor gameshape, means they most likely wont be selected. Poor gameshape also means that their players wont play at their best for their own team either, so it works both ways. The difficulty is to get this across to most coaches without patronizing them. In some cases their players are key for success and they have no other choice...
I have also been tracking the english on the TL, and off course especially the great prospects and although I havent seen many, a few are out there. For example Jody Cartwright (11995111) and Brendan Mackay (11994978). I contacted their coaches, letting them know that they have a possible future U21 on their hands and I asked them whether and how they will train them. I will continue doing this and hope it will benefit the English U21 and NT.
I have to say that I am so far quite pleased with the players we have in the U21 team. Yes, some cracking players have left. For example Alec ring, and the new players that I could recruit arent as good as the ones that left. However, there is good news too. I have a much more balanced squad now and that leaves us with more options. Lets see how the rest off the consolation tournament pans out.
Currently we are in the 6th position after 2 matches, and the remaining fixtures that we received are quite a disappointment. It seems we arent lucky with the draws we are getting. But before we get there, let me tell you about our first 2 games.
The first game vs Macedonia was an easy win. Beforehand I was quite afraid we get beat, but lucky for us they fielded only 4 players and we won comfortably 59 vs 123.
The second game vs New Zealand I felt we had a good chance to win, but it would be easy. New Zealand picked the wrong offense and defense and it did help us. We won 101 vs 89. Especially Nigel Cubby played like a real star and knowing he is only 20, still being trained and having lots off potential left in him. I have to say I am very excited about that. There are a few other good prospects around. I am training for example a balanced SF and I know there are other active england coaches who picked up great new prospects with the intention to aid the U21 and NT.
Now with regards to the remaining fixtured. I feel we got screwed again. These are the remaining match ups.
1/11/2010 Canada U21 England U21
1/18/2010 England U21 Moldova U21
1/25/2010 England U21 Azərbaycan U21
2/1/2010 Guatemala U21 England U21
2/8/2010 Deutschland U21 England U21
2/15/2010 England U21 Taiwan U21
I will post my real feelings on the real england federation, but I am aiming at winning 3 games. I think this is a high aim, because vs Canada and Germany we dont stand a chance and that means we need to win 3 from the remaing 4 games. Off course 4 wins would be nice, but Moldova and Taiwan are no easy matchups and the draw kinda screwed us with away games...
Have to leave it with this update for now. Please feel free to comment if u have anything worthwhile to say :)