Onderwerp: [U21] Qstarw The last World Champion

Fuck. Alright, that's it. I won't be getting involved in national team matches anymore. I might also be done with playing altogether.

The moment they cleared off the line in the 6th minute you knew what was coming.

To summarize: As of today, we have no strikers, and with just one, who is out of form, success seems unattainable. The current midfield lineup among the U20 and younger players lacks potential stars. The defenders are somewhat acceptable. I feel that despite all our extra training, we are not making progress because we don’t have quality material to work with. I am extremely frustrated, and I want to thank you for the time spent here. It’s time for me to focus on my personal goals. Thank you once again.

Piotr, you have done really well to get to the World Cup and you have competed well. The loss is a close one, so rather than make rash decisions take some time to digest everything and then speak about the future. As a country we ar trying to train our players the best we can, however I feel we get a lack of decent trainees.....I certainly am lacking a decent youth player and the only one I really have is Freedman in the u21 now.

Since we’re not scoring into an empty net, we can’t win the match.

I understand your frustration and this is why I think it's best if you take some time and then come and analyse what happened. At the moment you sound like the whole world is against you. Which is nonsense.
You've put a lot of pressure on yourself. I know it would've been nice to get through the group stages and all that but you started talking about winning the title at some point. And maybe this was actually one of the main factors for the failure. Try to relax and have some fun sometimes, it's only a game.

Ok, where is the real JensenElla, and were you visited by Aliens last night?! lol ;)

I agree with everything you've said there, he's done a great job with a very limited team. I remember many years ago when I had the u21 side there were always weak areas and I remember only usually having 1 decent striker at a time.

I think he's been extremely unlucky with results.
As for the U-21s, it's going to take some time to optimise the players we have coming through. I'm putting a system in place but it's going to take at least 3 seasons to start seeing the results.

(I'm back)
I don't think luck played a bigger part than it usually does in this game. I also don't think the players are so bad. I agree that there might be a limited number of good players but I am sure that most of the U21 coaches have the same issue.
I watched the game and I think the tactic was poor. Especially against Finland's also poor tactic. What Finland had done better was to bring more players in the box. Unlike England they made those crosses into chances. After their main Gk came off injured, the reserve Gk (which looks to be way under par) had nothing to do. Freedman (a player that looks like a star) had to cross backwards as the strikers were always at the edge of the box, instead of being in front of the goal. The two mids (Moss and Woodgate) are literally ineffective, just providers for the wingers. As for Kennedy, his movement and contribution is almost 0. Defence is too deep and too reactive. Unlike Finland's, always coming towards the strikers and kicking the ball forward (risky but more rewarding). And, again, we're talking about really good players (I played against most of them) for their age.
Overall, I don't think the players are as bad as you all seem to think. Ok, I get that without a good striker is hard to win a game. But it's even harder without creating chances.

Freedman looked dead after 30 minutes. I don't know if it's Stamina issue but it definitely wasn't 100% on the strikers positioning.

Freedman is my player, and I personally don't think he is a star....I have had far better players at this age, I maybe wrong but I don't think I am. His stamina is adequate so not ideal either. As for the striker, the one good striker he has is in poor form which again makes it close to impossible. Tactically I think Piotr is one of our better managers too. U21 football require different tactics to our main teams.

Hunter-Lee Freedman, age: 21, height: 167 cm
value: 376 500 £, wage: 3 780 £
club: Thamesmead Town FC, country: England
magical form, brilliant tactical discipline

adequate stamina, unsatisfactory keeper
outstanding pace, adequate defender
brilliant technique, outstanding playmaker
formidable passing, weak striker

He's not a star but he's good enough for the U-21s and maybe the NT down the line. He's a 45 minute player at the moment though.

I spoke about the "most active" somewhere on here. And I strongly believe that a tactic that has a very unbalanced players activity during a poised game is not a good one. In this game we have players with really low activity although it was a poised game. Vassell played CB for 61 minutes and he was involved 2%. That shows how deep and reactive the defence was. Kennedy, 4%, speaks about the movement in the attack. Moss, 33% (21% def) and yet he made no real contribution, only passed the ball to Freedman. Strikers made no runs. Beckham, 24% (19% def), again, no pass forward, just protecting the centre of a defense that was already doing very little (Vassell and Watson, 6% together). Ingram replaces Vassell, plays 30 minutes and has 1% activity!
Piotr plays same sort of tactic at his club. Or, at least played it against me a while ago. He won that game but I remember not being impressed at all. It was just a winger, a striker and a deep defence. Nothing tactically wow. By all means, he won, so it must've been the right tactic. But I said it at the time, this tactic will fail when the winger has no striker or the striker has no winger. And today, it was one of those moments. And Piotr was unprepared for it.

Deep defence is something the game engine enjoys though....and with u21 players being relatively weak it is usually needed.

If Freedman is stamina 6, why did he play for the whole 90 minutes?!

Probably because most of the team has stamina at level 5-7

and probably even with low stamina, after 60 minutes he is still better than the 2nd wing option you have

I don't think you have any experience with u21s and how it looks at this level...
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