U23's and youth recruitment

[alwaysaclaret]

We seem intent and persistent at the moment in pursuing and signing defenders, not that we never need them but every time I read on website it seems we hardly ever recruit in any other position, oh I forget goalkeeping, do we not need midfielder or strikers bringing through, has anyone else observed or any thoughts ?

[ClaretTony]

Benson, Goodridge, N'Guessan, Harker, Steels - the most recent u23 signings before today and none of them are defenders

[alwaysaclaret]

Perhaps I didn't see their reported recruitment at the time or maybe they weren't all actually reported but anyway, maybe we should become a bit more attack minded when recruiting, yes it's a team game but games are won predominantly by strikers scoring goals, I do recall recently one was let go, think it was Lewis Richardson if I remember correctly, who appeared to be quite a prospect but it was reported we for whatever reason weren't the right club, maybe there should have been more effort made to keep him. Point is we can't be paying the extortionate fees to bring top class strikers in so perhaps we should concentrate on bringing our own through instead of putting too much emphasis on defending, the ratio just doesn't seem quite balanced imo.

[ClaretTony]

Perhaps I didn't see their reported recruitment at the time or maybe they weren't all actually reported but anyway, maybe we should become a bit more attack minded when recruiting, yes it's a team game but games are won predominantly by strikers scoring goals, I do recall recently one was let go, think it was Lewis Richardson if I remember correctly, who appeared to be quite a prospect but it was reported we for whatever reason weren't the right club, maybe there should have been more effort made to keep him. Point is we can't be paying the extortionate fees to bring top class strikers in so perhaps we should concentrate on bringing our own through instead of putting too much emphasis on defending, the ratio just doesn't seem quite balanced imo.

Lewis Richardson is a 16-year-old schoolboy who will be starting his youth scholarship at Burnley in July.

All the u23 signings are reported on here.

[Burnley1989]

he's had a mare haha

[Goobs]

Maybe you can start a thread complaining that we no longer appear to have any claret in any of our kits or that Sean Dyche never gives pre or post match interviews

[claretonthecoast1882]

This is brilliant

[Chester Perry]

he's had a mare haha

It can happen - I know only too well - but usually 30 seconds on google can help avoid these kind of things, which is about the same legnth of time as writing the posts

[Ashingtonclaret46]

So we need to be more attack minded with our recruitment etc., etc.
Under 23 team last season finished 4th in the Professional Development League. In 28 matches they scored 61 goals and were the leading goalscorers in the league, however, they conceded 48 and there was only one team out of ten who conceded more.
In the Group table for the PL Cup they finished top of the group but had conceded most goals.

The Youth team finished 5th in their league and only two teams scored more goals than their 64 goals, unfortunately, only three teams conceded more than their 54 goals in 28 matches.

[Buxtonclaret]

So we need to be more attack minded with our recruitment etc., etc.
Under 23 team last season finished 4th in the Professional Development League. In 28 matches they scored 61 goals and were the leading goalscorers in the league, however, they conceded 48 and there was only one team out of ten who conceded more.
In the Group table for the PL Cup they finished top of the group but had conceded most goals.

The Youth team finished 5th in their league and only two teams scored more goals than their 64 goals, unfortunately, only three teams conceded more than their 54 goals in 28 matches.

I'm going to start a thread clearly stating we just don't sign enough defenders...

[Dark Cloud]

Ironically I was only thinking on and off during the season that almost all the U23 teams and U18 teams at all the clubs we play don't appear to have much trouble getting young lads who can score goals, but finding ones who can defend properly seems to be a very different thing. It definitely seemed to be our Achilles heel.

[Long Time Lurker]

Maybe we could all respond to an expression of opinion without looking for opportunities to put the boot in.

Mixing up Fowler with Richardson isn't the crime of the century and I thought the comment about us seeming to favour defenders and keepers was a fair one. Prior to the great youth cull of 2019 we seemd to have an accumulated an excess of players in certain areas, like defenders and keepers.

I don't know why that happened, maybe it is because our manager is an ex defender, Martin Hodge is an ex keeper, Billy Mercer is an outstanding coach and Duff was the manager of the U23's. When a person has spent a career in a position it is only natural for them to feel more confident scouting and bringing in players in the same position.

In terms of cross checking information a person only has to look at the current team lists to see that alwaysaclaret wasn't a million miles away from making a reasonable point.

https://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/teams/u23-team/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/teams/u18-team/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Obviously those pages don't show everything about the lads in our development squads and things are going to change with the new intake. However, in terms of the players that we have previously brought in it has always been a bit hap hazard in terms of positional bias.

It is only recently that we seem to have woken up to this and we are now recruiting players in line with a more balanced positional approach.

In terms of forum poster development it would be nice if we could all work on our respect for others in the off season, with specialist training on thinking first and posting second instead of rushing to take mean pot shots instead.

Naturally, I am going to include myself in that.

Some of the posts on the threads associated with Crouch and Hart, along with some other players, have bordered on shocking. Constructive criticism and expressing an opinion should be encouraged and respected, whether people agree with the poster or not. However, a growing number of recent posts across these forum have been downright nasty and insulting.

The cheeky hair rufflings of alwaysaclaret on this thread were fairly tame, but they did make me think.

[ClaretTony]

Ironically I was only thinking on and off during the season that almost all the U23 teams and U18 teams at all the clubs we play don't appear to have much trouble getting young lads who can score goals, but finding ones who can defend properly seems to be a very different thing. It definitely seemed to be our Achilles heel.

We’ve had the leading goal scorer in the leagues this season, both u23 & u18 and there was a big attacking philosophy with both teams. That seems to have changed a bit with the u23 team since Stone came in but will have to wait and see really with the u18s who were decimated in the last quarter of the season.

[alwaysaclaret]

Thanks for your comments and understanding long time lurker, but don't worry I'm old enough and wise enough if you get what I mean, but just for the record you are quite correctrl in your thoughts that I got mixed up with Micheal fowler and Lewis Richardson, and also for the record, as my poster name states "alwaysaclaret" and I guess we are all eager to see players coming through, but for now we have to be happy with Dwight.

[Tricky Trevor]

Perhaps I didn't see their reported recruitment at the time or maybe they weren't all actually reported but anyway, maybe we should become a bit more attack minded when recruiting, yes it's a team game but games are won predominantly by strikers scoring goals, I do recall recently one was let go, think it was Lewis Richardson if I remember correctly, who appeared to be quite a prospect but it was reported we for whatever reason weren't the right club, maybe there should have been more effort made to keep him. Point is we can't be paying the extortionate fees to bring top class strikers in so perhaps we should concentrate on bringing our own through instead of putting too much emphasis on defending, the ratio just doesn't seem quite balanced imo.

The player let go was Michael Fowler. Never seen him play so can’t pass comment but he certainly got off to a good start, scoring wise.