Barradell Commends City’s Youngsters After Latest Victory
- Leicester City’s Under-18s defeated Tottenham Hotspur 3-0 last weekend
- It was a seventh game unbeaten for the young Foxes in U18 Premier League South
- Adam Barradell referenced an improvement after the interval in his post-match analysis
- Chris Popov’s second-half hat-trick sealed the win in north London
Recording their second success of the week, the 3-0 victory at Tottenham Hotspur Training Centre came just four days after beating Aston Villa 2-0 at Villa Park to knock the competition holders out of the FA Youth Cup.
Given the demands placed on the squad, both physically and mentally, City’s coach was full of praise for how they were able to deliver another strong showing on the road and pick up an important three points in the league.
“I think the boys did really well to do as well as they did in the game,” Barradell told LCFC.com. “It was a really big week, physically and emotionally, with the FA Youth Cup on the Tuesday and it’s just testament and credit to the boys.
“The mentality they have and the way they prepared on Thursday and Friday and to take it into the game on Saturday, I thought they executed the plan really well.”
The win, secured thanks to a trio of second-half goals from Chris Popov - after the forward also netted in the FA Youth Cup - maintains City’s impressive position of third in U18 Premier League South, level on points with Chelsea at the division’s summit.
Barradell was pleased with the way the players took on board several pointers at the break and applied them into the performance, skills that will be required when playing at a higher level.
“In the first half, we didn’t utilise the ball as well as we could," he admitted. “We spoke about that at half-time - being better on the ball. That’s certainly something that we’ll look to take on in the games after Christmas, with a real focus on that technical quality and that technical execution.
“We know that will become more difficult when the lads move into the Under-23s and around the first team, so we really want to shine a light on that in the second half of the season.
“We had plenty of opportunities to score in the first half, Chris [Popov] had a few chances, but we just had to be better technically. That execution in front of goal wasn’t there, but we knew we’d still create chances in the second half.
“It was about being calm and, certainly, Chris did that with the goals he scored, it was an excellent performance from him individually. For Chris to score a hat-trick was obviously fantastic for him.”