Barradell Looks Ahead To Chelsea U18s Clash
- Chelsea are the Leicester City Under-18s’ next U18 Premier League South opponents
- Adam Barradell previewed Saturday’s encounter at Cobham Training Centre
- The young Foxes were beaten by West Ham United last time out
- City's youngsters won the reverse fixture against the Blues earlier this season
After getting back to winning ways against Norwich City, Leicester’s momentum was stopped in its tracks as the youngsters narrowly lost out to West Ham United at LCFC Training Ground last weekend.
George Earthy’s strike with a quarter of an hour to play was enough for the east Londoners to take the points back to the capital, leaving the young Foxes on 38 points from 21 games ahead of facing Chelsea at Cobham Training Centre.
Assessing that defeat, Barradell told LCFC.com: “I thought it was a tight affair. It was two teams who have got the best defensive record in the league and didn’t really want to give anything away, but it was disappointing to concede in the last quarter of the game.
“We had some opportunities to score ourselves. Overall, we were disappointed about the result, but the performance level, at times, was good. Again, we’re just looking to do a little bit better around the final third.
“That’s some work we’re doing individually at the moment, but also as a team. We were a changed team again so some of the boys from the Under-16s who came in did well and produced good performances against a strong outfit.”
There’s not much to choose between the teams on paper. The Blues are fifth, one point ahead of sixth-place Leicester in the U18 Premier League South, though have played two games fewer than the Foxes.
The capital club are unbeaten in four, winning three of those, but it was City who triumphed in the reverse fixture in Seagrave back in September 2021, courtesy of Kian Pennant’s 70th-minute goal, which broke the deadlock and ultimately won the game.
“We’re looking forward to the game at the weekend against Chelsea,” City’s coach continued. "It’s always a good test going down to Cobham. There’s been a bit of work done around both boxes, defensively and attacking wise.
“Going down to Chelsea at the weekend, you’re going to have to be really good in both boxes. The game that we played earlier on in the season was an exciting one with two teams really taking the game to each other.
“It’s a really competitive league and the teams around us are all playing really high-level games as you saw last week against West Ham. We expect a good game, a real tough test and we should be able to put our stamp on the game.”
There was plenty of Academy involvement in the Development Squad’s impressive Premier League 2 victory over Manchester United earlier this week too, demonstrating the player progression being made through the Club’s pathway.
“A lot of the boys were involved in the Under-23s on Monday,” Barradell added. “Overall, we had seven scholars in the squad, which is fantastic to see and some of the development of the boys and the performance level that they manage to hit in those games is excellent.”