Barradell: Youngsters Developing Every Game
- Leicester City’s Under-18s were narrowly defeated by Man City
- Coach Adam Barradell assessed the young Foxes’ performance
- He also looked ahead to upcoming fixtures in league and cup
A 44th-minute strike from Justin Oboavwoduo proved to be the difference between the two sides at LCFC Training Ground at the weekend, ending the young Foxes’ hopes of reaching the knockout stages in the U18 Premier League Cup.
Despite his obvious frustration at the scoreline, Leicester’s coach saw several pleasing phases of development within the game, which he will look to reinforce heading into the squad's upcoming fixtures.
He told LCFC.com earlier this week: “Although it was a disappointing result, there were some real pleasing aspects to the performance. I thought the lads tried to carry out the game plan extremely well. They were really disciplined, organised in their set-up and there were some really good moments of quality in the game for us.
“Man City’s ‘keeper made a couple of excellent saves, one in the first half from Abdullah Javid, and one later on in the game from Amani Richards. On another day, if one of those goes in, everyone looks at the game a little bit differently results-wise.
“I thought there was lots of development for the boys. We were right in the game for 90 minutes, which was pleasing and in the second half, the way we came out after the first 15 minutes of the second half, we pressed, we got after Man City, trying to win the ball higher up the pitch than we did in the first half and that caused them a lot of problems.
“We knew we were going to concede a lot of possession to a team like that, they are very well organised, and they pin you back with their shape. The idea was to get to half-time at 0-0 and obviously then to push second half as we did.
“But to concede just before half-time was disappointing. We felt we didn’t deserve that really. It came from an error and then we didn’t organise from the second phase when the ball came in the box.
“Having reviewed the goal and looked back with the players, it’s something that we can review. There was some really pleasing performances, but also as a squad, some good development for us.”
Moving forward, Leicester’s youngsters’ next league game in U18 Premier League South comes against Crystal Palace next Saturday, an 11am kick-off at LCFC Training Ground, though there will be plenty of chances to gain further experience in the coming week.
“In the space of two weeks we are going to have four games,” Barradell explained. “We play against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, they play Chelsea in the U17 Premier League Cup and Friday night against Grimsby.
“There’s a lot of time over the next week for the squad in terms of development minutes. It’s a great opportunity for the players and ourselves to work with the boys in some of these areas.
“If you look at the amount of games that are played at the top level now, especially with it being a World Cup year and how that has changed the schedule, I think it’s important that the boys experience those two-game weeks and we give them that in these development years.
“The Under-21s have got to play in the Papa Johns Trophy too. The boys have to experience that to help them along their journey and along the pathway.”