Paullow

I swear I must have heard the name Loser (Louza) about 100 times during this Millwall Watford match.

Awful FK from such a promising position from their POV.

No.

Luxembourg equalise and it had been coming.

He's got 2 former VfB team mates with him in the starting XI. 2 more on the bench as well.

Looking like a penalty for NI. Ref currently at the monitor. Given. Missed, but someone else converted the rebound.

Conor Washington was in the 2016 Euro squad, and I saw the other day that he was playing for Matlock in the 8th tier. Just 33 and he made 19 appearances for Derby last season.

Nearly 10 years since Euro 2016, where Northern Ireland had a reasonable team, relatively, and even made it out of their group. I was in France for it and saw all 3 of their group games as a lot of my Uni mates are from there, but looks a far cry these days. Players for Stevenage, Bolton and Blackpool in their XI today. Just Bradley, Hume and Devenny in the XI who play in the Premier League and the latter 2 have only had 8 starts between them. They've made a decent start and have had 2 good chances in the first 4 mins.

Good luck to her, but ACLs can be very tough to recover from, especially if you've had multiple. Probably not relevant with it being a totally different environment, but there's been 2 female wrestlers within WWE who have had multiple ACLs and it's basically killed their careers.

Jorja Fox. Had 2 ACL injuries since May 2023.

You'd probably assume so. May as well stayed at Chelsea if she was wasn't going to get first team experience at that age. Would be a bit harsh on Moan, she'll be on a bigger wage now, but signing from Sunderland where she was in the team of the season in 23/24, possibly had WSL ambitions, took a fair bit stick on social media for the transfer, then a year later likely on the bench and obviously not a position where you would bring someone on after 65-70 mins if chasing a goal, or protecting a lead. I'm not sure what the general consensus is and she may not have been as good as hoped, but I didn't think that would have been a position needing upgrading this summer?

I assume this will be related to the above?

It is shocking how they charge PPV for an already subscription service. £2.50 probably won't break the bank, but it's more the principle. At least now BBC1/2 or local equivalent show the Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland matches as it wasn't that long ago when Scots would have to subscribe to Premier Sports to watch their nation play, which was also a disgrace. I do miss the days of Sky Sports having the vast majority of these 'external' international matches, but I'll just be sticking to the home nations for this period. Luxembourg vs Northern Ireland should at least be competitive, if not spectacular. Luxembourg have improved and haven't been a San Marino type for a while, and are only 3/1 to win. I'll definitely be watching Northern Ireland vs Germany on Sunday night.

Not going to pretend to know all about Huddersfield and if someone has is just coming back from injury, being eased in but would normally be a starter, had a 3 match suspension etc. but from the 6 league games, this is the amount of league games the XI has played from 6 available: 0+1 2+4 2+0 3+0 1+5 5+0 5+1 0+2 3+2 1+3 0+0 5 players who have started all 6 league matches aren't in the XI and probably only 3 who you would consider a regular. The odds were around 10/1, so always massive outsiders and clearly not supposed to be a competitive match, but, on the other hand, some of these are 20+. There was hopes for Heffernan, MacArthur, people talk about Alfie Harrison, Park obviously very new to a new lifestyle and culture, but seems talented, mixed thoughts on here, but some were saying Neave looks promising. Likewise Pivas seemed like a decent coup when signed. That's 6 out of 10 players and you'd hope, individually, that some of those could get a loan to League One tomorrow and be a decent enough player, especially when you see lots of 18 (or 15, 16, 17) year olds getting good minutes in the Premier League. I guess the lesser known Thompsons, Baileys, Harper and Charlton could be a long way off, and thus making it a lot tougher, but as a collective, they do seem a long way off.

Pulled one back just before half time, 2-1. Not sure if it will go down as Bailey or Neave. Edit, 3-1 about 30 seconds later

The likes of Cathal Heffernan and Charlie McArthur, both turned 20 4 or 5 months ago, so not exactly crazy young, and you could easily be playing at a decent level at that age, both been here at least 2 years, 3 in McArthurs case. I'm sure they were relatively highly rated when they came in, and it's obviously 11 on a team and not just 4 or 5 'better players', and not writing them off, but have those not really pushed on as hoped, or were they always likely to end up at a Drogheda or Montrose after a few years at the club and more here to fill out a name on a team sheet?

Just seems a complete waste of time. Newcastle were like 10-11/1 to win, massive outsiders, there's probably 2-3,000 in attendance so even the team 'names' are not bringing in the crowds (plus Huddersfield have beaten our first team twice not too long ago, albeit in a different regime).

What actually is the main purpose / advantage of these U21 playing in these competitions? Is it mainly 'experience' for the younger players?

1-0 and now a pen for Huddersfield. 2-0 after 13 mins.

I'll be playing Football Manager but I will usually have a match on in the background.

Yeah, you can get 10s and 11s now.

I saw they were 8/1 at a few places earlier, maybe longer after that team. Will probably still watch as there's not really any alternative.

I think we are in a stronger position now than we were a couple of months ago, despite losing one of the best strikers in the league. We can just about field 2 teams of sufficient quality now, bar a maybe couple of positions, and not have an obvious drop off. We probably will find a place for Burn in most XIs (and deservedly so), and massive doubts with Botmans fitness, but plenty of decent players in that 2nd team, and most of them will start their fair share of league matches. -----------Pope-------------- Liv---Scharr---Botman---Hall ---Bruno--Tonali---Joelinton- Elanga----Wolt----Gordon--- ---------Ramsdale----------- Trips---Thiaw----Burn---Kraft --Miley---Willock------Ramsey- Murphy----Wissa------Barnes Lascelles, Osula, goalkeepers and one of two younger players to pad out the squad when required. Probably 7 overall.

I was reading the first few replies thinking that was this year and thinking WTF, ha. I'd say 6.5/10 as it stands.