Watford Youth 0-4 Chelsea Youth

James · February 18, 2010

Another excellent youth cup run goes on after an excellent performance from our young charges once again. Similarities are there between this team and the team that made it to the final 2 years ago with the likes of Mellis, Stoch, Kakuta, Woods, Tejera and Van Aanholt. However i think this team is more complete, the team works so well as a unit now and there are no weak spots at all for teams to exploit. Having Jeffrey Bruma with all his experience at the back is such a big deal, with Danny Pappoe who has looked so good all season alongside side him and the excellent Deen-Conteh and Billy Clifford as the full backs the defence is as solid as you would like to see. The balance through the team is just about perfect and once they click it is very hard to stop them and break them down.The key feature of this seasons Youth Cup run is the dominance that the Chelsea boys are having during the games. The game in the last round against Pompey may have only been 1 – 0 but the dominance was still there and the game was completely in our hands.

Wednesday night was no different. The pitch may not have been as bad as what the reserves had to contend with on Monday night but it still wasn’t in great condition, i am sure the training pitches at Cobham are far better than that. The game started very scrappy indeed, both teams giving away possesion far too easily and neither really getting a grip on things at all for at least 10 minutes of the game. Then things started to click for Chelsea and things got going, Gokhan Tore changed his boots for different studs and all of a sudden came to life and i am sure the Watford right back is still having nightmares over Tore.On 25 minutes things really started to heat up and Chelsea had the ball in the net, Lalkovic running on to a great ball from Connor Clifford looped the ball over the keeper to find Mitrovic running through just ahead of the defenders, the ball bounced up hit Mitrovic and he knocked it in the back of the net only for the Linesman and ref to rule it out for handball which was incredibly harsh.

Thankfully though we wasnt left to rue that and 5 minutes later we got our goal, Jeffrey Bruma burst through from the back to play it to mitrovic who tried to turn with the ball which bounced through to Kaby Djalo who very cooly set himself and blasted it into the roof of the net. Just minutes after we should have made it 2 when Bruma again raced forward and set McEachran through on goal who should have scored but was trying to be too clever and in the process of flicking it over the keeper also flicked it over the bar.From that point on Chelsea’s dominance was just too much, and through the whole game Sam Walker in the Chelsea goal may as well have been a spectator.

The chances were starting to come thick and fast as we pushed for that all important second goal to ease the pressure on ourselves. Thankfully the fates decided to even things out after the disallowed goal and just before half time we was awarded what looked like quite a soft penalty when Mitrovic went down in the box. He put it away nicely to continue his good scoring form for the youth team this season. As the second half began things started as they had finished in the first half and there was no sign of a Watford revival, Chelsea continued to make the chances. However it wasn’t until the hour mark that we finally got the third goal that our play had deserved. Billy clifford swinging in a great ball into the box found the run of Jeffrey Bruma who was not tracked by the Watford defences, Bruma still had a lot to do but his first touch was just perfect which set him to easily slot home with all the confidence of a seasoned striker. Fully deserved for Bruma who clearly looked head and shoulders above everyone and was contributing plenty to the Chelsea attacks of the evening.

After the third things got more comfortable and Watford got a little frustrated with the way that Chelsea had blown them away so easily and starting flying into tackles a bit and the game became a little scrappy for a while.However the young boys soon got contol of things again and found the fourth goal with Tore popping up on the right hand side looking for for the right ball to play in teasing the defenders, eventually he saw what he was looking for, found the space and whipped a perfect ball to the back post to find Josh McEachran in space who this time kept his head and struck a neat volley into the back of the net for a very much deserved 4 – 0 win. Blackburn or Everton await for us in the 2 legged semi final and i am sure neither of them will be looking forward to the prospect of facing this Chelsea team who are looking very good value to go all the way.

Player Reviews:

Sam Walker – As i said in the match report a virtual spectator throughout the game with no real saves to make at all really. I like the look of Sam Walker, he is a big lad which is always helpful for a keeper but his shot stopping is excellent. If he can keep progressing i think he will go far. 6

Billy Clifford - Billy has really taken well to the right back spot having previously been a midfielder. He has looked at both youth and reserve level a real talent. He can obviously get forward very well and he contributed plenty to the attack and even managed to get himself a couple of shots on goal from distance. Defensively he wasn’t troubled very much and coped with everything that was thrown at him. It looks like right back may be where he settles down to and i would not have a problem with that. 7

Aziz Deen-Conteh – With the unexplained absense of Billy Knott Aziz was automatic choice for the left back spot that is his usual place after a couple of outstanding performances at centre back. His performances in the youth cup have been of the highest level and he continued to do that in this game although i think that this game was the lesser of all the games so far, which says more about how good he was in the other games than how poor he was in this one because he wasn’t poor. He doesn’t get beat very often and he is very quick to race down the left flank to assist in the attack, links up well with Gokhan Tore which is good to see and they worked the left hand side very well. 7

Danny Pappoe – Overshadowed by the outstanding Bruma Danny still was solid as a rock. All season he has been flawless and playing so young could follow in a similar vein to Bruma if he can keep playing at this level. The whole back line kept Watford at bay easily and Pappoe had plenty to do with that, covering behind Bruma as he went to get infront of the defence and winning any long balls that come through. Will be hard for any team to run Pappoe and Bruma ragged which is a great strength for us for the rest of the cup. 7

Jeffrey Bruma – Again just looked so good for this level it is almost cruel to play him in these cup games. Took his goal so well, when you see the highlights you will know what i mean. Set up so many good attacking plays as well which was a big bonus to his overal contribution. But defensively he was awesome, getting infront of the attackers so many times no nick the ball his reading of the game is so mature. He made it look easy to keep Watford at bay and his professionalism to play at that level when he is also sitting on the first team bench should be applauded. 9

Connor Clifford – For Connor this was something of a more quiet game for him, definately sitting a lot deeper in this game and as the Watford attack was so poor maybe that was the reason, later in the game him and Kaby swapped and he became a lot more involved. Still you know what you are getting from Clifford and that is 100% commitment, starting to get picked up on the radar of more Chelsea fans and the first team also which is fully deserved. Like to see Connor more box to box myself but learning the defensive side of his game is very important at this stage and he does it so well too. 7

Aliu ‘Kaby’ Djalo - Elevated to academy captain in the absense of Tom Hayden who as moved on away from football. Kaby is really comming into his own now, he is very hard to shrug off the ball so physically he has come a long way but for me the most impressive thing i am seeing from Kaby is that he is still able to produce moments of outstanding skill but he never does it when it could lead him to trouble and it is never unnecessary. He always seems to be making the right choices. He is also playing in more withdrawn role that he may have done previously which he is also taking to well. His goal he took very well and calmly, an overall excellent contribution to the game i thought. 8

Josh McEachran – Josh in this Youth Cup run has in some games been completely anonymous and in the last game completely dominant. This game was somewhere in between. He was well involved in plenty of attacking moves and wasn’t as guilty of overplaying things and losing the ball when there wasn’t a need to. Missed a very good chance to put us 2 up and he really should have done better with that but when he did score he took that one very well indeed. I like that i am seeing some improvement from Josh, he needs to bulk up a little but as he is only 16 still that will come, once he can be stronger on the ball he will become a much better player. 7

Milan Lalkovic - It has been spoken about before that Tore and Lalkovic can tend to be a bit greedy on the ball. For me Tore has left that behind and is a big team player, Lalkovic on the other hand still needs to work on that. At times he needs to play the ball earlier and not hold onto it too long or not take on a shot or even get in a better cross. If he can do that better he will be an excellent player, at the moment he is beating his man really well and giving the full back a lot of problems but then the final choice isn’t right. Really need to see Lalkovic become more of a team player and work more with the rest of the team. 6

Gokhan Tore – Really comming into his own this season and proving to be a real talent. His physical stature and speed and ball skills gives him all the attributes to be the perfect winger. He started the game a little sloppy but once he had the right boots on he really got going. He is able to ghost past defenders and for me the best thing about him is he is able to hold onto the ball and make space to hit the perfect cross or the right pass rather than hit aimless balls into the box once at the sidelines. Have been really impressed with Gokhan in this cup run and i want to see him kick on in the reserves now. 8

Marko Mitrovic - On fine goalscoring form this season he continued with that again in this game. Wasn’t as guilty of squandering as many chances this time around. It is interesting though to see how much that the team uses his hold up play, every single goal kick we have Mitrovic moves to the right hand side of the pitch and Walker hits it to him for him to either knock of for someone or to bring down and move with. His hold up play is very much comming along and he is still hitting the goals for the youth team, we are really looking to develop a player along the lines of Drogba here and another one who i want to see kick on with the reserves now after a couple of very good seasons with the youth. 8