Everton U23s eliminated from EFL Trophy on penalties

In previous rounds, Unsy has played mostly U18 players due to international commitments of the U23s. Now that we are effectively at the knockout stage, I hope he picks a team to win.

I can't make it to the game tonight due to a family commitment, hope the boys have a good go.

Too fat Dazza & your immobility was exposed in this game I'm sure. Sad.

Blackpool had a few tricky players with great pace and I thought the lads at the back did really well. Charley looks to have potential.

I thought Antonee Robinson was our best player. To my mind Henen is never going to be Premier League material. Was disappointed with Baningime and Foulds also. Tyson was very poor, despite his strong looking physique he lost every physical challenge in the game.

I know it's hard to judge on one game but on this night no-one really stood out as being a star of the future.

We played a back three in the first half and were very solid. The planned halftime replacement of Browning by Evans changed our shape and Blackpool had enough chances after that to win the tie. Could have been a much better story if we'd swopped Evans for Gibson.

I take a keen interest in the academy players. I only get to see them when they come down south, but always follow what news I can get of them.

Antonne Robinson has electric pace. A bit disappointed Banigime had a so-so game, I've heard good things about him. He's still very young so anything's possible.

Liam Walsh has always impressed me when I've seen him play. Hope his injury isn't too bad. You don't get much info from the club.

I rate both players highly. Robinson is impressively strongly built ... and quick. Charsley – skillful, tough and very dynamic.

I too was less than impressed of what I say of Dyson, reminds me a lot of myself at that age... tall, rangey, old school centre-forward with no defence. The main difference being I won 90% of the aerial duels and kicked CB's.

What was the formation? 3-5-2.

It's the first time I've seen Baningime play indifferently; he was instrumental in Everton winning the Dallas Cup this year and was terrific against Bolton in the first EFL Trophy game and Dyson scored a good goal that game.

Neither Dyson nor Duffus nor Sam Byrne seem to have the skill levels needed to make the highest level so we'll have to wait to see how Brewster shapes up.

Also Anthony Evans progress seems to have stalled a little, is Nathan Broadhead injured do you know? He was fairing well.

What's your take on the youngsters you've seen, who do you see as genuine prospects?

Judging by Under-23s previous results there is little chance of any ever playing for the Everton 1st team, because the chances are getting even harder, when there are calls for a near clear-out of the 1st team to be replaced by expensive acquisitions.

But perhaps it's just another reality check in terms of confirming the gulf between Academy and real competitive senior-level English Football — albeit at Tier 3 or 4 of the pyramid. On that note, I wonder how many first-team regulars actually played for their opponents in the three group games?

On the Blues side, rather a lot of key players were missing — Davies, Dowell, Walsh, Kenny, Joe Williams, Connolly, Calvert-Lewin, Niasse, Holgate... that's almost an entire team!

For those interested, we're tracking both the U23 and U18 sides this season with brief match notes, line-ups and appearance stats covering all games played.

The players who seem to have the best chance of succeeding are Tom Davies (and not just because his mum cuts my sister's hair), Liam Walsh (my favourite player), Jonjoe Kenny, Morgan Feeney and Matty Foulds. But I've been making wrong calls about junior players' chances for years.

The ones who did play are really rather young so again, shouldn't read much into it.

Except this; I think Browning is finished at Everton as he, through wretched luck with injuries, has missed way too much development time. He is further back now than ever and 22 years of age. Shame for the lad.

(That is a joke obviously, I hope it continues to grow into a Valderrama 'fro.)

"Because the chances are getting even harder, when there are calls for a near clear out of the 1st team to be replaced by expensive acquisitions."

I take it you support that?

That being the situation, even at Everton, so what are David Unsworth and Kevin Sheedy going to do about that? The Everton Under-23s defeats by Norwich and Blackpool show there is little or no chance of these players playing for Everton 1st team. So what is their future, and where can they fulfill it, if not with Everton?

In the past, real prospects such as Rooney, Barkley, Anichebe, Vaughan and Rodwell were knocking on the Everton 1st team at 17 years of age. Yet, only Rooney in the past 16 years has been the one class act.

I started supporting Everton in 1968 even though I live in southeast London and the nearest club to me was Millwall. So it is true what they say about being an Everton fan.

I feel a bit sorry for my son, he hasn't seen too much success apart from the 1995 FA Cup Final.

First game I took him to at Goodison Park, we lost 3-0 at home to Ipswich. Titus Bramble un all.

The top 4 of Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal are just at another level. They had a good previous transfer window, when Everton did not.

Why are you putting words in my mouth! I'm not satisfied with top 10. I want top 4 (in fact, if you're only satisfied with top 4, Steavey, and not wanting top spot).

All I said was I hope some of the young lads come through – Davies, Holgate etc. What's wrong with that?

But to write off these kids already? Way too hasty. Of the team that played; Foulds, Baningime, Bainbridge and Evans are 18! Too early to judge them considering the learning curve they are undergoing.

At Everton the situation is different. Koeman came to Everton with ambitions, but not with a team that can fulfill them. Koeman like Conte brought new players in, but still there is no great improvement, yet, fans are clamouring for academy players. That is not a foreward step if Everton want to be a top 4 team, but a team that continually finishes in 10th or 11th.

Again, you're drawing the wrong conclusion. To hope ("hope" was the word used) that a few of the young lads come through is not to say we don't need to sign other players. You really are obtuse at times.

What some of us are saying is that some of the young players at Everton look very promising and a couple could possibly go all the way.

You seem to be writing them off; as a matter of interest, Steavey, how many times have you seen these young lads?

If not, the academy is a waste of time and resources. Because they are the questions that should be asked by any manager who wants to keep his job, and his team playing well without having to spend a fortune recruiting them.

The academy managers can help a lot the 1st team manager, by identifying top young players who can walk into the 1st team. Because it does appear the Under-18s and Under-23s are just making the numbers up to represent Everton at junior and middle levels. That's all.

The Premier League has become an international league being sold all over the world and because of that the worldwide audience has come to expect a large contingent of players from all over.

Years ago, young players such as Holgate and Davies could well have been playing as regular starters for Everton by now but many young players with talent are being sent out on loan whilst the big contract players get extended runs even if sometimes they hit a poor streak of form.

Remember Rooney bursting on the scene under Moyes but he still only got the occasional games after that which I think eventually led to the rift and subsequent departure.

The good news in my opinion is that there are namely, Walsh, Dowell, Kenny and Davies. Together with the recently departed Ledson, this lot have demonstrated a quite remarkable level of determination and calmness under pressure in the games I've observed them in for England youth and our own Reserves. In short, they are cut from the right cloth which is more than can be said about the shower in the first team. They have more natural drive and self-assertiveness than Barkley for one.

It would be lovely to buy some energetic, skillful, hatchet-faced bastards to shoot our club up the table but I'd be just as happy right now to see the rosy-cheeked, little bastards we have of our own getting their chances ahead of the guaranteed 6/10 players like Cleverley.

Davies has already shown he doesn't look out of place and I think the others would do similarly well if surrounded by these so called senior pros. At the risk of being exposed on occasion, the long-term benefits would be promising, local (and hopefully loyal) young players who give as much of a toss for the club as most fans.

There appears not to be a plan for recruiting players into the Everton academy. I mean, what is the basis for joining? Are they recruited to make teams up, as an Everton obligation to provide teams?

On a personal level, I would not allow any player to join the academy unless they are good enough to eventually play for the 1st team, as all great players from the past made their mark at a very young age.

It is not just having ability, it is more of a mental attitude. Rooney knew he was good enough at 15 years of age to play for Everton 1st team. But where is that mental attitude in the academy now, because I have not noticed any?

I totally agree that ability is not enough, take the well-worn example of George Green who had all the talent in the world and therefore fit your recruiting criterion of being good enough to eventually play for the first team. Except he proved not to be.

The issue you have with academy players is that they develop at all kind of rates. To hark back to Davies again, in my opinion he is currently unrecognisable from the raw boy I saw about a year and a half ago, he really has come so far in a short space of time.

You ask where is the mental attitude in the academy today, you'd be amazed; I believe Unsy in particular is instilling it into the kids in spades. The problem remains your earlier point about the risk-averse nature of top-flight football. Too few will be blooded and a few more will drop down to climb back up again (like Forshaw at Boro). The rest will drop out altogether, but it won't be for want of talent or application.

Players from the academy who are ready would make it known to the manager. So in the coming months I will watch in interest who can start for the 1st team and remain there. Because Everton's playing strength at the moment is not that good.

Hit a lot of goals last season, gone missing of late, I'd imagine it's through injury, but I'd like to see him break through soon.

The only difference between us and them is that only "lesser" clubs pay up, and pay for, such as Cleverley, Deulofeu and Gibson. More fool us.

No team has eleven Maradonnas or Peles or all players of equal ability. Indeed, did Galloway, Browning or Holgate look totally out of place when presented with a run of games?