Young Blues feature for England U21s; Hornby scores for Scotland

Sunday, 27 May, 2018 13comments  |  Jump to most recent

Three of Everton's younger players featured for England U21s' group stage opener of the Toulon Tournament, a 2-1 win over China yesterday.

Tom Davies, Jonjoe Kenny and Kieran Dowell all played in the game which was won in injury time by a Tammy Abraham goal.

Dowell, who hopes to return to Everton following a season-long loan at Nottingham Forest in order to challenge for the a place in the Blues' first team, thought he had scored at one stage but the goal was chalked off for offside.

Middlesbrough's Dael Fry had scored England's first goal which cancelled out Yan Dinghao's first-half opener.

Meanwhile, Fraser Hornby scored his first goal at U21 for Scotland as they began with a 1-1 draw with Togo

 

Reader Comments (13)

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Ajay Gopal
1 Posted 27/05/2018 at 17:04:30
Dowell put the ball in the net twice, but both were ruled offside. Apparently, Davies also had a bright game and had a couple of shots on goal, one of them just flashing wide.
John O'Brien
2 Posted 27/05/2018 at 17:19:03
I watched this game. It was on one of the free Sky Sports channels.

Tom was bright early on but he wasn't really involved that much and faded out of the game for large parts.

Jonjoe was basically Jonjoe, he always seems to have a really good consistency to his game and he moved to centre-back for a bit towards the end.

The most impressive of the Everton lads and the best man on the pitch for me was Kieran. He was bright, creative, he was going beyond the strikers Delle Ali like and had 2 goals chalked off for offside, the first one was a really close call. He was far and away England's most creative player.

There was a beautiful ball he played 2nd half which completely split the defence to put Adam Armstrong through one on one which was spurned. It's this sort of creative No 10 that we're lacking even with Siggy in the team.

And also he set up the winning goal with an incisive run and pass to put Cook in who then squared it for Abraham to tap in. This won't go down as an assist but sometimes it's the assist for the assist which is the key to the goal. I know I sound like Roberto saying that but sometimes it's true.

The new manager really needs to put trust and faith in this lad and look to develop him as I really do think he can be a star.

Sam Hoare
3 Posted 27/05/2018 at 17:53:48
Sounds good, John. Hopefully Kieran learnt a lot over two very different halves of the season at Forest. If he has a good pre-season with a new manager and DOF keen to progress the youth then he'll be in the mix for the first team next season.

Otherwise, another loan at a top Championship or low Premier League team would not be the end of the world. Getting first team games under their belt is the most important thing between 17-22 years.

Si Pulford
4 Posted 27/05/2018 at 20:30:29
I'd send him on loan again until Xmas then look at it again. The loan was great for him but proved his stamina may not be right for the Premier League just yet. I'd prefer a Premier League loan personally – build stamina in a more skilful, physically forgiving league than the Championship.

If he does well, recall him for the second half of the season. Win-win.

He certainly seems to have something about him and may benefit from not being thrown in too early and the expectation that can bring. See Tom Davies for a good example of a player that could be making his mistakes outside of the glare of playing in the top league for his boyhood club.

Robert Leigh
5 Posted 28/05/2018 at 12:09:12
Does anyone know why Lookman isn't in the squad?

Great to see our boys making their mark at the U21 level after the U20 success last summer.

Dave Abrahams
6 Posted 28/05/2018 at 12:28:36
Robert (#5), if Lookman is not included in the English squad, he should be. He's still young enough; maybe he is with them and will play later in the tournament?
Peter Gorman
7 Posted 28/05/2018 at 12:49:36
Dave, Lookman was not included in the squad and I can only assume he was not eligible.

Our Callum Connolly was a late addition.

Michael Kenrick
8 Posted 28/05/2018 at 16:59:19
I'm puzzled why Lookman would not be eligible. He was born 20 October 1997, which makes him 20 and qualified by age. It's strange because it sounds like he put in a pretty good performance for England U21s against Romania at Molineux back in March, and they note that nine of the victorious U20 World Cup winners played in that game.

He was left out of a few RB Leipzig games... I wonder if Fat Sam and his bias against the lad going to Germany rather than the Championship has somehow extracted vengeance through his buddies who may play a part in the England selection process? Nah... he wouldn't be so petty... would he?

Peter Gorman
9 Posted 28/05/2018 at 17:09:51
I just bothered to check and Lookman is younger than Jonjoe Kenny, thus happily eligible.

Other than Tammy Abraham, the selected forwards can't boast of the same experience Lookman has.

Odd. No Calvert-Lewin either. If it wasn't for the absence of our dear neighbour's Solanke also, I'd be inclined to cry 'conspiracy'. Good luck to them anyhow.

Steve Ferns
10 Posted 28/05/2018 at 20:00:20
Calvert-Lewin is injured.
Jon Withey
11 Posted 28/05/2018 at 20:23:24
I said some years ago to a friend that Dowell was the best in our youth setup... I'm still waiting for him!

I'm no talent scout but he just seems to have that vision to do things others don't think of, much brighter than Barkley but less physical presence. I hope he makes it at Everton, or makes a decent enough career somewhere else, because he's a joy to watch at times.

Trevor Lynes
12 Posted 28/05/2018 at 22:06:37
Most of the best playmakers are not physical. If a youngster is good enough then physique is not so important. Silva, Ozil, Modrich, Hazard and others are not physical players but they are really influential.If Dowell is as good as some fans think then he should be in the starting side in place of Rooney whilst Sigurdsson is injured. Loaning him out again is ridiculous and the championship is far more physical than the Premier.
Mike Gaynes
13 Posted 29/05/2018 at 00:15:25
John #2, thanks for the rundown, much appreciated.

To all, regarding Lookman, he took a hell of a thump in Leipzig's final game against Hertha Berlin and came off early in the second half. Might be the reason he missed this game.


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