U23s trounced by Bayern

Wednesday, 12 December, 2018 12comments | Jump to most recent

Everton Under-23s fell to a substantial defeat to Bayern Munich at Goodison Park on Wednesday.

The young Blues dominated for large spells and created a host of opportunities, but a combination of inspired goalkeeping and clinical finishing saw the Germans run out 4-1 winners in the Premier League International Cup clash.

The result leaves the Toffees second in Group D and relying on other results in order to qualify for the quarter-finals.

An unfortunate Tyias Browning own goal gave the visitors the lead midway through the first half. Everton put Bayern under extreme pressure as they searched for a leveller and Nathan Broadhead eventually got the goal their efforts deserved 11 minutes from time.

Bayern regained their lead almost instantly and picked up two more gals for a very one-sided scoreline by the end.

Everton U23s: Virginia, John, Charsley, Markelo, Browning, Feeney, Bowler (68' Gordon), Adeniran (70' Iversen), Evans, Simms, Broadhead.
Subs not Used: Hewelt, Ouzounidis, Lavery, Mampala, Sambou.

Reader Comments (12)

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Dave Abrahams
1 Posted 12/12/2018 at 21:13:45

We lost 4-1, didn't deserve to lose by such a margin, according to reports on another thread. I never went, didn't know about to be honest until it was too late to go.

We finished the game with four 17-year-olds who all apparently did okay: Kyle John, a full-back who has just earned his first professional contract; Gordon; Simms; and sorry forgot the other lad.

Dave Abrahams
2 Posted 12/12/2018 at 21:18:07

The other lad was Einar Iversen the young Noewegian midfielder who is captain of the U18s, looked good against Sunderland in the FA Youth Cup the other week.

Jon Withey
3 Posted 13/12/2018 at 08:11:21

Clinical finishing â€” is this something that you can coach?

Derek Thomas
4 Posted 13/12/2018 at 09:32:43

Sadly Jon, no, but you can buy it if your pockets are deep enough...

John Dean
6 Posted 13/12/2018 at 11:38:56

Everton did put on a good performance and looked the better side until the last 10 minutes and we certainly performed better than when we met continental U23 sides in previous years. Both Broadhead and Simms had several chances that they would normally have put away.

I thought Ellis Simms was the standout player for Everton; his hold-up play was good and he generally found his man when making a pass inside their penalty box (one driven head height cross to Evans should have been converted). Feeney is getting back to his best and seemed more comfortable taking the ball out of defence which I had not picked up on in previous games.

I was expecting a better game from Bayern but they seemed happy to defend and they still scored when they needed to. Their 15 strong barmy army of travelling fans stood and sang their club anthems for the entire game (including a version of "Ve're gonna vin the cup").

Frank Wade
7 Posted 13/12/2018 at 12:58:23

Nick #3, Browning, Adeniran and Markelo played from the start, Iversen was a late sub as was Gordon.

Official members stream was unwatchable in first half. When are we going to get that sorted?

Peter Gorman
8 Posted 13/12/2018 at 15:22:03

Cheers for the feedback, John.

Kieran Kinsella
9 Posted 13/12/2018 at 15:56:14

I never grasp the U23 selection. The team changes so much from game to game.

Sometimes we shove in first-teamers like Dowell, Kenny etc; sometimes we pick a team of perennial U23s who aren't going to make it, eg, Browning, Galloway, Garbutt when he was here. Sometimes we send out U18s, eg, Simms, Gordon.

What's the rationale? Play established players in games we want to win? Puts kids in games we don't care about?

Derek Knox
10 Posted 13/12/2018 at 18:58:56

Frank @5, I wasn't aware that the match was available to members, but retrospectively it looks like I would only have seen half of the match anyway. But, Sir, you raise a very good point, regarding Everton Tv.

Every pre-season we all get ready to watch matches abroad whether it be Africa, Asia or the States, and people in good faith, pay the required amounts in the knowledge they will be able to hopefully watch a glitch-free transmission of the games.

Nearly every time a message appears on the screen "due to technical difficulties beyond our control, we are unable to bring you coverage, but technicians are currently trying to repair the problem"

As far as I am aware this doesn't happen with other Prem Clubs, in fact a lot have a dedicated Club Channel, when are we going to get real and up to speed, and on a par with a top club which we are aspiring to be?

Dave Abrahams
11 Posted 14/12/2018 at 10:25:47

Jay (10), an interesting article, as you say, but very doubtful if it will work. As the comments after the article say, too many problems, the first one being the clubs taking the player on loan would not pay any loan fee or wages, if I am correct.

A lot to be sorted out before, and if, it were to eventually come about.

Phill Thompson
13 Posted 14/12/2018 at 10:54:26

“Trouncedâ€ is a very unfair term to use even though the score was 1-4 . For about 70 mins we were the better team against an older more experienced side. Unlucky to go 1-0 down, came back to 1-1 then lost our composure.

Integrating the four 17-year-olds wasn't easy, though they all played well, I thought. Ellis Simms did all that could have been asked of him except score in his first U23s start. Lots of things for him to work on but he's come on immensely in the past 18 months, and will benefit from working with different coaches and playing against older opponents. Kyle John did well too.

I'm not sure how we manage to be so consistently bad at streaming such games, but a big positive was having Paul Tait commentating; lots of insightful comments about our youngsters, get him back.

Kevin Prytherch
14 Posted 14/12/2018 at 13:50:40

I am often curious how we seem to play inexperienced players against continental opposition, then give a run out to fringe players such as Dowell against fellow U23 teams.

Surely winning the Premier League International Cup would have similar prestige to winning the U23 league??

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