Everton Under 21s launched a new campaign under new management with a real firecracker of a fixture at Goodison Park last Friday. The visitors? Liverpool. It’s not the first time a local derby has opened a campaign but, as I have witnessed before, these games are as competitively fought as any senior clash, with Braiden Graham getting sent off and the duel ending 1-1.
It marked the first competitive fixture under the leadership of Dave Hughes (lead photo) with him having replaced Paul Tait as last
season ended. The fixtures for the Premier League 2 season are as below:
As well as the League fixtures we now also now know some of the Cup games the team will be involved in and there’s some tasty looking away fixtures against the senior teams of National League sides coming up. These games are an excellent test for the youngsters’ physicality and mental fortitude.
Their opponents (see below) will be Hartlepool United, Boreham Wood, Solihull Moors and Tamworth and, judging by the few friendlies that the U21s have played so far, it really might be “men against boys”.
There has not been very much press coverage about the warm up fixtures that the U21s have played but what we do know is that there have been a few trialists and some young players that had not featured at U21 level before involved.
This might partly be due to the fact that the likes of Braiden Graham, Harvey Foster and, to a lesser degree, George Finney, Malik Olayiwola, Will Tamen, Joel Catesby and goalkeepers George Pickford and Douglass Lukjanciks have had valuable training and game experience with David Moyes’ first team.
The “new” younger names that barely featured above Under 18 level last season have included Harry Brookes and Amari Moses both of whom scored goals in the recent impressive win against Bolton Wanderers in a “secret friendly”. The goals are below and Brookes’ thunderous shot and Catesby’s composed finish are the pick:
In addition to the full time players in that video footage, there was another trialist in the shape of Laurie Shala in goal (pictured below). He’s a Kosovo Under 21 international who most recently played for Wycombe but had been in the academies of both West Ham United and Crystal Palace a few years ago.
I will do a more detailed squad assessment as more detail is released by the club. It does seem certain however that there will be several loan departures. Given the fact that the Blues recently signed goalkeeper Zach Lee for the U21s and they have been trialling Shala, I would think it’s a certainty that George Pickford and Douglass Lukjanciks will be amongst the loan departures before September.
Another potential arrival, if the rumour mill is correct, is Ethan Wheatley of Manchester United who played under current Blues’ coach Dave Hughes at Old Trafford. No official word on that one yet.
Another familiar (and always welcome) face training with the U21s this week was a certain Tom Davies following his release by Sheffield United. There have been crazier things happen than having an ex player (like Davies) play alongside the kids to give them on-field coaching. Nothing to back that up but it could happen and did happen a few years ago with Jose Baxter returning to the Toffees. A few clubs like Brighton (with Solly March) have exclusively used senior pros with the kids to aid their progress on-field. I guess for everyone that sees sense in that, others will say it’s blocking a path but it’s a possibility. Whatever, it was nice to see a big Evertonian back in blue (below):
There has been much talk of the addition of young midfielder Arthur Barratt from Chelsea, but he’ll start out with the Under-18s for now.
