2025 UEFA European Under-17 Championship/FIFA Under-17 World Cup

Solanke hooked. He's not been at the races at all defensively in this tournament unfortunately

Fair dues to the lads. They had a good run and should walk away with their heads held high

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Originally Posted by Kingdom

Honestly, bar a few really smart touches to get himself out of tight positions, I don't think he's had anything that could be considered a good tournament - especially given his profile, while fully accepting that he's been suffering with injury in the run up to the tournamnt.

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Id agree completely. Max was far more effective. You'd be hard pressed to pick Victor out as the €2m signing.

Think the system killed us a bit there, playing with wingbacks when none of the options available really suit it, and not adjusting when it was clear Solanke and Victor were struggling. Solanke was quite disappointing as well. At least defensively.

All in all probably just a bridge too far but they've done brilliantly.

Good effort all considered. Demanding schedule and no doubt conditions. Think a few of them can join Noonan in the U21s.

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Originally Posted by ontheotherhand

Id agree completely. Max was far more effective. You'd be hard pressed to pick Victor out as the €2m signing.
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Solanke was quite disappointing as well. At least defensively.

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Yeah, Solanke has struggled instinctively and positionally on the back foot. Gave the attacker his inside for the second, for example, which is a defender no-no.

I think you can see there is a footballer in Victor and that's why you can expect more. Didn't really happen for him today but he was quite good against Paraguay the longer that game went on and was flying at the end.

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Originally Posted by rebelmusic

Fair dues to the lads. They had a good run and should walk away with their heads held high

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100%. They've brought great joy to all of us who've watched them from way back when and one could argue they kickstarted the fantastic football fortnight with the trouncing of Panama.
Sometimes you've got to give the other crowd their dues - the Swiss (grrrrrrrrr) were superb and could easily go on and win it.

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Originally Posted by ifk101

Good effort all considered. Demanding schedule and no doubt conditions. Think a few of them can join Noonan in the U21s.



Yeah, Solanke has struggled instinctively and positionally on the back foot. Gave the attacker his inside for the second, for example, which is a defender no-no.

I think you can see there is a footballer in Victor and that's why you can expect more. Didn't really happen for him today but he was quite good against Paraguay the longer that game went on and was flying at the end.

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He's a talented kid but I don't think playing him at right wing back is helping. Whenever Bradley speaks about him he talks about his dribbling and desire to run at players. Don't think we saw much of that. He was trying to stay disciplined defensively I suppose and he does look like he's not fully fit. Few times today where he had space to run and didn't.

From what I saw, the brightest prospects were Noonan, Noonan, Finneran, Leonard, Max and Umeh.

I think we need to remember that Ozhianvuna and Spaight(both born January 2009) and Mooney(November 2009) will be eligible for next year's tournament

I did hear that the English are sniffing around Finneran so hopefully this experience has removed any doubt around that. He has a bright future

Watching Braveheart again last night is having the usual effect 😂