Millwall U21 - Ipswich U21 (2-1)
Millwall going top of the PDL at The Den thanks to a Sha'mar Lawson double.
Millwall going top of the Professionnal Development League (PDL), the second tier of the U21 League. Due to their Category 2 status, they wouldn’t be able to claim promotion to the that is the Premier League Two and its 26-team seed.
This time finding my way (in the daylight) to the nearby South Bermondsey (as opposed to the Surrey Quays with 3% battery like the last time).
Quality game between 1st-to-be and 5th
Millwall with quality to retain the ball in attack to bring players into play but lacking box presence (made up by late runners)
Millwall dominant in midfield as a result of winning the ball back and second balls
Ipswich with sharp combinations to play through, creating an overload.
Buabo brought people into play, but came off at HT, and Ipswich unable to maintain pressure and build attacks in the attacking half.
MILLWALL U21s
Connal Trueman / 1
George Walker / 2
Defensive duel area including a lot of recoveries / duels inside the field almost as a second 6; screening the CBs
Good recovery pace
Zane Myers / 3
Good workrate, good defensive footwork and recoveries when staying tight
Hard to recover when leaving too much space, allowing crosses in
Disappointing pass post recovery
Finley Cotton / 4
Growing into the game in second half
Decent job overall of winning headers, distributing the ball and support behind the ball on the right wing
Kyle Smith / 5
Subbed off at half time
Some well timed anticipations ahead of him, and taking a step back to match the runs in behind
Oliver Evans / 6
Nana Boateng / 7
Quality performance with consistency of actions, and execution.
Simple but effective, going outside (more than @ Bristol where he cut inside with less impact) with quality crosses.
Excellent reactions on turnovers to swarm
Able to get hold of a variety of passes
Winning headers
Sha’mar Lawson / 8
Best player on the pitch
Filling the tank in order to have more actions, but an all-round performance
Showing for the ball, intent to play forwards
Winning headers and every second ball in his area
Reliable to tackle and cover wide areas in transition
Runs in behind like a second striker, suppoting runs to wingers and some overlaps dribbling with the ball
Two well timed late runs to score a brace
Ability to dribble out of pressure and tackles to great effect
Aidomo Emakhu / 9
Struggling to exist against a good central defender
Early flashes of runs, channels and layoffs in the first 15’
Too often caught offside
Abdul Abdulmalik / 10
Below average performance to his standards on the ball
Good performance off the ball to close down and organise when jumping from 10 or screening DMs
Available to receive but too many turnovers and unforced technical mistakes
Some carries, combinations
Shot heavy (3 in first half) but shot selection is the other side of the coin.
Ra’ees Bangura-Williams / 11
Good performance and key outlet to retain the ball, much better than at Bristol
A good stride when driving with the the ball, with shifts and drags
Able to hold off defenders, roll defenders and keep the ball very far from defenders
Henry Hearn / 12
Too reactive as a relief outlet
Wasteful on the break - turnover led to the 2-1* goal in injury time
Worked the back line on long balls
Arezki Hamouchene / 14
Ability to retain in middle third
Slightly chaotic energy with choices after staying on the ball
Some fouls in wide areas, but good energy and spirit to close down (not slowing down properly so easily beaten even if contributing to distrupting passing accuracy)
Adedapo Olugbodi / 15
No nonsense cameo at LB, dealing first time
Good footwork in the box and well timed interventions
Some quality passes in tight areas out wide
IPSWICH TOWN U21s
Daniel Babb / 2
Tight marking, good stride when overlapping
Technique and good touch
Some nice blind passes
Harry Barbrook / 3
Nice turns under pressure, agile on the ball
Nice masked passes and good touch
Jacob Mazionis / 4
Good central defender, towering but relatively agile in front of him
Strong to win headers, good anticipation
Good set posture before duels
One header on a late corner near the post, that could’ve been an equalizer
Dan O’Connor / 5
Left footed, won aerial duels
Steven Turner / 6
Usuallty the second link of Ipswich’s combinations, receiving from Humphreys and playing nice masked diagonal passes to Ayinde (11) or Roberts (10)
Left footed
Cameron Humphreys / 7
A nice touch to clip the ball and find angles forward, but not connecting with a majority of underhit passes
Way too deep to influence the game
A grasp on the game as often receiving deep, but couldn’t transform that into “control” for his team as he would have been able to do doing the same things 15 yards higher up the pitch
Jesse Nwabueze / 8
Outlet to retain the ball wide right, into feet or as 1v1 winger
Relative success 1v1 once he could gather space, some decent far post crosses
Gerrard Buabo / 9
Quality layoffs first time across the front line (centre and wide left) with direct pressure from behind
Subbed at HT seemingly with a groin issue.
Matty Roberts / 10
Less impactful as 10 in the “square” in central areas
Taken off despite not seeming to be injured, after the referee handed him what looked like his shinpad albeit he looked to wear two.
Leon Ayinde / 11
Nominally on the left, but spent the majority of his time inside as one of the two 10s
Some runs as a second forward early
Good separation movement between the lines to receive and turn
Good volume of actions, but not particularly refined, with a nice touch not always complemented with the right choices.
There’s quality because the passes are well zipped, but didn’t have a lot of success by staying on the ball
Matt Ward / 15
Came on wide right, made a couple of good diagonal runs including one who sent him through albeit couldn’t get a shot off it.
