[SHEP_HTAFC]

Excellent point turkey, I was absolutely fuming over all the back passes to Pickford in the Croatia match.
It's time a few of these players took responsibility and try keep possession, rather than passing back.
Klopp seemed to be another who was trying to buy rather than use his reserves/academy. He kept playing Karius/Mignolet who are both crap, but reports suggest he may now give Danny Ward a chance.
Hope so....that boy will always be a hero in my eyes.

[Devongone]

I'd like to know who these top young keepers are. I agree Danny Ward has earned a proper first-team chance at Liverpool and the supposedly better keepers have done nothing to prove they really are better.

Blackman on loan at Sheff Utd looked a keeper of potential to me, but who are the others?

Chesterfield fielded an U-19, U-20 international in Ramsdale who did very well at times, but also made some horrendous errors that cost points for a team that didn't have any to spare ........

Managers with a nine-month life-span are unsurprisingly conservative in their selections. Youngsters tend to be behind an established first 18 or so, cheap-ish foreign imports and loanees from bigger clubs. Loftus-Cheek should be a Chelsea first teamer as should Abrahams. Jadon Sancho left Man City for Germany for precisely this reason and he has been getting game-time. Loaned out abroad Ademola Lookman has been the player he was becoming at Charlton and precisely the kind of player Everton urgently need. And it isn't just at the very top teams youngsters find their opportunities curtailed. A couple of years ago Jonathan Leko at West Brom was going to be a big thing, yet he was so far from a first-team nailed to the bottom all last season he was sent out on loan wasn't he? It just isn't a coincidence that Dele Alli came through at Milton Keynes, was playing competively in Division One at 17 and is the best of our bunch!

People point to the loans Jordan Pickford had - Alfreton etc - before coming through, as though his experience is proof that the "system" works. Nobody looks at the completely cack goalies Sunderland fielded in a persistently cack team that kept Jordan away from even competing for a place on the bench for literally years. Am I supposed to believe these teflon-coated stoppers were better than him, or should I stick with my own conclusion that some clubs don't know what the fkuc they are doin' ESPECIALLY as regards goalkeepers? For sure rule changes that have turned keepers from stoppers and catchers into place-kickers and passers haven't helped the development of the primary skill-set, but being old I really can remember days when we didn't search for barrels to scrape when we needed to find three goalies for a tournament, there were several pressing their claims in the old First Division and a couple at least in the Second ..... I think Jordan Pickford came through by seizing a chance he was given completely by accident and if the wind had changed at the wrong moment he'd be looking forward to a chance in the National League with Chesterfield.

IMO that the first step is young goalies and outfield players need competitive game-time at the level at which they wish to have a career and until money stops dictating that all managers remain so risk-averse, Gareth Southgate will find his good intentions somewhat thwarted.

And as for Kane's injury ..... pros play all the time thorough niggles and "minor" injuries. Anybody remember a bloke called Suarez virtually hobbling onto the pitch to knock us out? If Kane had have scored no one would have mentioned it, but if Kane had've scored and made himself unfit for the final ..... what then? Gareth Southgate had to go with a decision rather than indulge in sophistry! My biggest disappointment was that he didn't try to develop a system that would have put Sterling, Kane and Rashford on the field together. Injured or fit I thought the problem was we were expecting too much of Kane, both to disrupt the opposition and score the goals.

[0762]

Rashford definitely looked 'fresh' and I think he would've added a 'physical presence' to England's forward line plus he would've settled into the game early and would've posed a serious goal threat. In the case of Kane's big scoring chance (the only one btw!) I thought he should've kicked his shot early to the keeper's right, a case of 'fast feet' and being aware as a predatory pen box striker. IMO he'd have scored if he hit that early shot. Still, it wasn't to be, all part of footie history.

[turkeydinner]

Angus Gunn just moved to Southampton
Sam Johnstone just moved to WBA
Daniel Bentley at Brentford
Dean Henderson on loan from Man Utd to Sheff Utd

Karl Darlow gone down the pecking order at Newcastle looked a good prospect

positive things about Bailey Peacock Farrell at Leeds United but he`s NI

Definitely Danny Ward deserves a chance at Liverpool

[Devongone]

Sam Johnstone got some raves I agree, I hope he lives up to them for West Brom. I used to like Daniel Bentley a lot at Southend but he's been unable to escape this thing of having two ways of playing. He's won matches almost single-handed for Brentford, but he has made some dreadful howlers. Most of the time at Southend he was the best keeper in the lower divisions ...... but even there he had a worrying mistake in him.

I agree Angus Gunn is a possibility but does the move to Southampton signal first team chances or vital seasons in his development standing or sitting in a queue?

Keepers coming from Man Utd worry me because in De Gea they have a first choice who they could sell for big money if they were willing to put their faith in a youngster. They clearly don't rate their youngsters enough, because they follow a similar path. Youth internationals caps, out on loan/s, transfer out.

BUT there are Premier League opportunities which should be available to an up and coming young keeper - Watford, Bournemouth (bet Ramsdale's loan and his youth caps aren't enough to get him near the fist team), ARSENAL !!!! (Cech used to be a big favourite of mine until he had to resort to the crash-helmet - and they just don't get Ospina), Cardiff, Palace to name a few. Wolves at least recognised the importance of a keeper in signing Rui Patricio. More than any other player goalies can't get used to handling all the stuff that goes right and wrong for them in baby games, coach-driven youth football, training ....... they do it out in front of a crowd and when they make a mistake they have to pick up the pieces of their psyche out in public.