Tag: U23's

Chelsea Academy 2021/22 Season Preview

Posted in Academy, PreviewsTagged , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Pre-Season has begun and there aren’t that many weeks to go until the beginning of the new season. For Chelsea fans, that tends to be a very exciting time as normally there’s a new manager and a few new signings. This time, there have been 0 signings so far, and we have a manager which has been with us for almost exactly 6 months and has won us a Champions League on the way, so the current feeling is certainly a weird one.

I’ll leave all of that to another writer though. As any loyal fans of myself and The Chelsea Spot would know, we have a huge investment into the academy so in this article we’ll be looking at how the U23s could get on this season. There’ll probably be a better preview from @chelseayouth on thechels.net soon enough so I’d recommend reading that too.

The squad has changed A LOT from last season. We didn’t win anything last season, yet it was one of the most talented groups we have seen in a long time. To be fair, we did expect quite a few to be moving onto professional football this season – it’s just a shame that most are permanently rather than on loan. The likes of Dynel Simeu, Lewis Bate, Myles Peart-Harris, Marcel Lewis & Tino Livramento (set to join Brighton) have all moved on to other clubs, while some such as Henry Lawrence and Levi Colwill have gone on loan. All of these are names which even a partial viewer of the academy will recognise, which does really show some of the big players we have lost this season.

Opinion: Every player is different, the Chelsea first-team pathway is tough, no blame for those leaving – Talk Chelsea
Only two have remained 😔

That necessarily may not be a bad thing. Yes, there may be a lack of experience at times, and there is a decent chance results don’t go our way in some games (hence I am already predicting a huge out of context cry on Twitter in a few months time from certain fans who don’t watch us when we’re not winning the PL2), but it’s going to be an extremely young squad and the amount they will learn will be incredible. One of the criticisms of the PL2 is that some players stick in there for too long and don’t break into professional football, but for most of these players who will be very young, they’ll generate an incredible learning curve coming up against players who are bigger and stronger than them. Remember when we had Terry, Batshuayi, Rudiger, Hazard and more playing for our development squad to develop fitness? Imagine a team of very young academy boys coming up against players like them – they’ll learn so much.

Chelsea’s first U23s fixture is only a few weeks away, as you can see in the graphic below made by the wonderful @chelseayouth, so let’s have a look at the potential squad we could be using this season…

Note: Chelsea’s first two home games are at Stamford Bridge to make sure to head down and support the boys!

Goalkeepers

Chelsea currently have four goalkeepers who could potentially play for the U23s – Lucas Bergstrom, Teddy Sharman-Lowe, Ethan Wady and Karlo Ziger. Bergstrom has been training with the first team for now just in pre-season, but the imminent arrival of Marcus Bettinelli as third choice keeper into the first team would pretty much destroy any chances of him moving up. Sharman-Lowe and Wady could perhaps try and get gametime somewhere else as we’ve seen them do before. Ziger was someone who was training a lot with the first team last season so where he plays will also be very intriguing. I honestly don’t know too much about the keepers’ situations to say much more.

Defenders

After looking at the defenders we have this season, there is a decent chance that Andy Myers will stick with the 3 at the back formation which he trusted so much last season. The first team playing 3 centre-halves also *could* (considering managers are sacked every 3 years probably not) influence the academy formations as incase anyone does need to step up from the academy, they will be much more used to the system.

Xavier Mbuyamba is the big name which most will be keeping an eye on this season. He’ll certainly want to crack on in the PL2 after looking extremely comfortable in the small amount of games he played towards the end of last season, and he’s one who could potentially move on loan in January if he has a very good six months.

Image
He’s not small…🤣

Sam McClelland is another one who should try to cement a starting place in the team (assuming he doesn’t leave on loan). The Northern Irish international has looked very much in place whenever he’s come into the team, with his height and ability on the ball being of real help to the squad. Bashir Humphreys is another one who featured in the FA Youth Cup team last season and will be wanting to push into the development squad eventually, as well as Alfie Gilchrist who has done very well at the U18s level and participated for a few minutes last season in the 23s.

At wingback, there are a few options with Harvey Vale being the main one after playing a lot there last season, although I would personally love to see him play further forward. Silko Thomas has a chance to push into the team as last season he made an appearance at just the age of 16 and looked promising while picking up a goal and an assist, and we could also see the man with the best smile Alex Kpakpe feature too. Like Vale, some wingers could drop deeper a tad and feauture in the role such as Dion Rankine who did play there last season quite a bit, as well as Nunn, Abu, Andersson, Taurianen and a few more of whom I’m sure I’ll talk about much more later.

Midfielders

The midfielders this season are going to be really fun to watch. Chelsea’s midfield has always been one of the most exciting parts of the teams, with us producing players with the quality of Loftus-Cheek, Mount, Gallagher, Bate etc on a constant basis.

Charlie Webster is next in line with those names and after 6 impressive months with the 23s, he’ll be looking to have a full season in the PL2 and impressing on the big stage at just the tender age of 17. Xavier Simons is a player who many have forgotten, but was once so impressive for us before he got two extremely unfortunate injuries in both his knees. Hopefully, his rehab has gone well and fingers crossed we could see him feature for us this season as the boy has an engine on him.

Joe Haigh’s contract was running out this Summer and his future was in doubt after some Premier League clubs were interested in him, but he eventually signed a two year new deal and will be wanting to impress this season. He’s a player who Chelsea fans will love watching this season as myself and a few other mates have compared his play style very much to Joe Cole. He’s agile and just loves to drive forward with the ball.

Players like George McEachran and Thierno Ballo could be leaving the club this season (either on loan or permanently) which opens up space for someone like Ben Elliot to try and get his footballing career back on track. Ben is someone who is full of talent and earlier on looked a real prospect as he captained multiple England sides, but with harsh injuries he struggled to really develop when expected. There is 100% still a player there and hopefully some football on a higher level will really challenge him and get him playing the level of football we know he can.

Not a bad midfield that…!

Forwards

This is certainly a position we are quite stacked in. For the U23s, I imagine Jude Soonsup-Bell and Bryan Fiabema will be the main two who will play up front, with George Nunn either featuring more at LWB or leaving the club. George unfortunately hasn’t impressed enough in the Striker position and him playing would just hinder Jude and Bryan’s progress there.

Jude hasn’t played for the 23s too much but has been tipped to be a top striker in the future with his large profile being of huge use and him smacking in goals for the other age groups. You can listen to our podcast episode with his brother, Zac, on all things Jude. Bryan played a lot more last season for the 23s and he started off very well with a screamer against Derby coming to mind, but afterwards struggled big time. Both will be hoping to get scoring at the PL2 level.

What an episode that was – so much insight…

Other strikers at the club who are more likely to feature for the U18s include Aleksi Heino who we recently signed (two hours after publishing it looks like he may have joined Wolfsburg), Malik Mothersille who has returned from a season loan at Derby County where he featured 13 times and also Jay Wareham, the new boy from Woking who has impressed in pre-season, who is known to score goals for fun.

Having many forwards at the club could tempt Andy Myers to play two strikers up top this season. It’s something we haven’t seen a lot at Chelsea academy level, but with more centre-backs than fullbacks, a few players who could play wingbacks and only a couple of box to box midfielders the 3-4-1-2 formation could be a real option for the gaffer. It reminds me of when we tried to play Abraham and Solanke together at academy level and a lot of the time Tammy was out wide coming inside. As it is, we all know Chelsea coaches are extremely versatile in which formations they want their teams to play and it’s generally also the most intelligent Chelsea players who can play in multiple different roles, so I’m sure there will be changes to the team and style of play throughout the season.

There is a chance we could see something like the above at times this season…

The UEFA Youth League is returning this season as well (touchwood) and despite it being an U19 competition, we’re still likely to enter the cup with a young squad. That and the Papa John’s Trophy (Checkatrade Trophy) should be an incredible experience for the boys, and I have no doubts there’ll be many scouts watching so it’s a chance for them to impress the world as we’ve seen so many Chelsea boys do in the past.

While writing this, I’ve realised that there isn’t actually much to say on the U18s because half of them will be moving up to the 23s, and the other half I haven’t watched enough to comment on. Putting too much pressure on 16 year olds would be harsh for me to do, but all I’m going to say is watch out for Leo Castledine. He featured for the 18s a decent amount last season at just the age of 15, so he’s got a real chance of pushing on this season.

I’m really looking forward to this season. Like I said before, at times results may not be going our way and things to the average viewer may look bad for the academy, but there is a lot of context to this upcoming season and hopefully these players can use it to really develop mentally and technically. We’ll be covering the academy in huge depth this season so make sure to follow us on all our social media platforms and tune in! You can listen to our academy season review and preview with Joe Tweedie here:

The season preview is towards the end of the episode…

Written by Paree

Levi Colwill – The Cobham Commander

Posted in Academy, Opinion, Scouting ReportsTagged , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Levi Colwill first came into the spotlight (for Chelsea fans who can only watch broadcasted matches) when he was starting in the FA Youth Cup at just the age of 16. He impressed (the game against Bradford City comes to mind) and not long after found himself starting development squad games, still at 16 years old, when Marc Guehi and Clinton Mola became unavailable. Simply – if you’re starting at this high level in the Chelsea academy at such a young age, there’s a decent chance you’re a special player. Hudson-Odoi really broke onto the public scene when he was 16 and became the star man in the FA Youth Cup run, with his top bins goal against Manchester City springing to mind, and more recently we have seen Charlie Webster and Jude Soonsup-Bell feature at this age too – the two standout players in their age group, along with by Harvey Vale.

There is just something about a left-footed player, but I can’t really describe it in words – they seem as if they play with such elegance, which Levi certainly does. He’s just turned 18, meaning he can still play in the FA Youth Cup this season, and with Lewis Bate, Tino Livramento, Myles Peart-Harris and Soonsup-Bell beside him, they certainly will be looking to get the trophy back after last season’s heartbreak loss to Manchester City in the final.

I was thinking this the other day, and without hyping him too much, Levi kind of has the perfect build for a centre-half. When you go on Pro Clubs or Football Manager and try and build a defender, it’s actually very similar to him. He’s tall (self proclaimed as you can see in the tweet below…), quick, strong, composed and has got leadership skills as shown by captaining the Chelsea academy sides on multiple occasions – I mean what else do you want?

I guess the thing which most people are interested in is how does he compare to the likes of Marc Guehi and Fikayo Tomori? Well, this certainly isn’t easy. I was a fan of Marc really early on and saw the potential when most were talking about Billy Gilmour and Tino Anjorin, and Fik was one of my favourite players at the club when he featured under Frank Lampard. Without trying to overhype him too much… I genuinely believe Colwill has a higher ceiling than both, and I’m not saying that lightly. Although, there’s a very good chance this may be completely wrong, as no one knows at all the way someone transitions from academy football to men’s football.

I think one of his best qualities is his game management and the way he opens up space on the pitch. Due to his composure on the ball, he has zero problems in running past the pressing attackers and then he’ll lay it off to the midfielders like Lewis to do their magic. Colwill –> Bate –> Livramento –> Soonsup-Bell is a play we’re hopefully going to see A LOT in the future. Something which I have loved about this Chelsea side under Thomas Tuchel is the way the defenders know when to hoof the ball up for Werner to run onto, and when to play it out of the back into the midfield, with this being significantly seen in the games against Liverpool and Atletico Madrid. Levi is PERFECT for this. He plays inbetween the lines brilliantly, and also has his ‘signature’ move where he shifts the ball onto his left foot and just waits a few seconds before playing it up towards Bryan Fiabema or Soonsup-Bell, who normally end up with the ball at their feet. He’s got a very similar passing range to Antonio Rudiger, and as I said before looks extremely elegant on the ball. Not that it really matters how someone looks with the ball, but for some reason fans of the game now are obsessed with aesthetics and hence think Tammy Abraham and Kurt Zouma aren’t good players.

Ever since John Terry left the club we have always tried to compare one of our academy products to him. We did it with Jake Clarke-Salter who has had some success out on loan but will probably never appear for Chelsea again, and Andreas Christensen who has been involved a lot more, but still has failed to hit the heights which were once described for the Danish defender. Can Levi be that person? The English defender certainly can be, with their natural defending instincts and ability on the ball being pretty similar, but that’s such a big comparison I’m in no way making yet.

In the last two seasons, he’s mainly played as a Left Centre-Back for the Blues. Left footed defenders are certainly admired in the football market, and it is one of the reasons there was such strong interest in re-signing Nathan Ake before he went to Manchester City. Chelsea lack a left footed centre back in the squad at the moment, and that could be a trait which gives the nod to Colwill ahead of the others around him. In the last U23s game against Manchester City we switched to 4 at the back where he started next to Dujon Sterling who is much more of a RB/RWB, and despite conceding a very unfortunate goal due to a wicked deflection, in the last few minutes of the game he scored a brilliant goal from a set piece to make it level.

I don’t actually think I’ve mentioned his defending enough. After all he’s a defender and that’s the main thing he should be good at – and he’s brilliant. He reads the game extremely well – knows when to go into the tackle or back off. His big structure allows him to get into challenges strongly and he wins a lot of headers, in both boxes. Despite being 6’3, he’s quite quick and is definitely able to make recovery tackles. Making vital interceptions is also a big part of his game, something he’s done a lot of at LCB.

For me, and many others, the games which confirmed that he was good enough was his performance in the EFL Trophy group stage, where he defended brilliantly against League 1 and League 2 forwards. He completely translated his game from the development squad into professional football, and like we’ve said with Tino Anjorin many times, he looked and played like an experienced player on the pitch at the age of 17.

You can watch some of his incredible defending in the EFL Trophy in the first part of this video…

My thoughts on the defender can pretty much be summed up in this tweet by @throwaway1297. The fact is that Premier League 2 is too easy for him at the moment and to really develop he needs to be challenged and move out on loan. The Secret Scout reported a few months ago that he potentially would be involved in first team training next season, although at the moment this seems very unlikely with us having four centre backs and Azpilicueta all playing regularly at the moment and enjoying life under Tuchel, while the likes of Guehi and Tomori could return from their loan spells and stay at the club from this Summer. So what next? He wouldn’t want to delay himself and wait around, so a loan deal for Levi seems very likely. If Swansea don’t get promoted, perhaps they could be an option and he could follow a very similar pathway to Guehi, or he may even look at Tomori’s success at AC Milan so far and see a foreign loan as a viable option. His future this Summer is one to keep an eye on, with his contract running out in 2023, so he’ll be looking for a clear plan for his entrance into the first team picture before potentially signing a new deal.

His character is also great. He seems someone who’s shy and humble, but on the other hand got that aggression to him. If someone goes in for a hard challenge in him in training or a senior player tries to let him know who’s boss, then bet you know that he’s not going to sit down and he will be squaring up.

I’ve written reports on Billy Gilmour, Tino Anjorin, Henry Lawrence and Lewis Bate quite early on, and since then they’ve all developed hugely, so I really hope the same will happen with Colwill. Like I say each time, although this may sound extremely hypocritical, it’s very important not to overhype them too much as they’ve all still got a lot of work to do and football is a very ruthless sport in that sense. But on the other hand, people need to start trusting our academy players, because as we’ve seen with Reece James, Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Tammy Abraham – they’re our best players and that’s because we’ve got an elite academy.

Written by Paree

Chelsea 1-6 Spurs (U18) Match Review & Chelsea vs Brighton (U23) Preview

Posted in Academy, Previews, ReviewsTagged , , , , , , Leave a comment

Well, this match report is going to be painful to write. Chelsea decided to broadcast an U18 League game, something we haven’t seen them do in years, so many fans were excited to see some future stars play. But it was a day to completely forget for the Blues, as they were thrashed 6-1 to their London rivals Spurs at Cobham.

The lineup certainly was interesting. Ed Brand made 8 changes to the team, something you can’t really blame him for, as it’s not like recent weeks have been good for him either. Jude Soonsup-Bell and Harvey Vale were not involved and we expect them to feature in the 23’s tomorrow, while Bryan Fiabema and Dion Rankine dropped down from the PL2 squad. Ben Elliot, Charlie Wiggett and Bashir Humphreys were the main names missing from today’s squad.

Image
Image Source: Chelsea FC

It wasn’t a great start, as Chelsea managed to concede inside 6 minutes. Tottenham worked it well down the left hand side, and the overlapping player crossed it into the far post for Lusala to tuck it into the corner, while no Chelsea player picked him up. A few minutes later we tried to bounce back as Fiabema had a shot on the edge of the box, but skied it way over the bar, which pretty much sums up his last few months in Blue as he has struggled to find the back of the net and is clearly lacking confidence.

Not long later Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down, after 2006 born goalkeeper Ted Curd gave the ball to Brodi Hughes under pressure. The defender, who actually had quite a good game, was fouled in his box but somehow the referee didn’t give a free kick, and Spurs ended up having a very simple tap-in converted by Scarlett.

Chelsea still had chances after a lovely backheel from Fiabema, but Joe Haigh was unable to find the back of the net and somehow Silko Thomas couldn’t score from a few yards out after some wonderful defending from the Lilywhites. Around the 20th minute, Spurs had complete control of the game, and former blue Roshaun Mathurin scored a wonderful free kick just on the edge of our own box to make the scoreline 3-0.

Charlie Webster, a player Chelsea fans should definitely keep an eye on, looked the most comfortable on the ball in the first half for the Blues, as on a couple of occasions he played some lovely lofted balls to Brooking and Rankine, but both were unable to make anything out of their chances.

Charlie Webster with a lovely few passes (Image Source: Getty Images)

Before Charlie’s ball to Rankine, around the 30th minute mark Josh Tobin lost the ball in an extremely dangerous area and the opposition had a 2v1, but Brodi Hughes made an outstanding tackle and stopped the scoreline from being 4-0.

Not for long though, as straight after half time when you’d hope to see some more fight from the Chelsea team, Tobin gave away a sloppy penalty and they made it 4-0. Now, I’m not going to lie, I went to go and get a drink of water after that goal, and I come back and see the scoreline to be 5-0. So, I don’t know how we conceded, but I know we did in a few minutes and the team completely collapsed.

Ed Brand decided to bring on Leo Castledine and Ronnie Stutter, with the former changing the game. He brought energy and quality in midfield, as he picked out a nice pass to Rankine who cut back to Joe Haigh who finished calmly to give Chelsea a consolidation goal. A few minutes later once again Leo put in a beauty of a cross, but Joe was unable to get contact with the ball.

Around the 75th minute, Castledine got fouled but once again it wasn’t given, the ball was easily turned over and Mathurin scored a screamer of a goal to get his hat-trick, flicking the ball over two players and finishing sweetly. The game died down from then onwards and it was a very disappointing morning for the Blues.

The last few weeks haven’t been easy for the academy, as most of the time the 23s and 18s have played the better football but haven’t been able to grind out the results, but today was just embarrassing. When the 23s played Spurs a few months ago we found ourselves 2-0 down, yet we still showed character and desire and managed to make a remarkable comeback and won the game in what was one of the best victories in the PL2 this season. Whereas today, there was absolutely nothing effort wise from most of the boys, and you wouldn’t think it was a London Derby.

No doubt, they will come back. After all the Chelsea academy is one of the best in the world, and it’s these tough spells which will separate the players with the strong mentality from the players with the weak mentality. But we need to see more effort and desire, and then we all know the quality these guys have. If Tino Anjorin and Billy Gilmour are to play with the 23’s even more, we could see the likes of Soonsup-Bell and Harvey Vale feature more for the 18s, hopefully giving them a helping hand through this tough situation.

Bryan Fiabema has struggled in the past few months for Chelsea (Image Source: Getty Images)

Chelsea U23s face Brighton tomorrow, and they also will be looking to get back to getting 3 points, something which we haven’t seen in a long while. They have played some incredible football at times, but struggled to find the back of the net.

Jude not playing today suggests he’ll feature tomorrow, which certainly will help as Fiabema and Nunn have struggled up top. Henry Lawrence should be set for a return after a few weeks out injured, as his cousin revealed to us in an exclusive interview all about Henry. Whether Billy and big Tino will be involved is something to keep an eye out on, as they certainly did make a difference in our draw to Leicester the other week.

Predicted Lineup: Ziger, Lawrence, Simeu, Colwill, Sterling, Bate, McEachran, Livramento, Ballo, Soonsup-Bell, Vale.

Written by Paree

Podcast: All things Henry Lawrence with his cousin George!

Posted in Academy, Interview, PodcastTagged , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
https://webplayer.whooshkaa.com/episode/798558?theme=dark&visual=true&scrolling-title=true&autoplay=true&enable-volume=true&iframe-height=190
George has spoken to us for a while so we had to get him on!

In another episode of The Chelsea Spot Podcast, Orlando (Host – @0rland1nho) and Paree (Owner – @CFCParee ) talk to Henry Lawrence’s cousin George (@@george_cee16)! The boys talk about Henry as a kid, the setbacks he’s had to go through, scoring at Stamford Bridge with Hudson-Odoi and Reece James, training with the first team and how Zouma helped him, and so much more!

Prefer to listen elsewhere? Click your preferred streaming platform –

Spotify

Apple

Make sure to check us out on all our social media platforms, including our website, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, ITunes, Amazon Music, Google and Youtube.