[Albion] Brighton and Hove Albion U-23s in 2017-18 - A review of the season

[TSB]

John Oliver is rumoured to be approaching [MENTION=1276]AZ Gull[/MENTION] to join his investigative team!



That sounds a bit Suttner from your description - do you rate him defensively? Bong is in the team despite his ability on the ball, which I'm not necessarily criticising because the team functioned brilliantly last term with him in the side. Whether that's his influence in the dressing room and on the pitch, or because Hughton genuinely believes him to be stronger defensively and maybe adds more balance than Suttner does, who knows? But I think to displace Bong, however good Cox and Suttner may be when going forward, do you think Cox is good enough defensively to have a chance of breaking into the team?

Or will he be another player we've grown for the benefit of another club (hopefully with a fee for our troubles!). Again, not necessarily a criticism because developing Premier League standard players within a few years of the academy being open would be a bonus rather than an expectation.

These are good questions and, I'm afraid, they are a little above my level of expertise.
All I can offer is that them team hardly conceded any goals in the second half of the season. Whether that's down to individuals or the whole, I'm not sure.

Luckily, though, given his position, I can defer to a man unmatched in his ability to spot a left back.
Paging [MENTION=451]BensGrandad[/MENTION]

 

[AZ Gull]

They seem to have suffered significantly more injuries than the first team squad. Would that be typical of younger players with growing bodies in a Premier League club development environment or have we been unlucky?

Does anyone know the injury rate compared to the first team squad?

We were undoubtedly fortunate in the limited injuries suffered by the first team squad in 2017-18 - Revealed, Albion's impressive injury record in their first season in the Premier League

We have no right to expect to be so fortunate next season.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

We were undoubtedly fortunate in the limited injuries suffered by the first team squad in 2017-18 - Revealed, Albion's impressive injury record in their first season in the Premier League

We have no right to expect to be so fortunate next season.

That wasn't really the answer I expected. The Development squad had a lot of injuries. More than you might expect for players of that age or were we unlucky this year in your opinion?

 

[Brovion]

That wasn't really the answer I expected. The Development squad had a lot of injuries. More than you might expect for players of that age or were we unlucky this year in your opinion?

Yeah, the one thing that struck me reading that was the number of players who had lengthy spells out with injury. I'm not going to go back and count, but it seemed that for at least every other player you'd read something like "was then out for months with an injury". I appreciate the 1st team squad was extremely fortunate, but the U23s did seem to have way more injuries than you'd expect from a single squad. Dunno, just my gut feeling.

 

[Muzzy]

Tom Dallison was showing a lot of promise when he first arrived about 5 years ago. Did his 'dodgy' groins ever get properly fixed?
I watched him on quite a few occasions when he played at u18 level and thought he would be in the mix at some point, even though he broke down with groin injuries on a regular basis.
I would have expected him to play at a higher level than at Falkirk to be honest.
His father lives/lived in Herts area and travels for all of Tom's matches. I wouldn't fancy his fuel bills now!

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