Reserve Team Football

[sirpiechucker]

Can someone please tell me what standard of football do our reserves play at? Are the likes of German, Sterling, Balanta etc. playing quality opposition in the reserves?

I honestly know very little about the reserves and was wondering if our youngsters are getting any benefit from playing reserve football. Would they be better tested at League Two level or is the reserve league better than that?

Answers would be appreciated greatly.

[haqpr1963]

Not too sure about the quality (Though looking at the teams involved not too impressed, Eastbourne Borough and Crawley amongst others.)

More worrying I guess is the lack of games, I think they have played about 6 games so far this season. Remember the good old days when I went to watch first team every weekend and the stiffs mid-week. I do wonder how youngsters are supposed to break through or injured players get back to match fitness......

[qprjames]

Can someone please tell me what standard of football do our reserves play at? Are the likes of German, Sterling, Balanta etc. playing quality opposition in the reserves?

I honestly know very little about the reserves and was wondering if our youngsters are getting any benefit from playing reserve football. Would they be better tested at League Two level or is the reserve league better than that?

Answers would be appreciated greatly.

I go to as many of the games as I can. To be honest the quality is not great, for instance we could only draw with Aldershots reserves. Not very good! There is a big divide in quality however, players such as German and Balanta stand out. In fact one of the best performers is Alberti!

As for Sterling he is good for his age but not ready for adult football yet. The quality is definatley worse than leage two though, therefore I do think players would be better going off on loan to clubs were they can experiance more competitive matches and also crowds.

[Easy]

The standard is preimership

[Robsondinho]

I go to as many of the games as I can. To be honest the quality is not great, for instance we could only draw with Aldershots reserves. Not very good! There is a big divide in quality however, players such as German and Balanta stand out. In fact one of the best performers is Alberti!

As for Sterling he is good for his age but not ready for adult football yet. The quality is definatley worse than leage two though, therefore I do think players would be better going off on loan to clubs were they can experiance more competitive matches and also crowds.

Would go along with that

[qprjames]

The standard is preimership

Not quite

[brightonr]

SPC,

I went to one game last season, against Brighton at Lewes's ground, The Dripping Pan.

Vine and Cook were in our side amidst mainly youngsters, Gareth was managing the reserves at the time. It seemed to me that these games are used to give experience to the youngsters and a bit of match time to those returning from injury. Therefore the quality of football on display was extremely poor as you would expect, losing 3-1 to Brighton reserves.

What struck me most was that the players on view, would have no chance of realistically featuring in a Championship game, (well, hopefully not), so I left feeling a little bewildered about why we have them.

The one positive was that the admission price of £4 was no more than the very large double cheeseburger and chips, so pro rata in terms of first team with regards to the talent on show.

[sirpiechucker]

Thanks everyone.

So are we basically saying that if we can't even beat the likes of Brighton or Aldershot reserves then what chances do we have with the same players playing at Championship level. There comes a time when the likes of German, Balanta etc need to be tested to see if they can make the step up. If the can't then ultimately they'll have to leave because there is really no point keeping players who are not good enough for the first team. The likes of Wilshere, Gibbs, Rooney, Milner, Walcott etc etc have all appeared at an already higher level with some of them were even younger when they first appeared for their clubs.

The only way we will ever find out whether these players can make the step up is to play them.

[Bluehoop]

SPC,

I went to one game last season, against Brighton at Lewes's ground, The Dripping Pan.

Vine and Cook were in our side amidst mainly youngsters, Gareth was managing the reserves at the time. It seemed to me that these games are used to give experience to the youngsters and a bit of match time to those returning from injury. Therefore the quality of football on display was extremely poor as you would expect, losing 3-1 to Brighton reserves.

What struck me most was that the players on view, would have no chance of realistically featuring in a Championship game, (well, hopefully not), so I left feeling a little bewildered about why we have them.

The one positive was that the admission price of £4 was no more than the very large double cheeseburger and chips, so pro rata in terms of first team with regards to the talent on show.

Surely that is where the problem lies? Returning senior pros are on a whole different planet to young academy/trainee/new professional and their reading of a game, training regimes and experience of playing at the higher levels is so far removed from that of the "kids" that it must be impossible to implement and execute a successful game plan on a regular basis - a bit of "the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing" kind of thing?
What's the answer? God knows but maybe teams like Spuds have it right - ditch the reserves and loan out anyone needing match time or a stage to show their potential.

[brightonr]

Surely that is where the problem lies? Returning senior pros are on a whole different planet to young academy/trainee/new professional and their reading of a game, training regimes and experience of playing at the higher levels is so far removed from that of the "kids" that it must be impossible to implement and execute a successful game plan on a regular basis - a bit of "the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing" kind of thing?What's the answer? God knows but maybe teams like Spuds have it right - ditch the reserves and loan out anyone needing match time or a stage to show their potential.

Yes, you are correct. The ability of the "Reserve" players to read a game, is so far short of players such as Vine and Cook, that it seems a rather pointless exercise on the part of both sets.

[winalotto]

Can someone please tell me what standard of football do our reserves play at? Are the likes of German, Sterling, Balanta etc. playing quality opposition in the reserves?

I honestly know very little about the reserves and was wondering if our youngsters are getting any benefit from playing reserve football. Would they be better tested at League Two level or is the reserve league better than that?

Answers would be appreciated greatly.

Its because we're still a centre of excellence, if (as been said many times) we reinstate our academy our 18s and reserves would be getting much better tests and our youth would develop, games verses Gillingham or Southend or Games verses Chelsea and Arsenal , no disrespect but its obvious what we should do,or it seems so to me.

[qpr-buzsaky]

we should do what tottenham do and send the youngsters out on loan but not scrap the reserve team completely, just use it for players out of favour and those trying to get match fit

[winalotto]

we should do what tottenham do and send the youngsters out on loan but not scrap the reserve team completely, just use it for players out of favour and those trying to get match fit

Where would you send them if there not setting the world alight agianst teams such as Aldershot ? They'd have to drop down levels and thats no good.

[stanistheman]

I don't watch them anymore, but I would guess that judging by the opposition, the standard would be very poor indeed, especially with so many 16 & 17 years olds mixed in with players having trials and occasionaly a player returning from an injury.

I recall it used to be 1st team squad players who were not getting a start in the 1st 11 plus a few outstanding prospects from the youth team.

In today's terms that would be players like Connolly, Hall, Stewart, Vine, Ephraim, Alberti Agyemang, Balanta & Pellicori turning out alongside the young starlets like Brown, Oastler, Sterling, Parker & German.

[HailshamHoop]

Not too sure about the quality (Though looking at the teams involved not too impressed, Eastbourne Borough and Crawley amongst others.)

My boy plays for Eastbourne Borough u18's as a centre half and of course has supported QPR since birth, it looks like he may get some sort of cameo apperance possibly 10-15mins for the reserves on 24/02 at Eastbourne and the thought of marking Balanta/Ephraim/Vine etc you can imagine how he feels, he does have a few tricks for putting strikers off for set pieces and should be fun
I told him I would turn up with my QPR flag and stand in the away end (on my own) giving him large amounts of banta