I thought the game was very promising.
James has surprised me a lot in this tie. He and weemac in front of a DM with kosta/marco wide and wood or brockie up front, that should be able to trouble many a decent international side. The next layer of youth appears promising as well at this stage, with thomas, rufer, ridenton etc etc. Perhaps tuiloma could be that DM if we can find a left back elsewhere.
A fit reid will be crucial to our future, and to our chances for Russia.
This
A good DM is needed to give the midfield defense a bit of starch. IMO the real hope in this area is Tuiloma. Marseille are grooming him as a DM. They think that this will be his best position. He has played most of his matches there. Over the 2 years of his contract he will get very got training for this position. I have watched him play there in the U19 Champions League against Arsenal and Naples. He is a very robust tackler, reads a game well. But what the OM coaches like about him is his distribution. He has that Elliot like ability to pass with either foot. He also tends to pass mainly forward. It is still early days yet as he is only 18.....but come the next WC campaign he could be our man in that position.
If Tuiloma finishes as a DM we will need to sort out RB/LB. Roux and Fenton were excellent going forward but need some fine tuning on defense. This ideally would be the best combo IMO but it depends how well Fenton converts...he still has some work to do. If he did not make it then Roux back to RB and who knows after that.......do we have another look at Hogg?
Tuiloma was left sided for Birkenhead and other sides and its only recently he is playing there for Marseille. Granted they know a lot more about football than I do but I think he stays there. I think he is a much better international LB than Hogg and I only needed 45 mins to figure that out (as much has Hogg has come on very well over the last 18 months)
If you put out a team in 4 years time that looked like this
Moss/Spoonley
Roux Reid Smith Tuiloma
Payne James
Rojas McGlinchy Kosta
Wood
Thats not a bad side you know. Some people will come and go because of form but as a base to develop, that's not bad.