I dipped in and out of the live feed on YouTube. He looked good in the air, and composed on the ball. There was one sticky moment where he misjudged a lofted ball over the top, tried flicking it back to the keeper and knocked it well short. Our keeper made a great save to deny their attacker, but a half decent side would have scored from that no problem. Otherwise, he looked like a full international playing in the 21s. He tackles like a bus. Edit: if you have a spare hour. https://www.youtube.com/live/jo9YLKCd-Yw?si=2p3ExZxD_Jxb1xXq
Ive answered my own question. Thought it was unusual as the seating is blue. Just been back to look and its Chesterfield. Dont know why.
It was an away game, so Sheff U must have the relationship with Chesterfield. Pitch was a bit of a state tbf
Does not matter where it was played. Just hope Pines gave a good account and is very close to the first team.
Yes, apart from the howler on 15 minutes, which was likely down to being rusty, Pines looked like he never had to break sweat. Nobody was going past him. I have to say though, he was overshadowed by James. What a player he's going to be. Credit to Max Watters. He might be struggling but I have to recognise his effort chasing balls down tirelessly in a development league game. Encouraging the youngsters. We cannot fault his work ethic at all.
On the few occasions I've seen him, he looks a fantastic player. I'd love to see him on the fringes of the first team before the end of the season. Bobby Hassell is a big fan too by all accounts; apparently he was astounded that Burnley didn't want to retain him last season.
Watched the U-21's game - Firstly, Pines (if nothing else) is a UNIT. I thought he had good composure and I'm pretty sure that I saw him pass the ball with either foot, which is encouraging. As you can imagine from a guy his size, his tackling was great and he looked to read the game well. This game certainly wasn't much of a challenge for him, which you would hope to expect. My concerns would be over his speed and mobility. Looks like he's fine sprinting in a straight line, I'm interested how he stands up to a bit more pace and trickery of decent L1 players. You can get away with a bit of a lack of speed and mobility in the MLS, as it's a bit less direct and the speed of play is generally pretty slow. If I had to bet, I think he's going to take 6-10 games to adapt, then we will see an imperious CB we will probably lose to Luton for a few mill.
