Winks outshines Carroll

The game was certainly a training exercise and gave a few of the youngsters a reality check when it comes to playing men's football.

Marcus Edwards had protracted negotiations before he signed a two-year contract and he had to be given guarantees of cup football and a first team squad number. He got a taste of how far away he is, probably a lot further than he thought. He is only young, has growing and development to do. It will be interesting to see how far he comes in the next year.

Josh Onomah on the other hand, looked at home, he looks ready to play more cameo roles this season with full games in the cups. Harry Winks looked a better player than Tom Carroll who simply continues to look ordinary. He is more interested it seems in looking the part when he plays a pass rather than being effective at it.

There was one incident in our own half yet again, where under no pressure he played almost a reverse ball with his left foot to the player on his right. However, the pass was woefully inaccurate, nowhere near the player and the opposition simply collected the ball. That is Tom Carroll all over. Ir seems as if he has been over coached and looking the part is more important than playing the part. He failed once again to show ant reason he should be kept on the books with others coming through.

Harry Winks came on and was twice the player Carroll was, he was busy, he got stuck into the game , he was looking for passes. There were too many out there simply happy to pass sideways. I was thinking that throughout the game and had just watched Cameron carter-Vickers get himself out of a tight situation in the second half when I was saying, don't pass sideways, don't pass sideways.

He took his time and passes sideways. Tony Gale then piped up to tell us he has taken the wrong option, the initial work was good but the sideways pass was poor, he should have played the ball forwards.

If you have beaten a man, effectively taking him out of the game because he is in front of the ball (behind you) than you let him get back behind the ball between your team and the goal and back in the game. It nullifies beating him in the first place, in effect a waste of time.

Until substitutes came on in the second half our passing was often passing for passing sake, an abdication of responsibility. We have to keep the ball moving, but if it is sideways and backwards it isn't much use and certainly isn't going to hurt any decent opposition. When Harrison, Onomah came on we looked to try and create things and did create openings.

There was plenty for Pochettino to analyse and give individual videos to the youngster to learn from. Of course to pass forward you need movement off the ball and we were a little static at times, but then we were playing in unfamiliar conditions and are trying to gain fitness. However, weren't Juventus in the same situation?