Bromley vs Chelsea U21s (EFL Trophy) preview
You could be forgiven for thinking that Bromley’s Football League Trophy fixture against Chelsea U21s will see a wealth of Chelsea’s fringe first-team players trot onto the Hayes Lane turf.
You would be mistaken.
Despite Chelsea’s bloated first-team squad, and a transfer strategy that hinges on hoarding some of the best young talent in the world, this encounter is unlikely to feature any household names.
Instead, expect Chelsea’s squad to be made up of the best of their U18s and a few U21s who aren’t out on loan.
Does that mean this will be a subdued affair or an easy game for Bromley? No.
You only need to look at the quality of the likes of Teddy Sharman-Lowe, who was on loan at Bromley last season, to see that the Ravens are likely to face a tough test. The young stopper is now on loan at Doncaster Rovers and has become their first-choice keeper. Rovers are sixth in League Two.
Like most Bromley fans, I do not follow U21s football closely, so it is hard to read too much into how Chelsea will set up. That said, they finished fourth in Premier League 2 last season and are coached to play with the cut and thrust of the first team.
While results haven’t gone their way in 24/25, a cursory look at their stats suggests they are a side that likes a lot of possession and takes plenty of shots at goal.
In that sense, and in other ways, this game is actually quite timely for Bromley.
The Ravens haven’t won in five league games, and while fine margins have settled a few of those results, the reality is Bromley are playing a lot of teams who not only have more possession but are more effective with it, too.
As Colin Head and I mentioned in our first Deep Dive of the season, games Bromley would have won or drawn in the National League are currently trending as defeats right now.
On the surface, the Football League Trophy might seem like a ‘meaningless’ cup competition that gets in the way. However, it suddenly presents a critical opportunity for Bromley’s first-team players to get back into form.
Playing possession-heavy Chelsea U21s also gives Andy Woodman a chance to look at tactics he might employ against possession-heavy MK Dons this Saturday.
Bromley have conceded 11 goals in their last five games. While the defence looked a little more robust in Saturday’s 0-1 defeat at Grimsby, the match-losing goal was the result of an unforced error.
Andy Woodman has long extolled a clean-sheet-first philosophy, so a leaky defence will be his top priority. And with Bromley’s established centre-backs creaking, it’s easy to imagine that both Omar Sowunmi and Taylor Foran will feel they deserve a chance to stake their claim.
In midfield, however, all bets are off. Despite off-loading holding-midfielder Sam Woods last week via mutual termination, Andy has a plethora of options available to him. Who are Bromley’s best four, and furthermore, should it actually be three?
The obvious set-up seems like Ben Thompson plus one, but perhaps we are too wedded to the idea that Lewis Leigh, Jude Arthurs, and Ashley Charles can only play the #4 and #8 roles.
Another burning question is whether a combination of Corey Whitely and Cameron Congreve is offering enough in the hole. If Andy Woodman only fields one of them, who rides the bench?
And is it worth a change of shape to 4-2-3-1 at some point? We did that a few seasons ago and achieved some success, but I don’t know if we have the players for that system anymore.
I’m posing a lot of questions here, and not all of them need an immediate answer, but they do need to be asked.
Ultimately, I don’t believe Andy will use this game as a minutes-in-the-tank exercise. Instead, I think he will have half an eye on players he wants to start against MK Dons.
If you take Michael Cheek off the table, and maybe two or three others, almost every position is up for grabs.
Which XI would you pick for this game?
Personally, I can't call it (except for the below).
The From Bromley with Love XI
Long
Sowunmi Foran Odutayo
Paul-Lavaly Thompson Charles Topalloj
Leigh
Amantchi Thomas
Please note all match photographs in this article are by Martin Greig - please follow him on Twitter here
All articles are edited by Peter Etherington you can link to him here
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This Chelsea side has some good players in it, but the Men's First Team are also playing against Barrow at Stamford Bridge tonight, and I expect a few of the "better" U21 lads will get called up for that squad.
That said, it'll be a tough test, this lot have scored goals for fun in recent years, so it should make for a good game.
Great article and I love reading your work. My point is a bit off topic. I went to the game against Cambridge and the crowd size was small. We know this is a chance to get players minutes who aren’t playing, so we know it will be a second string playing against a team of Chelsea kids. That is less appealing to most than watching the first team against MKDons on Saturday, so why is the club charging at their normal pricing? I would like to go tonight but I am put off because of the ticket price. Perhaps I am alone in my thinking and there will be a big crowd tonight, I hope so.