Youth team development: Page 122 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Youth team development

Ricky1985

Yep, Goon, Wenger said he wanted to turn him into a complete midfielder.

Thanks for the video Clarence. It's clear as day just how good his touch, dribbling and ball retention is, it'll be a massive shame if we aren't able to teach him to play as a proper two-way central midfielder. He's got to want that though and I've always got the vibe he sees himself as a forward and wants it to stay that way.

Bold Tone

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/jeff-reineadelaide-reveals-advice-arsene-wenger-gave-him-before-arsenal-loan-exit-to-angers-a3755846.html
“I need to improve my statistics,”
I hate that quote as it makes players go for the safe option first and i don't think this helps young players develop.

goon

That line is immediately followed by him saying it’s important to be more decisive. Goals, assists and tackles are all stats too.

lorddulaarsenal

Smith Rowe whacked in a lurlvy freekick last night

lorddulaarsenal

Better technique than any of our first team front line

Ricky1985

That's top class technique. He has a touch of De Bruyne in his ball striking I think.

That's us into the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup. Interested to see how they handle themselves against the big boys.

kamikaze

Ricky1985 wrote:
it'll be a massive shame if we aren't able to teach him to play as a proper two-way central midfielder. He's got to want that though and I've always got the vibe he sees himself as a forward and wants it to stay that way.

That's the problem with most young English players, inc ours. Too immature/selfish to realise how they'd help the team most. Hard to think of many recent English nationals who make their teammates better (there are plenty further down).

Smith-Rowe has had a few lately. Definitely knows how to strike a ball, which is a rarity at AFC.

Clrnc

kamikaze wrote:
Ricky1985 wrote:
it'll be a massive shame if we aren't able to teach him to play as a proper two-way central midfielder. He's got to want that though and I've always got the vibe he sees himself as a forward and wants it to stay that way.

That's the problem with most young English players, inc ours. Too immature/selfish to realise how they'd help the team most. Hard to think of many recent English nationals who make their teammates better (there are plenty further down).

Smith-Rowe has had a few lately. Definitely knows how to strike a ball, which is a rarity at AFC.

He's french.

One more for you Ricky. We need to do everything we can to nurture him as a CM.

Ricky1985

His dribbling is so smooth. The ball just doesn't move more than a few inches from his foot. Also read he won 21 duels in his 58 minutes, that's outstanding.

Still, no end product on show, but that's him and it's not going to change in my opinion. Hopefully some more muscle and he could become a monster centre midfielder.

Claudius

Was that video specifically for dribbles? He did very little with them. The passes didn’t go to teammates, or legs was outmuscled. Was a bit meh watching it. Like I’m watching any young street footballer basically. If he wasn’t Arsenal affiliated, I’d be wondering why we are seeing that video.

Don Pacifico

That's more or less what I thought. Looks a lesser version of Diaby at this stage. Appreciate he's struggled with injuries but would have hoped he be showing more positive signs of improvement.

kamikaze

Just go back and look at the last decade of posts here. Wildly biased and optimistic assessments of our players, as if no other football academies exist in the world. If you actually dig up quotes about guys like Barazite, Merida, Lansbury, JET, etc, it's embarrassing how off mark they are.

Yeah, Jeff is big and athletic. He's not a plus dribbler. Takes more than that to make it in the Premier Lge, let alone at Arsenal.

QuincyAbeyie

Nelson and Jeff can make it even if you can mention other playes who haven't. It's actually totally irrelevant.

Burnwinter

kamikaze wrote:
Yeah, Jeff is big and athletic. He's not a plus dribbler. Takes more than that to make it in the Premier Lge, let alone at Arsenal.

I agree with your general point, but the video is captioned with the reality that his 11 completed dribbles was the highest number for any U23 player in the top five European leagues. That is noteworthy.

Big Willie

But then again he was playing in a youth league and many of the other top talents in the 18-23 age bracket are playing first team football in actual leagues so it's not really a fair comparison.

Edit: Never mind, turns out he is on loan and played 5 games for the first team with the video being one of them.

Irishgunner

So is Jeff playing in central midfield on loan?

Klaus

Irish gunner wrote:
So is Jeff playing in central midfield on loan?

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/277239/Show/Jeff-Reine-Ad%C3%A9la%C3%AFde

Looks like he's played both in the centre and on the right. Definitely looks like he's on the right flank in the compilation above.

Irishgunner

Chhers, klaus! So where do you think he'll end up eventually? I've barely seen him play, but he's seemed quite soft and tentative to me. Not sure he'd have the combative mentality for midfield despite having a good frame.

Klaus

Just on the limited evidence I've seen for myself I'd bet on him ending up a wide player. Maybe a winger when football returns to 4-4-2 formations in the next few years. I haven't seen him much either, but I think it's generally a mistake to turn guys like him into CM:s. It's the Diaby argument. Bloke was one of the worst midfielders we've ever had. I lost track of how many times I saw Wenger and Pat Rice shout at him from the sideline and point to where he should be. The only real argument for him playing centrally was his physique, and it's probably the least important attribute when you look at all the best midfielders from the last 15 years. Kanté is the best in Premier League at the moment and he's virtually a dwarf.

goon

Our U18's beat Blackpool in the first leg of the FA youth cup semi.

Nelson, who managed a call up for England despite competition from literally 100's like him across academies in England, scored two for England U19's. First goal was quite a nice finish too.

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