Youth team development: Page 124 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Youth team development

Ricky1985

I didn't get a chance to catch it last night, but we were reportedly very impressive.

Emile Smith-Rowe returned from the injury I mentioned above and absolutely ran the show playing at Number 10. Xavier Amaechi caught the eye as well.

Player ratings from Football London:

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/fixtures-results/arsenal-player-ratings-smith-rowe-14539360

1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th goals:
[Twitter][/Twitter]
[Twitter][/Twitter]
[Twitter][/Twitter]
[Twitter][/Twitter]

And here's Emith Smith-Rowe's run for the fourth goal that's made those that didn't know much about him sit up and take notice:
[Twitter][/Twitter]
He genuinely does similar in most games he plays. I'm not quite sure how the kid has managed to fly under the radar for so many and for so long. He has looked an incredible talent since very early on. Has everything you could want in an Arsenal forward.

And here's an Evening Standard article comparing Smith-Rowe to a 2009 vintage, youth cup winning, Jack Wilshere (he's actually quite different in style):

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/fixtures-results/arsenal-player-ratings-smith-rowe-14539360

The two-legged final against Chelsea later this month will be fun to watch - usually both legs are on ITV 4. We are definitely the underdogs but we have two or three huge talents in the team so we've got a chance.

MistaT

Ricky1985 wrote:
I didn't get a chance to catch it last night, but we were reportedly very impressive.

Emile Smith-Rowe returned from the injury I mentioned above and absolutely ran the show playing at Number 10. Xavier Amaechi caught the eye as well.

Player ratings from Football London:

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/fixtures-results/arsenal-player-ratings-smith-rowe-14539360

1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th goals:
[Twitter][/Twitter]
[Twitter][/Twitter]
[Twitter][/Twitter]
[Twitter][/Twitter]

And here's Emith Smith-Rowe's run for the fourth goal that's made those that didn't know much about him sit up and take notice:
[Twitter][/Twitter]
He genuinely does similar in most games he plays. I'm not quite sure how the kid has managed to fly under the radar for so many and for so long. He has looked an incredible talent since very early on. Has everything you could want in an Arsenal forward.

And here's an Evening Standard article comparing Smith-Rowe to a 2009 vintage, youth cup winning, Jack Wilshere (he's actually quite different in style):

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/fixtures-results/arsenal-player-ratings-smith-rowe-14539360

The two-legged final against Chelsea later this month will be fun to watch - usually both legs are on ITV 4. We are definitely the underdogs but we have two or three huge talents in the team so we've got a chance.

[font=Source Sans Pro]From what little I've seen Amaechi seems closer to Wilshere in playing style than Smith Rowe. Both look like tidy prospects, and it seems we're in a decent place these days with AMN > Nelson > Willock > Nhektiah > Smith Rowe | Amaechi in talks of making the senior team (in the coming years).[/font]

lorddulaarsenal

Rowe Smith looks like he has too much not to make it. Seems to have more to his game than Harry Kane did at that age

QuincyAbeyie

😆

goon

Smith Rowe does indeed look exciting but let’s keep it down before we wake Kami up.

Jed

There are 100's of Smith-Rowe's running about!

Ricky1985

MistaT wrote:
[font=Source Sans Pro]From what little I've seen Amaechi seems closer to Wilshere in playing style than Smith Rowe. Both look like tidy prospects, and it seems we're in a decent place these days with AMN > Nelson > Willock > Nhektiah > Smith Rowe | Amaechi in talks of making the senior team (in the coming years).[/font]

I wouldn't say Amaechi is similar to Wilshere myself. He's a pure wide player, all step overs and very explosive and great top speed (I've seen it said that he recently tested as the second quickest player at the club. Aubameyang being the quickest). He looks a bit like Andros Townsend in style, to me anyway. Banging left foot but has scored a lot of goals with his weaker right foot too. I'm still figuring him out for now. Might be something special there though.

Emile Smith-Rowe is past that stage, he's the real deal. That doesn't mean he'll make it here because a million things can happen but his ability is top class. In terms of his style, I'd say Kevin de Bruyne is a very good current comparison.

Claudius

Ricky, thanks for the update. Very exciting. I’m eager to see these guys burst into he starting the line-up. One question I have for you (and others who watch a lot of the youth games) is over the years you have painted a picture of a very good pipeline of exciting young players coming through. However, when I look at the first team, I see very little real output from the players whose names have regularly crossed this thread over the years. Many of them have disappeared into Europe, smaller Premier League teams or lower divisions.

From your perspective, is this absolutely expected, is our talent actually not good enough in the end, or is there a problem with our finishing school once the talent hits Wenger? What’s going on exactly?

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

I reckon it's Wenger's finishing school that's often the reason.

goon

Has Ricky been raving about our talent pool over the years? From what I recall he’d mainly go on about younger guys I’ve never heard of, guys like Nelson, Benfica Willock and others starting to break through now.

Rohit

He used to rave about Wilshere. I think he once saw him at a gas station and went mental, wrote about it here.

Bold Tone

goon wrote:
Has Ricky been raving about our talent pool over the years? From what I recall he’d mainly go on about younger guys I’ve never heard of, guys like Nelson, Benfica Willock and others starting to break through now.

Nah.
The Rickster has always been very selective of the players he raves about.
I remember as he has tempered some of my over-enthusiasm on a few "highlight reel" players like the aforementioned Benfica Willock and even Eddie Nketiah.
I put the lack of final development squarely on the shoulders of the coaches as it was on them that they often allowed Wilshere, for example, to continue playing the same way further aggravating his injured ankles rather than making him adjust the way he played. Unfortunately, this self-preservation is frowned upon in English football as players who pull out of crunching tackles get dogs abuse from all and sundry (ask Ozil) but i feel the coaches should've made him realise he had more to lose than the other less-skilled player. A more recent example is the way we couldn't find a way to get Gnabry into the team and the current shambles where Nelson, the younger Willock, AMN and even Nketiah are being destroyed by playing them out of position. This out-dated Wenger-style development tactic has been proven to be a failure by the lack of success, in my opinion.

jones

Claudius wrote:
Ricky, thanks for the update. Very exciting. I’m eager to see these guys burst into he starting the line-up. One question I have for you (and others who watch a lot of the youth games) is over the years you have painted a picture of a very good pipeline of exciting young players coming through. However, when I look at the first team, I see very little real output from the players whose names have regularly crossed this thread over the years. Many of them have disappeared into Europe, smaller Premier League teams or lower divisions.

From your perspective, is this absolutely expected, is our talent actually not good enough in the end, or is there a problem with our finishing school once the talent hits Wenger? What’s going on exactly?

It's probably both but if we're brutally honest even a better manager couldn't do much with the kids who come through our academy. Compare us to European top academies in Spain Germany or France and we're not even remotely close, neither are most other academies in the country. There's a reason why most youth players we developed into first team quality guys have been brought in from elsewhere at around 15-18 years old.

Ricky1985

Arsenal U23s are away at West Ham, kick off at 1900. They're playing in The Hammer's London Stadium. If Arsenal win they will be crowned Champions of Premier League 2 tonight. A draw might do it too, but that would then depend on what Liverpool do in their game.

Ricky1985

Here's the teams:

West Ham United: Trott, Johnson, Akinola, Wells, Neufville, Coventry, Quina, Haksabanovic, Browne, Holland, Afolayan.

Subs: Powell, Anang, Scully, Mingi, Lewis.

Arsenal: Virginia, Osei-Tutu, Bola, Da Silva, Olowu, Medley, Dragomir, Willock, Nketiah, Nelson, Smith Rowe.

Subs: Gilmour, Keto, John Jules, Amaechi, Ballard

Very strong team!

West Ham are streaming it live on their YouTube channel:

Ricky1985

Terrible miss from Nelson. Ran clean through on goal, only the keeper to beat with all the time in the world to do it, and he put it a fraction wide.

flobaba

Thanks for the link Ricky

flobaba

Gooooooooollll Nelson

Ricky1985

No worries mate.

Oooh Reiss makes amends. Good goal. Smashes it into the bottom corner.

Klaus

Literally just turned on the stream and immediately saw that goal. Bloke's brilliant.

« Previous Page Next Page »