Youth team development: Page 87 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Youth team development

Ricky1985

Same guy that did the Nelson video above has made one for Yassin Fortune.

Has been a bit disappointing this season in all honesty. He said a while back that although Thierry Henry is his hero, he models his game and is more similar to Mr Danny Welbeck. Can see it. Gonna have some good pace and power in another few years.

Meatwad

fortune looks good in that video, better than the nketiah one for me.

lorddulaarsenal

Nelson looks a talent but I don't think he has the X factor. His technique looks a bit too predictable to me. A lot of what he does will be negated with the intensity of senior football

Willock though, different story. He's one of those who looks untackleable and as if he has all the time on the world

Ricky1985

A bit more mechanical maybe than Willock, but I'd say he has better touch and closer control and everything you see him doing is against players on average 2 or 3 years older than him.

Savz

Willock looks immense.

lorddulaarsenal

From the little I've seen of him and from reports I've read, Savvos Mourgos seems to bit one to keep an eye out for

Tricks you seen the lad?

Burnwinter

Savvos Mourgos sounds like a Game of Thrones character.

Ricky1985

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:
From the little I've seen of him and from reports I've read, Savvos Mourgos seems to bit one to keep an eye out for

Tricks you seen the lad?

Looks pretty decent, especially recently. Carries the ball really well, does a good impression of Wilshere in that sense. Left footed too. Not sure he has enough else in his game to really threaten making the first team though. He's been given a contract so they obviously rate him enough for that.

Ricky1985

England lost their first game of the competition to Sweden. Reiss Nelson scored England's only goal and was, according to reports, their best player. That's a goal here to add to his 6 goals in 6 games in qualifying for this tournament. Arsenal players Tolaji Bola and Marcus McGuane also started for England.

Donyell Malen started for the Netherlands earlier in the day. They lost 2-0 to Spain and from what I've read it seems Malen missed a few chances and had a pretty poor game.

Yassin Fortune came on in the second half for France. They drew 0-0 with Denamrk.

lorddulaarsenal

Mcguane won't make it with us

lorddulaarsenal

Only players who look like they can make the step up are Willock, and Crowley. Jeff and Gedion have an outside chance if they buck their ideas up

Ricky1985

I disagree. Obviously I think Nelson will make it without question; not seen a more nailed on case since Jack came through.

Willock has really come to the fore this season and looks like he might now be able to deliver the sort of end product that a potential forward at Arsenal should have. His dribbling is superstar class and his all-round game is also very good. Steve Gatting, the U21 coach, said after the game the other day that they've been working hard with Willock to get him to understand the importance of impacting the game in the final third.

Reine-Adelaide is absolute class and the only thing stopping him from bursting into the team right now is finding a position that suits him perfectly. They've tried him wide and it doesn't quite work - he beats opponents two and three at a time but he's not a good or composed finisher. They've also tried him as a Number 10 and whilst he has played some very good games there; gliding through challenges and playing some very clever and well weighted incisive passes, in other games he has struggled to get into the game from that position. Toward the end of the season they tried him in centre midfield and although he struggled a bit, I think that's his best position and where he'll play from now on. That Diaby-like 30 yard surge from deep in midfield is a devastating weapon and this kid can do without even breaking sweat.

Then there's Krystian Bielik, he started out the season really struggling with the move back to centreback but he's really grown into the role in the last few months. Still has a lot to learn and I don't know if the plan is to switch back into midfield next season but he has some outstanding qualities; his reading of the game from that centreback position chief amongst them.

Zelalem and Crowley we all know about - technically they've got what it takes but I guess it's all about this pre-season for them. Gotta show they have the drive and personality to play at the top level.

McGuane falls into a category with the likes of Mavididi, Hinds, Joe Willock and Nketiah - they all obviously has some good, even very good qualities but nothing, at the moment, so outstanding that gives them a very good chance of making it here. I'd actually add Malen and Fortune to that list too.

Ricky1985

http://news.arseblog.com/2016/05/sacking-jonker-would-create-further-uncertainty-surrounding-the-arsenal-academy/

Reports around that Arsenal are thinking of sacking Andres Jonker and the Dutch coaches that he brought with him to the club. Frans de Kat, the U18s coach, is already confirmed as leaving, off to work with the Dutch FA - with Kwame Ampadu taking over the role, Thierry will be his assistant.

Not sure what to make of it all really. On the face of it, it seems Jonker has made headway but that's largely because we've paid good money for some good talent over the past 12 months - when we came up against the best youth teams both domestically and across Europe, we looked poorly prepared and poorly coached by comparison. The Hale Enders that are showing great promise are all a decade in the making, so Jonker and his staff can't really claim any credit there - although we do seem to have been quicker with getting the really talented kids into the U18s and U21s than Brady and his staff were a few seasons back.

I still think a couple of the English coaches that are there are far from the best around - the likes of Steve Gatting and Carl Laraman have some seriously dodgy records with the U18s and U21s over the past few seasons and listening to them talk does little to convince me that I'm wrong about their quality.

It seems to me that the whole thing still needs a massive overhaul, from the bottom up, but I don't trust Wenger, Gazidis and the rest to identify the talent that's out there and get them into the club to move everything forward.

Bit of a mess it would seem.

Klaus

Why did we even appoint Jonker to begin with? I remember most people in Holland laughing at us at the time.

Rex

Don't think you can expect all that much quality from youth coaches. If they were all that, then they most likely wouldn't be youth coaches, would they?

Ricky1985

City and Chelsea, with all their money, tend to get very promising younger coaches, often ex-players, that work in youth football and learn the ropes before moving into proper football later on.

We tend to have 50/60 year old men that have never done anything in coaching and seem to achieve average or worse results with the team their employed to coach.

We have started spending a lot more money in the last two years - and Jonkers appointment, along with the coaches he went on to employ, are an example of this investment. It's another reason why I don't trust Gazidis and co to pick the next Arsenal manager, they couldn't even get the youth coaches right after a long search!

Burnwinter

I don't think all youth level coaches are frustrated top flight managers, for what it's worth. Working with young people is a different sort of challenge.

Ricky1985

I agree with that. It must be very rewarding to see kids you've coached go on and achieve at the highest level.

Ricky1985

Nelson scores again btw! Put his penalty right in the corner, after winning it himself and getting the French keeper a red card in the process. Still 35 minutes of the match left.

speedy

Burnwinter wrote:
I don't think all youth level coaches are frustrated top flight managers, for what it's worth. Working with young people is a different sort of challenge.

I remember chatting to a head of youth development at a top club he said he loved it and what you said. Then jumped ship at the first chance they got at senior football even dropped 3 divisions for the opportunity. And then said "why would anyone work with youth players if they had a chance to work in real football".

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