Klaus wrote:
speedy wrote:

Just to give a bit of perspective about knee injuries in youth football

No player has torn there acl below the age of 16 and gone on to be a professional footballer.

I suspected as much. I know I tried to find this out a few years ago but I could never find any black and white stats.

What about players who do their knees or break their legs in general before they've been promoted to the first team? The only one who springs to mind for me is David Villa, but he was like 6 when he got his leg shattered.

You can have a million and one different breaks and knee injuries, and it depends on the severity of each.

If someone has 2 operations after and ACL injury that means there was to much to repair in one operation. So extra damage. Like micheal owen he had 2 ops because it wasn't just an ACL injury. To protect his value thay just say ACL. Theo was the same he had 2 ops. His knee is probably worse than people on here imagine. And you can see he doesn't trust it turning /pivoting on that leg like sanogo. Never mind a 50:50.

You could see sonogo couldnt pivot on his injured leg to shoot so his body shape was always wrong and hed miss or mishit the ball.
theo cant twist quickly at speed on that leg. thats why he runs straight into people now and looks like a dick.

speedy wrote:

theo cant twist quickly at speed on that leg. thats why he runs straight into people now and looks like a dick.

[font=Source Sans Pro]Nice medical(ly) explanation of his jogging out of sight from the action or cheaply losing balls.[/font]
[font=Source Sans Pro]made up word[/font]

You can see him want to try a twist with his body shape and then he chickens out like someone on a bungee cord not being able to jump.

He probably is trying his best, but the fans will turn against him and things like this are why players don't care about fans. They don't get loyalty from them.

How is that young striker we bought from Ajax (I think)? he was highly rated.

We're playing a very strong team against villa u21

Chambers, coq, caz, and Campbell, all in the starting lineup

Willock has scored again. 1-1 with the second half just about to kick off.

We have to put Willock with Thierry this summer for some intensive finishing practice - he could beocme a monster if he can really up that part of his game.

He's beating people without even trying here. Taking the piss.

Just tuned in to watch Willocks assist. Just beats his man effortlessly before putting in a lovely cross.

2-1

2-1 Arsenal. Mavididi!

Willock returns the favour for Mavididi after he put it on a plate for Willock's goal in the first half. Awesome wing play from Willock, beat a couple of men all ends up and then put a left footed cross on Mavididi's head.

Willock is great. Lads looks knackered and yet picks the ball up on the halfway line, beats his man a couple of times to get to the byline and eventually wins a corner.

Willock is absolute done for, dead on his feet! 😆

Then all of a sudden he runs 50 yards with the ball to win a corner out of nothing.

3-1! Good work from Jeff, good ball from Willock and great finish from Mavididi.

Brilliant finish from Mavididi. He's had a good game. Great team goal and lovely little dribble and lay off assist from that man Willock.

Bielik has been impressive at the back, reminds me of Mert.

😆

Dula's boy, Tafari Moore has looked really good in this one too, after a really bad time of it with injuries. Bielik has done alot of good defending under pressure in this second half too.

Edit - There you go again stealing my lines! 🙂

Good game. Villa made a good game of it but there was some really good stuff on show from our boys.

That Villa right back will see Willock in his nightmares tonight.

enjoyable game. finally out of the 2nd division after like 3 seasons.

This is the most recent video compilation of Willock on Youtube. He looks the goods, although the quality of opposition is obviously not Premier League standard.

whenever i see players like him i think of jay-z's line "Check out my swag yo, I walk like a ballplayer"

I know that perhaps he's not as "sexy" as Fortune or Malen, but what do our reserves-watchers make of Stephy Mavididi? He's been amongst the goals and assists quite a bit in recent weeks. Just a case of being older/more physically developed?

El Genio de Oviedo wrote:

I know that perhaps he's not as "sexy" as Fortune or Malen, but what do our reserves-watchers make of Stephy Mavididi? He's been amongst the goals and assists quite a bit in recent weeks. Just a case of being older/more physically developed?

He's still only 17 and he's not that strong or tall - I wouldn't say he has a particular advantage physically. I'm not blown away by him but that's mainly because there's nothing extraordinary in his game. He is a very solid player, strong across the board. He has good movement in the box, when working the channels or trying to get in behind - there's an intelligence behind what he's doing. His touch is good under pressure and he links play well, he's also a threat when he runs with the ball when he gets played into space. His finishing is good with both feet and with his head he's half decent too. He also runs tirelessly and is a proper team player. Got good pace and is a good athlete.

I wouldn't say he has starting striker written all over him but maybe he still has a future at Arsenal. Iwobi has shown that being technically sound and intelligent in most of what you do can go along way at Arsenal. He doesn't have Akpom's 'x-factor' in his game - Akpom has phenomenal acceleration and is a better dribbler/more tricky, but Mavididi has a more solid all-round game and is a better finisher.

It'll probably depend largely on how Wenger rates him and what chances he is given as a result. When you see the lump that is Giroud up front playing how he has since January, well, let's just say that standard isn't very high, is it?

I see nothing but hustle and bustle in Mavididi and think he is a poor man's Afobe who had a better eye for goals.
I think he will be easily contained when he comes up against stronger and faster defenders.
Also am i wrong to not see the x-factor in Akpom?
He was a wunderkid so do you think we messed up his development by promoting him to play 2 years above his age group?

You might not be wrong about Mavididi, Iwobi has given me pause for thought on some on these kids because I just didn't see it coming with him. Mavididi, for example, was completely nullified by Man City's defenders in the semi of the FA Youth Cup at the Emirates - didn't get a kick. In terms of a comparison to Afobe, I don't think there's much at all between Afobe and Mavididi, but then I never did rate Afobe that highly.

No, you're not wrong on Akpom either. He has had a three years that would have been hard to imagine when he was 16/17 years old and doing big things for our U21s. I don't think it is playing against older players that has hurt him. I think his problem, and I don't want to be unkind, is whilst he has a great attitude; wants to improve and work really hard, he's not a very intelligent footballer. And it's usually the smart ones that improve because they understand what parts of their game they have to work on and then set about making that happen. Akpom still has a dodgy first touch and he still can't hit a ball any better than Chamakh - still the same as when he was 15. And because he can't score goals now he's moved up to proper football, his confidence has dropped and the rest of his game looks worse for it.

To be fair i shouldn't base my opinion based on style because, credit to him on being the top scorer in his league.
I remember Ian Wright also not being aesthetically pleasing to the eye but his goals and enthusiasm make one of my all time favourite players.
Henry may have been something else but Ian Wright gave me so much more joy.

Wrighty had amazing imagination and flair in his finishing. That's a very exciting thing to watch. I remember his volley against Schmeichel in the 1993 Charity Shield - I was there at Wembley as a little boy. You don't see that much at all these days. Wrighty had fantastic technique where it mattered.

You might be thinking of Nketiah as the top scorer. He got 24 goals for the U18s and finished top scorer. Mavididi got 11 for the U21s and the top scorer in the League got 12.

Yup. The guy from your video.
Like marriner i sent off the wrong player.

As for Nketiah, i know nothing about him but liked what i saw.
Any excuse to post one of my favourite highlight reels as it brings back so many memories from matches i went to.

Some of those goals are just ridiculous. They guy was a genius. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say he was a better finisher than Thierry. The range of finishes is incredible.

Shame he never properly got into coaching. Imagine the kids at Arsenal learning about sticking the ball in the net from him? His story is one they could learn a lot from too.

As for Nketiah. He's certainly no Ian Wright, but he does seem a genuinely fantastic finisher.

Reiss Nelson has scored again, against Denmark for the U17s out in Azerbaijan in the European Championships. It's half time, currently 1-0 England. That now 3 goals in 2 and a half games, joint leading scorer in the tournament. 9 goals in 9 games if you include the qualifiers. Top scorer in those too. From the right wing, for an average England side.

Ricky1985 wrote:

Some of those goals are just ridiculous. They guy was a genius. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say he was a better finisher than Thierry. The range of finishes is incredible.

Shame he never properly got into coaching. Imagine the kids at Arsenal learning about sticking the ball in the net from him? His story is one they could learn a lot from too.

As for Nketiah. He's certainly no Ian Wright, but he does seem a genuinely fantastic finisher.

i don't think many would dispute that.

@lorddulaarsenal wrote:

Knew you start to like him Tricks

Always loved him but I still hate his shooting technique. It's very strange. Almost like he swings his hip at it or something, falls over nearly every time. Would become a much better player if he can improve it further than he has already this season.

He is the maziest of mazy dribblers though.

5 days later

Donyell Malen's Dutch side have been knocked out of the European Championships in the semi-finals by Joao Virginia's Portugal (although he hasn't got off the bench yet).

Not a good tournament at all for Malen. Missed some sitters, according to reports, and ended up without a goal or an assist in 5 games. Has to call into question his potential, especially given Reiss Nelson did really well in a terrible England side.

Thanks Ricky.
I'm embarrassed to admit that i've never watched Mavididi closely enough.
Of course i've watched the youth team but i have mostly concentrated on the usual suspects (Jeff, Crowley, Reiss, Willock and Bielik).

I know those are highlights but hope that is his natural game as i like his instinct of where to run, as a striker.
Wrighty, as you know, was the king of that and it forces the passer to send the ball immediately.
That's why i also loved Limpar.
I also like that he is not afraid to use his swinger instead of that extra turn which often means chance gone.

Yeah, that video is a good representation of his strengths and weaknesses. He's a good, but not great, finisher at this level. Moves well in the box, runs the channels well and always a threat on the shoulder.

Didn't get a kick off the Man City defence over the two legs of the semi-final in the youth Cup though and I'm not sure he has enough to make it here but wouldn't write him off.