Claudius wrote:
jones wrote:
He has more end product than Nelson and even if he didn't these are 20 year old kids end product is not the primary factor to judge a youth player on. Saka is better at LB than further forward for me anyway. We should be more concerned with Nelson, he was supposed to be knocking down the door but instead has regressed from his time in Hoffenheim. He's way too timid, either the competition gets him up or he can be sold to Eddie Howe for 50m.
Question - do you think Nelson is a failure or we are unfairly comparing him to Sancho? He's regressed from Hoffenheim but he really only had a hot 3 month period. It's not like he dominated an entire season. Does he need more time to just grow into himself?
I never cared about the dumb Sancho comparisons. It's not like they're twins or anything why does it matter to anyone if two friends have diverging career trajectories.
Calling Nelson a failure is far too early and yes it's not like he tore up the league in his appearances but there are some troubling signs. He looked a lot more energetic whenever he had the chance to play last season, here he looks laboured and does nothing with real conviction. He's fast enough to leave most defenders behind him but whenever he manages to gain a step you can tell he's hesitant and afraid of making a mistake, slows down and plays the safe option. Compare with Saka who never overthinks and plays on instinct.
Nelson's interviews also show that he's not serious enough for me, last season he said he had to learn to do grocery shopping by himself then got dropped by Nagelsmann for showing up too late to training. This season he says he hopes Arteta can teach him stuff etc generally passive attitude when at this point in his career he should be a lot more purposeful and trying by himself. If he can't fix this stuff by mid/end of next season I'd sell as long as we can get a decent fee.
