He's rapidly building trust, but let him do it organically. If he starts getting 20-30 mins and keeps making that sort of impact he'll be knocking the door down, which is how it should be for a young player.
Nwanners!
He's already getting twice as much of the ball as the likes of Vieira because the starters around him trust him to use it. And that's been said since he started training with the first team, which was a year ago. It's all boding very well.
While I agree with @MistaT that we should be careful to not rush him, I do think it would benefit him to see how he does starting an EPL game and dictating the flow from the start. He plays in a position where it won't be a disaster if he is a little flat but if he shines, it could be a huge boost to his confidence and open up even more opportunities moving forward. I would want the plan to be taking him off around the 55/60 minute mark so nothing close to the full 90 but let's see what he can do. It would have to be in the Ode role though with either Rice/Partey, Rice/Jorginho or Merino/Rice in the midfield with him. Needs some stability to let him thrive IMO.
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samthegooner dude, there’s really no rush. He’s been playing against kids. Our players are big guys who are used to a high level of athleticism. You can see how Timber and Calafiori, two experienced professionals, are running out of steam in our games. So let Nwaneri ease into the team. He has 15 years of his career ahead of hi.
For sure a full 90 mins vs Preston as that game is tightly squeezed between Liverpool and Newcastle.
Three games in five days already happening by the end of October….fucking hell
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MistaT For sure a full 90 mins vs Preston as that game is tightly squeezed between Liverpool and Newcastle.
Three games in five days already happening by the end of October….fucking hell
With 3 away games in 6 days to Newcastle, Inter and Chelsea to close off that stretch of games and start November off with a bang.
It sounds bad on paper but in reality not so bad.
Newcastle away Sat 2nd at 12.30
Inter away Wed 6th
Chelsea away Sunday 1630
Plenty of recovery time between those games. All beatable teams but one game at a time etc
Newcastle are shit. Inter are manageable. Chelsea have a a very tricky transition offense. But their defense is absolutely shocking. If we can manage that dynamic, we are fine.
teams with shitty defenses and great attacks scare me because our finishing is so poor we aren't built to take advantage of shitty defenses.
Claudius Like @Clrnc said, if you're good enough, you're old enough. Not sure how you can look at what he's done in the limited opportunities he's had in PRESSURE packed conditions, both this weekend chasing a game and at Spurs defending the game, and think that we need to go overboard on easing him in. If that was the case then he should be playing with the youth teams.
Arteta clearly thinks he's good enough and let Vieira leave as a result. I don't want to rush him in either, but at this point, he's shown he's got the quality so I think it would be good for his development to start introducing more minutes and different conditions than just coming in as a sub. At the very least, it will give us an idea of how ready he is for certain circumstances when we actually might need him with the congested fixture list that is being referenced above.
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Clrnc the development of the human body is not so straightforward. Children shouldn't have their careers compromised just because they're talented, nor should they be expected to have the requisite stamina and resilience of a more mature player. You have to consider these factors. You are old enough when you are old enough, and that's different for everyone.
Yes but you shouldn’t baby them too much. You should play on merit and after that 20 min cameo on the weekend (following his MOM Carabo Cup performance) he deserves mins. Let’s not overthink it just because he’s young.
Cesc, who looked weaker physically than Ethan at the same age, played at 17 in 2005/2006 no problem and didn’t look out of place with some of our legendary players at the time.
At the risk of talking far too much about a 17 year old's body online, Nwaneri is already built pretty powerfully especially for his age. Look at him next to the rest of the team - who are all at least a few years older and all on the top of the curve for physicality in the current EPL. He does not look weak at all and has shown it already by riding challenges from grown men in the minutes we have seen. I do agree that you should be careful but this isn't a Patino scenario where he clearly was not physically ready - Ethan looks the part.
samthegooner
Agreed and he looks much more ready than someone like Vieria from 2 years ago, despite being older, looked like a kid.
Sicario2 - Tier 1 it's not about babying. It's about player health. They have information we don't, about muscle balance, coordination, skeletal maturity, etc. They also have endurance metrics and monitor growth and development as these factors rapidly change in a crucial period of this kid's life. I would love to see him start, for footballing reasons, but let's not pretend it's simple or that everyone is the same. I personally believe that Cesc aged rapidly, and I wouldn't be surprised if playing so much at a young age was part of the reason (could also have nothing to do with it, that's the point, we don't know).
Yep. Lamal is playing at Barcelona. If he's ready, he's ready. And Arteta says he's ready.
All I’m saying is this kid hasn’t played at this level of physical intensity before. We see veterans trying to play our football and dying of cramps. There’s nothing wrong with easing him in over a few weeks. The season is really long. The guy will play
Season long now is his chance for league minutes while half our midfield is on the comeback from injury. Bloody glad we have him, he looks like he might win a match for us in the upcoming weeks.
Not saying he needs to play ninety minutes, but I think the problem's more likely to be a lack of minutes over time, as it has been with others.
Burnwinter by the time Odegaard comes back, we will probably have played another 8-10 games. We are not short of opportunities for Nwaneri to eventually get some starts.