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General Reserves Talk
- Thread starter M+D
- Start date
- Replies 11,775
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Country: Iceland
BobP
Memri Fan
Congratulations to Kwame Ampadu on being given a chance to coach the U18s.
Little know fact: He's a legendary Ghanaian artist, as well as having played football at a decent level, what a life, so much accomplished, in so little time.
Little know fact: He's a legendary Ghanaian artist, as well as having played football at a decent level, what a life, so much accomplished, in so little time.
Jack the lad
Active Member
@MutableEarth i wanted to get your opinion of same of our younger players.
We now have four pretty decent youth strikers. Who of them has the most chance of making it here. I think Akpom attitude stinks. Mavidi is extremely hard working and has the right attitude and has been improving. Malen seems like a little terrier and has bags of natural talent. I know very little of Nketiah, what kind of striker is he?
Akpom
Mavidi
Malen
Nketiah
We now have four pretty decent youth strikers. Who of them has the most chance of making it here. I think Akpom attitude stinks. Mavidi is extremely hard working and has the right attitude and has been improving. Malen seems like a little terrier and has bags of natural talent. I know very little of Nketiah, what kind of striker is he?
Akpom
Mavidi
Malen
Nketiah
BobP
Memri Fan
Don't think Akpom's attitude stinks, he's definitely driven to succeed and do the best he can but I think that his approach obscures him from the fact that football is a team sport. If you watch him for us in preseason or at Hull, you'll see that he only wants goals and is often dead set against passing to a teammate in a better position if he has a chance to take a shot.
Swallow
Active Member
I think they are two different people. Nana Kwame Ampadu, should be much older than the youth coach at arsenal (Patrick Kwame Ampadu). It is true though that Nana Kwame Ampadu played some footie. He played for Accra Hearts of Oaks and Okwahu United here in Ghana. I stand corrected though. I will do some more research into it.
By the way, nice tune up there "Kofi Nkrabea (Destiny)" played on the popular palmwine highlife guitar chordal progression "Dagomba in C".
I'm a fan of all four, I'm interested to see how they develop in the coming seasons. They all have a chance to make it IMO.
Akpom: I don't think his attitude stinks - he's certainly very hungry and determined but he hasn't really channeled that meaningfully so far in matches. He has a very good all-round game when he's switched on and not always thinking about goals - he can dribble, links play well and can be very clever at times. His shooting lacks composure at times which really hampers him as a goalscorer. Wenger alluded to this aswell, said he needs calmness in the final third to realize his potential. He has a chance but it requires a good deal of work.
Mavididi: In some ways, very similar to Akpom. Athletic and technical with good link-up play. Perhaps a major difference being that he's more selfless as a player and perhaps a tad more composed in the final third. He's not as exciting a player, with Akpom's dribbling being an advantage, but Mavididi is no slouch on the ball. Mavididi has a solid all-round game and he can end up being one of the darkhorses in the set-up, he has a good chance.
Malen: Out of the 4, he's probably the most talked about so far this season. Every youth game, people want to know if he's playing, much like everyone asks about Crowley and Jeff. In all honesty, he has lived up to the billing most of the time - he's very exciting. I see shades of Suarez in style of play - a technically gifted player with a high work-rate and a rugged approach to the game. Like Akpom, he can be a tad selfish, but he's more composed in the final 3rd.
Nketiah: This is the guy that almost nobody is talking about, but he's building a very solid reputation for himself and I cannot wait to see him in U21s and beyond. He's a very, very good finisher. He knows where to be and he doesn't f*ck about in the box. He's not the biggest guy, but he's quick, anticipates attacking situations extremely well and is a very good technical player on top of it. He's kinda Suarez-ish but not in terms of intensity but with his poise and technique in the final 3rd.
All of these guys have a chance to do extremely well - conversely, they could all end up not making it, but we've gone from a situation where we struggled for youth strikers to now where we have some very talented young forwards at our disposal to go with the many other versatile attacking talents we have at youth level.
Jack the lad
Active Member
Thanks for the information. What do you think about Bieliks progress? I have only seen him handful of times but i think he has done quite well. Obviously his first games very not of high standards but i think he is one of the best prospects in the youth setup from what i have seen.
He's been OK. I won't lie - I expected him to be better than he is considering he's actually played senior football, but he has looked pretty good lately and I'd like to see where he ends up. Thing is, in terms of talent, we do have players who are capable of eclipsing him - perhaps we're short in the CB area other than Pleguezuelo, but it is probably because he's not as good in midfield as a talent like, say Ben Sheaf. I know that Wenger is a fan of Bennacer aswell, although personally I'm a big fan of Marcus McGuane. Think he could be a proper talent in the holding midfield position.
We should start pinning @MutableEarth's analyses on the academy players, feels like he's having to repeat himself for us every time 
Lancelot
Established Member
I'm sure he likes to write about them. I'll probably never get bored of his posts, to be perfectly honest. They were passionate and extremely well-written.
On a side note, so... we've 2 Suarezes coming up through the ranks, then.
On a side note, so... we've 2 Suarezes coming up through the ranks, then.
Country: Iceland
The youth is something Wenger needs to go back too if he will stay here for longer.
I'm not talking about something crazy, giving youth chances to start every week or something like that. But there were so many games this season where Wenger played Flamini, Arteta, Mertesacker, Debuchy and so on and on when he could have developed Chambers further for an example.
Our attack was crying out for something new and fresh a long time ago and he still plays Giroud and Walcott who have proven they should be given to the sharks after this season.
He wanted to do the save thing and bet on his senior players, clearly all the way til the end of season. And it has failed him massively.
I'm not talking about something crazy, giving youth chances to start every week or something like that. But there were so many games this season where Wenger played Flamini, Arteta, Mertesacker, Debuchy and so on and on when he could have developed Chambers further for an example.
Our attack was crying out for something new and fresh a long time ago and he still plays Giroud and Walcott who have proven they should be given to the sharks after this season.
He wanted to do the save thing and bet on his senior players, clearly all the way til the end of season. And it has failed him massively.
Suarez is special though. Although I take umbrage to some of his on-field antics - particularly his attempt to f*ck with Evra by way of racial abuse, I didn't want us to sign him because of that - he is a player not just of outstanding technical quality and endeavor but with an immense amount of hunger and desire to win. If our young strikers can match that, they'll be stars, but very few can match that level of hunger. Suarez is out of this world right now. I like Malen's endeavor, he's a very intense player. Nketiah is more clever. They would need an opportunity before we ever discover just how hunger they are, that includes Mavididi and even Akpom.I'm sure he likes to write about them. I'll probably never get bored of his posts, to be perfectly honest. They were passionate and extremely well-written.
On a side note, so... we've 2 Suarezes coming up through the ranks, then.
Sometimes it's like that, although as pointed out, I definitely don't mind talking about it. I will say - sometimes my analysis changes with time so it doesn't hurt revisiting some of my earlier views.We should start pinning @MutableEarth's analyses on the academy players, feels like he's having to repeat himself for us every time
Lancelot
Established Member
Speaking of persisting with his seemingly favourite players, I think there are 2 layers of issues that need to be addressed.
The 1st would be, like you've just said, first team 'squadies' like Chambers and Campbell, both of whom have had far too little game time considering that those who got picked by the gaffer ahead of them didn't exactly play well enough to keep their spots.
The 2nd would then be our reserve players. Once the first-team pecking order has been exhausted throughout, you start giving these chaps a go at the premier stage where it matters.
About that, I'm more inclined towards the ideas that Wenger has yet to find a settled set of players that he want to start most of our matches with, and he most likely doesn't want to delve into our reserve players for solutions unless he is completely certain that the ones in our first team are not good enough.
Someone might see it as he is being responsible but more often than not he left it way too late to get rid of the deadwood and we've suffered as a result; I call it complacency.
Definitely a different Nana Ampadu. I was actually listening to Nana Ampadu and Senior Eddie Donkor last weekend .It's interesting that I'm seeing a lot more Ghanaian names among the kids these days. I wonder if he's had anything to do with that.
it is the results we have been having.
We're rarely hitting 3-4 goals now, and that means we have to stick with the tried and the trusted.
Once we start finishing off teams before HT, the youth should get more chances to run out in low-intensity games.
Country: Iceland
We are not hitting 3-4 goals because the tried and trusted are not good enough.
It should call for more risk and giving youth who have fresh ideas a chance to show they can be better.
We really had nothing to lose, as soon as we saw that our top players were not up for it, and that was in february.
Country: Iceland
@MutableEarth
Where do you position Yassi Fortune so far? He has gone a little under radar after some promising clips last summer.
Where do you position Yassi Fortune so far? He has gone a little under radar after some promising clips last summer.
samshere
Why so serieuse?
Yeah, every game is a battle in the PL. Imagine throwing on a youngster that actively causes us to lose the match. That'll scar the kid for life.
Been OK, not stood out too much since his earlier games but he clearly has ability and technique. Kinda reminds me of Martial in style, have the same kind of physiqye and poise. Get the feeling that the club see him as a winger, not a CF. Reckon he'll get better next season.
Country: Iceland
