Arsenal Reserves & Youths

Eddie Nketiah with a hat trick in the U23 game, all three of which were pretty good - and very different - finishes. As far as I can tell, that is three goals in 362 minutes in the U23s, two goals and an assist in 107 minutes with the U19 team in European play, and 9 goals in 8 matches for the U18s. He is about 17 and a half right now.

I have only seen limited highlights but he seems to be a very composed player with a good eye for goal and, perhaps most promisingly, not a kid who is dominating his level due to superior physicality or speed.

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ā€œFreddie Ljungberg instructed him to take on a more individualist approachā€ - love it that Freddie is back with us again. I like Nelson a lot - many qualities that arenā€™t traditionally ā€œEnglishā€ - hope he continues to develop.

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Iā€™ll be surprised if by this time next year Nelson hasnā€™t debuted for the first team. Wenger has spoken in the past about the physical capacity of young players and how Willock & Zelalem maybe lack in that regard, Nelson doesnā€™t seem to have those problems.

Very exciting talent.

We drew 1-1 against Basel and are out of the UEFA Youth League.

On the bright side, Nketiah scored again. This kid is a machine at youth level - 34 goals in 37 U18 matches from last year and this year combined, 3 goals and an assist in about 200 minutes in the U19 UEFA games this fall, and 3 goals in 378 minutes in U23 action this fall.

Pretty disappointing that with talents like Nelson, Nketiah, Willock, Malen, Reine Adelaide, Bielik they couldnā€™t make it out of the group stageā€¦I guess the problem there is that only one of those players is a defender, and none of them are really centre midfielders (despite JRA being played there a few gamesā€“today too?).

Could be that JRA is being played there to expand upon his skillset, as opposed to transitoning permenantly.


http://www.arsenal.com/assets/_files/images/dec_16/gun__1482481790_Nelson_Wenger_1_161219MAFC.jpg

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That assist by Bennacer :clap:

https://streamable.com/xkwcr

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According to ESPN, Gedion Zelalem (19) is nearing a move to Borussia Dortmund. The midfielder is out of contract at Arsenal this summer. pic.twitter.com/123qG4vZhJ

ā€” Scouted Football (@ScoutedFtbl) January 9, 2017

The American is clearly talented, but hasn't had many opportunities to shine. Hard to find a more exciting project than Tuchel & Dortmund.

ā€” Scouted Football (@ScoutedFtbl) January 9, 2017

Not good enough

That is ridiculous pass - the weight, accuracy and threading it through that mass of defendersā€¦ really impressive. Havenā€™t heard much about him in a while. How is he progressing?

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Jon Toral has left Granada CF after Arsenal recalled him from a season-long loan.

Rangers bound.

Nice little message there, from Granada, ā€œGranada CF wants to wish the best of luck to a player who always defended with absolute professionalism and was scored a beautiful goal against Osasuna in this seasonā€™s Copa del Rey.ā€

Should get more game time at Rangers though.

Not sure but this suggests heā€™s doing quite well.

one for the futureā€¦5 or 6 years timeā€¦

Zelalem on the bench for U23s todayā€¦Jeff again played in the middle (AMN-Jeff pivot :open_mouth:).

I guess heā€™s really off to Dortmund? Not really Gnabry level stuff, but what happened to loaning players instead of selling them? Why the hell was he kept here this season anyways?

Perhaps weā€™ve seen sense. The less Wellington Silvaā€™s the better. :slight_smile:

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Why?

Because eternally loaning players out year after year after year is utterly pointless.

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