Arsenal u-19's vs Barcelona u-19's

[alexafc12]

Haven't seen the game but whenever i've seen youth football the defending has been atrocious, which is completely understandable. It's easier to be an influencial midfielder aged 18 than be a solid defender at the same age. Defenders usually have a slower development curve than midfielders and wingers for example.

Plezegeulo is a really promising CB. Probably one of the best we've had in the academy for a while. O'Connor looked shaky today, normally Hayden plays there who is much better. It's more the Full-back we struggle with as their so attacking. Bellerin is more of a wing-back after being converted from a winger and Ottewill isn't good enough imo.

I think the worse thing was we had no cover for the back four with Zelalem and Olsson. Worked fine first half because they didn't break our pressing but second half when we dropped of they caused us a lot of problems.

We really need to sign a proper defensive mid as we have none in the youth team.

[Zenith]

Yeah Bellerin still has to improve a lot defensively. I think i've said it before but last year he got destroyed by Liverpool's Jordon Ibe. He did look very comfortable on the ball and it was obvious that he had a history at CM, which was his position in the Barcelona academy.

Haven't seen O'Conner play yet, was he just having an off day or did he just look like he isn't good enough?

Haven't seen Plezeguelo play either, though i've read many good things about him.

Agree about DM, Zelalem, Olssen & co are all light-weights and very attacking minded midfielders, they're not going the type of players suited to do the dirty work in the middle of the park and protect the back four.

[alexafc12]

Yeah Bellerin still has to improve a lot defensively. I think i've said it before but last year he got destroyed by Liverpool's Jordon Ibe. He did look very comfortable on the ball and it was obvious that he had a history at CM, which was his position in the Barcelona academy.

Haven't seen O'Conner play yet, was he just having an off day or did he just look like he isn't good enough?

Haven't seen Plezeguelo play either, though i've read many good things about him.

Agree about DM, Zelalem, Olssen & co are all light-weights and very attacking minded midfielders, they're not going the type of players suited to do the dirty work in the middle of the park and protect the back four.

I'm sure Bellerin was a winger for Barca?

O'Connor's one of the ones who's traits is more leadership and determination rather than actual natural talent. Was supposed to get released if I can remember but they decided to keep him on as we don't have many promising CB's at the time. Good player but he won't get pro terms. Hayden looks promoisng however Plezeguelo is really top notch from what I've seen. Just needs to beefen up a bit.

[Zenith]

Ok cheers

About Bellerin, allegedly he was used as CM, AM and RM so technically you could say he was also a winger lol.

Either way, it certainly explains why he's so comfortable on the ball and why he still has a lot of room for improvement on his defensive part of the game.

[Yago]

Heard Zelalem was underwhelming today?

You mean the 30k player? Doesnt matter he was picked to succeed long time ago.

Ludicrous if true. Even for our standards regarding wage policy.

For example Anderlecht's Youri Tielemans, born in 1997. He's shown far more than Gedion has except he's on at least 1/6th of that kind of money... but he doesn't play for Arsenal so he's not as hyped.

Here's a video to give you an idea... (He turned 16 just weeks before this game)



On transfermarkt he's head and shoulders the most valuable player of his age category, valued €7m.

http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/suche ... rchId=6576

Tielemans is way overhyped here in Belgium too. He certainly has talent, but he hasn't played that much for a very, very weak Anderlecht side. Having an idiot as coach helps, but imo Zelalem has shown far more talent.

[Zenith]

Can you blame a kid who just turned 16 for not being a regular in an Anderlecht side that had one of the worst managers in the past 2 decades? Zelalem wouldn't have played more than Tielemans had with this plonker in charge.

I'm not an Anderlecht fan myself but for the sake Belgium's most successful club it's good that they got rid of him. JVDB couldn't lose a game without publicly blaming either his own players or the referee, without even considering the possibility it might be his own doing. Yes they are in "transition period" and are relying on a young group of players, but even so he has underperformed horribly and therefore it's a good thing they got rid of this very mediocre manager.

At the end of the day it's impossible to predict which player will become better but if Tielemans is overhyped, then so is any talented 16-17 year old kid, including Zelalem which is ridiculous considering how incredibly promising they look for players of their age.

A young player makes an impressive debut for the senior team, then ends up playing less, or has a few less impressive games and the first thing you'll hear is people shouting how overrated/overhyped he is.

Hype always surrounds young, talented players like Zelalem and Tielemans, it's inevitable but I don't understand why people are so quick to use "over" in front of the words "hyped" and "rated".

[Yago]

Can you blame a kid who just turned 16 for not being a regular in an Anderlecht side that had one of the worst managers in the past 2 decades? Zelalem wouldn't have played more than Tielemans had with this plonker in charge.

I'm not an Anderlecht fan myself but for the sake Belgium's most successful club it's good that they got rid of him. JVDB couldn't lose a game without publicly blaming either his own players or the referee, without even considering the possibility it might be his own doing. Yes they are in "transition period" and are relying on a young group of players, but even so he has underperformed horribly and therefore it's a good thing they got rid of this very mediocre manager.

At the end of the day it's impossible to predict which player will become better but if Tielemans is overhyped, then so is any talented 16-17 year old kid, including Zelalem which is ridiculous considering how incredibly promising they look for players of their age.

A young player makes an impressive debut for the senior team, then ends up playing less, or has a few less impressive games and the first thing you'll hear is people shouting how overrated/overhyped he is.

Hype always surrounds young, talented players like Zelalem and Tielemans, it's inevitable but I don't understand why people are so quick to use "over" in front of the words "hyped" and "rated".

Yeah, I agree with all of this. I was just saying I didn't believe Tielemans is at this stage necessarily better than Zelalem. I expect good things from both, and we'll just have to wait and see if they make it.