Ethan Nwaneri: Dortmund Germanation

[Melquiades]

Similar to MLS last season, never given a proper chance and rotations were zero.

I hope he has a good loan or moves somewhere else if Madueke keeps taking his spot.

Stuff like this hurts my head.

MLS made 36 appearances and 19 starts in all comps last year at age 18-19 and played nearly 2000 minutes. How is that 'not being given a chance'?

Probably the single biggest reason the title charge fizzled in 24-25 was because two teenagers played in so many EPL games and just weren't very good and made a ton of mistakes. Last year they smartly decided to play these guys less in EPL games where we simply couldn't afford to lose and play MLS a bunch more in UCL and Cup games where the results were less important. And it worked brilliantly - we won the league and MLS saw his game mature and level up.

It's ****ing hard to be an effective 10 as a teenager in this league even for a middling team, never mind a club at our level. And Nwaneri simply hasn't been effective. This hopefully will be an excellent loan for him.

 

[Geofranco]

Stuff like this hurts my head.

MLS made 36 appearances and 19 starts in all comps last year at age 18-19 and played nearly 2000 minutes. How is that 'not being given a chance'?

Probably the single biggest reason the title charge fizzled in 24-25 was because two teenagers played in so many EPL games and just weren't very good and made a ton of mistakes. Last year they smartly decided to play these guys less in EPL games where we simply couldn't afford to lose and play MLS a bunch more in UCL and Cup games where the results were less important. And it worked brilliantly - we won the league and MLS saw his game mature and level up.

It's ****ing hard to be an effective 10 as a teenager in this league even for a middling team, never mind a club at our level. And Nwaneri simply hasn't been effective. This hopefully will be an excellent loan for him.

Nonsense. The title charge fizzled out cause all the best players kept getting injured. Ødegaard, Saka, White have by far the best chemistry and they were injured for the majority of that season after being overplayed for 3 straight seasons. Even Havertz and Jesus had injury issues, same with Partey. Injuries ruined that campaign. MLS and Nwaneri more than held their own and were very impressive for their age that season.

 

[Melquiades]

Nonsense. The title charge fizzled out cause all the best players kept getting injured. Ødegaard, Saka, White have by far the best chemistry and they were injured for the majority of that season after being overplayed for 3 straight seasons. Even Havertz and Jesus had injury issues, same with Partey. Injuries ruined that campaign. MLS and Nwaneri more than held their own and were very impressive for their age that season.

The injuries ruined the campaign in large part because they forced two 17 y/o Championship-level players into starting half the games.

They had impressive moments where they showed their talent and potential and what they could be in 2-3 years. In the big picture, though, they weren’t effective at all especially relative to the expected level of play for a title contender.

 

[grange]

Enjoy your freedom, young man. Wish I could feel the same.

 

[Tnegs]

The injuries ruined the campaign in large part because they forced two 17 y/o Championship-level players into starting half the games.

They had impressive moments where they showed their talent and potential and what they could be in 2-3 years. In the big picture, though, they weren’t effective at all especially relative to the expected level of play for a title contender.

We are 2 years on from 24/25 now and having just sold a load of attacking players and adding a grand total of 1 we are short of cover. MLS is already showing his ability to play in the first team could Nwaneri not at least earn a squad role where he played decent minutes this season?

 

[Melquiades]

We are 2 years on from 24/25 now and having just sold a load of attacking players and adding a grand total of 1 we are short of cover. MLS is already showing his ability to play in the first team could Nwaneri not at least earn a squad role where he played decent minutes this season?

This is a different argument than the notion that 'MLS was never given a chance last year'.

I would have liked to see him on the squad as well. And if this was 2021 I'm sure he would have been. But our level is so high now and our tolerance/margin for sub-par performances so low that it's difficult to carry a guy like this if he isn't ready to perform at a really high level.

And the guy is 19 trying to play an incredibly difficult position. Guys like De Bruyne and Ødegaard were 22-23 before they really did anything in this position/role.

He needs game time and a good loan. Hopefully this will be it. And in the bigger picture if he plays 2000-3000 minutes for Dortmund this year that's a hell of a lot better than playing 800 as a squaddie here, in the bigger picture.

 

[GDeep™]

Will be watching a lot of Dortmund.

 

[Tnegs]

This is a different argument than the notion that 'MLS was never given a chance last year'.

I would have liked to see him on the squad as well. And if this was 2021 I'm sure he would have been. But our level is so high now and our tolerance/margin for sub-par performances so low that it's difficult to carry a guy like this if he isn't ready to perform at a really high level.

And the guy is 19 trying to play an incredibly difficult position. Guys like De Bruyne and Ødegaard were 22-23 before they really did anything in this position/role.

He needs game time and a good loan. Hopefully this will be it. And in the bigger picture if he plays 2000-3000 minutes for Dortmund this year that's a hell of a lot better than playing 800 as a squaddie here, in the bigger picture.

Foden at that age was getting decent minutes 1500+ in a City team full of top quality attacking talent. Is the level of talent up front in our side really that great we can’t afford to give minutes to Nwaneri?

 

[blaze_of_glory]

Read there is an unconditional recall clause for January if we want to use it, has that been confirmed?

 

[Big Nate]

Read there is an unconditional recall clause for January if we want to use it, has that been confirmed?

Yeah

 

[Melquiades]

Foden at that age was getting decent minutes 1500+ in a City team full of top quality attacking talent. Is the level of talent up front in our side really that great we can’t afford to give minutes to Nwaneri?

Not all players are equal at the same age and Foden was turning in a hell of a lot more impressive performances at the same age than Nwaneri has.

Plus the other issue here is that Dowman is a freak and his development has put him ahead of Nwaneri in Nwaneri's secondary position at RW.

 

[A_G]

 

[outlawz]

Nonsense. The title charge fizzled out cause all the best players kept getting injured. Ødegaard, Saka, White have by far the best chemistry and they were injured for the majority of that season after being overplayed for 3 straight seasons. Even Havertz and Jesus had injury issues, same with Partey. Injuries ruined that campaign. MLS and Nwaneri more than held their own and were very impressive for their age that season.

They also were also injured for periods last season. The difference was that all the new signings carried the flak and pulled us through.

 

[Geofranco]

The injuries ruined the campaign in large part because they forced two 17 y/o Championship-level players into starting half the games.

They had impressive moments where they showed their talent and potential and what they could be in 2-3 years. In the big picture, though, they weren’t effective at all especially relative to the expected level of play for a title contender.

Ruined the campaign? The team finished 2nd in the league and went to the semifinals in the UCL lol. MLS was amazing in a lot of those games. Nwaneri was more hit or miss, but still showed very good end product and technical ability in the EPL and UCL.

 

[Sanchez11]

Upto 4m loan fee, more coin for coffers!

 

[DuBB]

I hope this loan goes well, but most importantly, I hope that as a club, we are planning the outcomes for both possibilities (Good Loan and Poor Loan).

Good Loan

This will require that the loan officers, scouts, data team and player recruitment are keeping an active eye on him and how he's doing. If he plays consistent minutes in certain positions, and is showing signs of fulfilling his potential, we should be actively planning for how to reintegrate him into our squad ASAP. That involves preparing for the eventual sale or moving on of the person he will be replacing in the squad. If he is playing and progressing centrally as an 8/10, or even an 8/9/10, we should begin to actively but quietly plan to move Merino next summer. If he's on the verge of true stardom, there may need to be an assessment of the Ode/Eze thing. But that's dreaming big. If he begins to flourish out wide as a RW or right sided attacker, then Noni should be the person we're putting out feelers for and offering to clubs.

Poor Loan

If things begin to show signs of not being so spectacular. I don't mean he doesn't play at all, but maybe the data, analysis and eye test shows that he may not reach the levels, it's time to actively and pre-emptively plan on a sale. And that will probably mean selling him at a time where most fans won't understand that he isn't quite the guy yet aka what happened to Smith Rowe. We sold him at the right time. Many thought he could still have a shot here, but one more season of misuse or not progressing, and he'd be stuck here like Reiss.

But the work needs to starts now. None of that "assess the landscape he gets back" sh*t.

Either way, I'm happy to have a reason to watch Dortmund games now. When I'm not watching Arsenal, I prefer to watch European football over random PL games, so hopefully he gets into the team and I can watch a Dortmund game or 2 a week.

 

[TakeChillPill]

We are 2 years on from 24/25 now and having just sold a load of attacking players and adding a grand total of 1 we are short of cover. MLS is already showing his ability to play in the first team could Nwaneri not at least earn a squad role where he played decent minutes this season?

We signed Madueke, Arteta wanted him. And despite being a pile of turd of a player, he's being stubborn and sticking to him.

 

[NieThePiet]

Ethan coming on after 30 minutes, because Mane got injured.

 

[DuBB]

Ethan coming on after 30 minutes, because Mane got injured.

I'm watching the match too. Gonna give some thoughts and impressions at the end, if I have any.

They started with 3 at the back, LCB got injured, Ethan came one, switch to a Back 4, so far (only 5-10 minutes) Ethan seems to be occupying a Left 8/10 position, but because of the switch in formation things haven't settled and things are a bit sloppy. No consistent possession for either side.

I'll see how the rest of the match goes

 

[grange]

I'm afraid we screwed this loan up as well. Dortmund are terrible back.