General Hale End Talk

[MutableEarth]

Bailey-Joseph finally touched the ball and created our best opening. Why are we not passing him the ball all the time? Every match, he has to claw his way into games by force and still manages to be much better than the rest of the team when he's on the ball.

 

[MutableEarth]

Worst game I've seen from the u19/u18 youth team all season.

 

[teamsoutheast]

We lost 5-1. Much better in the 2nd half but an all round poor performance.

 

[Rasmi]

Think we constantly get battered at this level. We could end up last in the U19 CL group. Outside of having produced 2-3 really good players, the standard of Arsenal youth teams have been abysmal for the amount of money this club have

 

[Geofranco]

Think we constantly get battered at this level. We could end up last in the U19 CL group. Outside of having produced 2-3 really good players, the standard of Arsenal youth teams have been abysmal for the amount of money this club have

The team needs to get better at selling talent and performing better in Europe. The performances against the other top European clubs have been awful since getting back into the UCL.

 

[Jason Jace]

I have never seen win a game in UYL

 

[MutableEarth]

I have never seen win a game in UYL

We beat PSG last season. Annous scored the only goal. There was another win last season aswell. This season been pretty poor, even though the first couple of performances were somewhat encouraging.

 

[BaZZe]

It would be nice if the Academy team won games but unlike the first team that's not the actual objective. The objective is to develop top talent players for the first team and in that regard we've been more successful than any other big 6 team in that regard the last couple of years by a healthy distance. So I don't really see a reason for us to change our approach.

 

[MutableEarth]

It would be nice if the Academy team won games but unlike the first team that's not the actual objective. The objective is to develop top talent players for the first team and in that regard we've been more successful than any other big 6 team in that regard the last couple of years by a healthy distance. So I don't really see a reason for us to change our approach.

I understand where you're coming from and I don't necessarily think we should completely change our approach. I still think we are behind Cobham though - as much as we may appear to treat our players less like commodities (which is only marginal IMO, Arsenal are still a business after all), we do not get value for our better youngsters who perhaps don't quite make it at Arsenal nor do we always handle their development with some level of clarity and urgency; and our coaching post-Hale End is leaving a lot to be desired. It is still to our credit that we have produced some really quality players though, even the ones who've left in recent seasons. But there is still more work to be done and I'm not going to go too far to praise Mertesacker yet.

 

[MutableEarth]

Separately, I've been very impressed with Andre Harriman-Annous' foray into first team football. A player I've long thought had a shot at bigger things based on his ability and attitude. Only thing he needs to work on is his propensity to go missing at times.
Some weeks ago, I said these things after an U21 win against Newport County in the EFL Trophy:

Andre Harriman-Annous had something of a breakout game tonight IMO, it's one of the most impressive all-round CF games I've seen in a while and I hope he builds on it. Up against EFL CBs, albeit League 2 level (and Newport haven't exactly lit the league up), he ran the channels superbly and pinned them when he had to. On more than one occasion he brought impossible balls down out of the sky and launched attacks. The flashpoint was when he won a penalty just before the hour mark as we were 1-0 down. Annous, like Dowman, tends to win a lot of penalties due to his quick feet in the box. However on this occasion, he stepped up and missed his penalty as the goalie saved it. It wasn't a great penalty and there was an element of fear to it. What happened next impressed me a lot. 3 mins later, he gets the ball outside the area and weaves in and out of a bunch of defenders and wins another penalty. Undeterred by his previous miss, he stepped up to level the score. His performance was very impressive and his stock with me has appreciated strongly.

Yeah Annous definitely has a shot just based on his skillset. He has very good technique and seems to be coping against physical defenders pretty well when he receives the ball. I've often remarked that a game that Annous receives the ball often is a good game for the team as a whole. He's struggled this season just due to the lack of real creativity in games this season and hasn't received the ball in the right areas as often as he'd like. The few chances he's managed to get, he had squandered largely but he has really started to get into games more. The mentality he showed to bully his way into another penalty was top notch for a player with his skillset. If he shows that mentality and skill often, he'll be playing for us - I'm sure of it. With his current blend of powerful running, technique, decent height, instinctive finishing and superb link-play, he could be whatever he wants to be in all honesty. Just need to see if he'll actually reach that level.

It was watching this game that made me genuinely believe he could make it. He'll probably drop back to the U21s for a time as Gyokeres, Jesus and Havertz return but he's definitely earned himself some currency. A good loan should do him well IMO (something we've struggled to do recently).

 

[MutableEarth]

Not all doom and gloom with the academy!

 

[teamsoutheast]

EFL Trophy is on tonight with Arsenal U21 away to Cardiff City. This will be broadcast on Sky Sports match choice for those interested.

 

[MutableEarth]

EFL Trophy is on tonight with Arsenal U21 away to Cardiff City. This will be broadcast on Sky Sports match choice for those interested.

View attachment 40222

Looks like we're gonna be quite depleted for this one too, although I expect Andre Harriman-Annous will be back down to the U21s for this one, fresh off his first team exploits. Defensively though, we'll be missing Porter, Salmon, Hamill and Clarke. Not sure who will partner Sweet, it'll probably be Owusu-Gyasi, which would be a nice spot for him as he's probably deserved some games.

Sagoe Jr aside, I'm quite underwhelmed by our offensive quality at the moment, although it's been good to see Kamara back lately. Ferdinand and Stevens don't seem particularly very dangerous and Agustien has not been much of an improvement on Dudziak and Copley. Feel like we're missing some guile and verve in that area in particular. Dudziak's been alright recently so it's not too bad. I'd consider playing Murisa next to Ibrahim. I really hope they play Bailey-Joseph tonight, he's deserved some game time having been the best performer for the U18s so far this season. I'd consider playing him in the middle tonight seeing as the wings are oversaturated at the moment.

 

[teamsoutheast]

 

[MutableEarth]

That entire U16 team is already making waves - a couple u14s & u15s in there aswell in Luis Munoz, Jaden Maghoma and Mikael Yetna (who scored in the Nationals final).

Nduka, Oba, Yetna, Van Der Stratton, Kal Meron, Emerson Nwaneri, Joshua Sesay - a lot of very decent talents in there and they beat a quality young team in Aston Villa. Will be interesting to see if we're gonna be in the Flamengo Cup again this year, I'd wager this U16 side might actually have a strong tournament again like last year's team.

 

[teamsoutheast]