General Reserves Talk

[Arsenal_Soldier]

1-0 park, great play by aneke.

 

[celestis]

Good stuff Park .

 

[evoh_1]

Aneke and Gnabry were great today while marouane looked just as lost as he does in the first team.

 

[krengon]

Gnabry is seriously impressive, 16 and already a key figure for reserves.. Won't be surprised to see him in the CC squad next season..

 

[ferrarif50hunt]

Serge Gnabry is really exciting me, he looks such a quality player even at the age of 16. You don't see many people playing for the reserves on a regular basis at that age...

 

[ebouenolike]

I went to the game tonight, terrific stuff. The best players were Jenkinson, Miquel, Oz and Gnabry. The players all put in a huge effort, and Santos and Afobe both came back from injury well.

I was sitting in the front row, and Ches and Henderson both left at ~70 mins and there was TONS of clapping for Ches. He then nudged Henderson and said, go on Hendo give 'em a wave, which was greeted with claps and laughter. Cool guy.

 

[Vela]

Good read about the game from Jeorge Bird's Arsenal Blog.

<a class="postlink" href="http://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/aneke-and-gnabry-superb-as-strong-reserves-side-dispatch-of-west-bromwich/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/2012/ ... -bromwich/</a>

Mentions Aneke and Gnabry being the stand out performers.

 

[kenkbc2]

The future looks bright. Hope to see a few of those potentially gifted players in the CC next season..

 

[ricky1985]

Aneke and Gnabry were great today while marouane looked just as lost as he does in the first team.

He was woeful. Got pushed off the ball by West Brom's young centrebacks, poor touch, poor movement, always back on his heels when balls were played into the box. Just generally ****. Only positive thing he did all night was inadvertently trap the ball between his legs when he was down on the floor, which lead to Gnabry's goal.

It wasn't a great game tbh. Although we were completely on top, I think West Brom got into our defensive third about 3 times in the whole match. Total mismatch, and that lead to us cruising through.

Martinez was assured in goal, looked quality in the warm-up too. Did have one dodgy throw out though which he got away with, but his handling was very impressive. It's easy to see he has something extra about him.

Jenkinson looked really good first half, right in front of me. Bombed up and down the right wing, and he looked so quick, athletic and powerful. Really well built bloke. His delivery into the box wasn't as good as I'd expected, but maybe he was a little rusty. A cut above everyone else on the pitch physically though, that really stood out. Tired towards the end.

Djourou and Miquel pretty much had their feet up all night, save for the odd good pass or surge forward from Miquel.

Santos didn't really exert himself too much. Content to sit back and play it simple. Came to life a little bit more in the second half with a few good runs and passes. Came off after about 70 minutes. Think he's pretty much there fitness wise.

Yennaris and Ozyakup were pretty quiet in midfield. A few good passes, but nothing to write home about. Comfortably good enough to control the West Brom midfield though.

Park played right wing, scored a good goal with his left foot, and had some other good moments when he moved inside, looked uncomfortable when out wide though. He did look technically decent and really mobile.

Aneke had some real class moments. Great bits of footwork or first touches, clever passing and combination play - and his goal was a really classy strike. And if I had a pound for every time I heard someone comment on how massive he was, well, I might not have gone home rich, but I would have have gone home with a few quid in my pocket!

Gnabry was just a little quiet actually. Still passed the ball well, had a few moments of class where he left people for dead or put someone through into space, and he was lethal with the one chance he got. Looked absolutely knackered in the last 20 minutes or so, easy to forget he's just 16.

Afobe got on but still looked a little rusty. Had a few half chances, but it didn't come off for him.

Was nice to see Szczesny and Conor Henderson there, Szczesny revelling in the attention. Saw Pat Rice there with his wife, too, no sign of Wenger, who was supposed to be there watching Gnabry, according to Young Guns.

 

[Enoch]

Has anyone figured out who this genius in our academy is? Gary Giessing said this i think a year ago:

"And we have a 13-year-old at the moment, who I can’t name, who I think is a genius.”

We are keeping this kid on the down low so he must be that good. I remember someone saying it was Alfredo Costello, but i don't know.

Gary Giessing is the same guy who said Ozyakup is in the same class as Cesc.

 

[yuvken]

Welcome, Enoch, good luck and enjoy yourself.

...and tell us when you find out who it is, finally .

 

[Enoch]

Welcome, Enoch, good luck and enjoy yourself.

...and tell us when you find out who it is, finally .

Thank bro i appreciate it!

I'll try to find out, but i doubt i will, this kid is being kept under wraps, he must be very good if that's the case. I'm sure though people on A-M who keep with up the youth and more all the time will find out before hand. Lets hope we get to keep him whoever he is, one thing is for sure though, if we never find out before, we'll see him at reserve level soon.

 

[Vela]

Philip Dorward ‏ @PLPhilD
Good news for Arsenal fans with access to Barca TV...Arsenal U14s v Barca U14s is , we understand, to be shown on Barca TV this Sat.

The person who tweeted it works for the Premier League or something.

But could that 13 year old genius be playing for Arsenal against Barcelona on Saturday?

I've seen people ask the likes of YoungGunsBlog and Jeorge Bird on twitter and they put they don't know.

 

[celestis]

Tell you what Park has a decent shot of both feet , what exactly is the matter with him that AW won't even use him on the bench ?

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mlV0kPT2F0&feature=player_embedded#" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mlV0kPT ... _embedded#</a>!

 

[ebouenolike]

Were you there Ricky?

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Gnabry looks like real deal only 16 year old, but look at his body so strong he have amazing skills if he keep it up wenger will call him for sure in carling cup games.

 

[yuvken]

enl - he was, it's from the sidelines all this (c'mon - him raving about Martinez warm up ).

Guess he had to see with his own eyes if Chamakh could really be that bad (he got his answer , alright).

Celestis - yeah, same question. But in fairness, whenever he did get the chance in a real game (some cc game exception, maybe) - he really was terrible. He should play, though, no doubt about it. Problem is we might not have an insignificant game, or 3 goal cushion for him in the near future.

 

[ebouenolike]

Ahh - gotcha. I was there too, I bet you appreciated the round of applause to Ches as much as I did?

And yeh, pretty spot on with everything, Chamakh is bloody pathetic. However I refuse to be one of the mugs at Underhill moaning all game.

 

[Eirico]

Has anyone figured out who this genius in our academy is? Gary Giessing said this i think a year ago:

"And we have a 13-year-old at the moment, who I can’t name, who I think is a genius.”

We are keeping this kid on the down low so he must be that good. I remember someone saying it was Alfredo Costello, but i don't know.

Gary Giessing is the same guy who said Ozyakup is in the same class as Cesc.

It's supposed to be Joe Willock, but nobody really knows for sure who Giessing was talking about. But I think Willock is the most highly rated in the U13/U14's.

Another highly rated player is Tafari Moore, but I think he was at least one agegroup above the U13's at the time Giessing made the comment.

 

[yuvken]

Ahh - gotcha. I was there too.

I envy you two. And all of you who regularly go to games.