The young Arsenal star Reiss Nelson is set to be the latest youngster to get tied down by the Gunners to secure our future success, and to help persuade the 18 year-old that his career is still on track Arsene Wenger gave Nelson his first Premier League start in Sunday’s 3-2 win over Southampton.
He was remarkably calm considering his inexperience and actually had a pass success rate of over 90% in the hour he wws on the pitch. Nelson described how he prepared for his debut. “I’m just delighted, I’m really happy – all the hard work is paying off so I’m really happy and excited to push on even further,” Nelson told Arsenal.com.
“It’s been a normal week for me, training with the boys. On Thursday I spoke to the boss and he told me I might be in. From then I had it in the back of my mind that I could be starting, so I trained really hard on Friday and then the teamsheet came out and I was delighted to be starting.
“I just treated it as a normal game and I think that’s the best thing to do. Being involved with the first team, be it in the Premier League or the Europa League, you just have to take it as it comes. You keep all the nerves inside and just play your normal game.”
His display certainly augurs well for him and the club, and we can look forward to seeing him making many more first team appearances in the coming weeks while Wenger keeps his top players fresh for the Europa League.
Congrats to Nelson on getting a new deal and a hefty pay rise! Now Arsenal can start tying down more of our stars to ward off other clubs from trying to poach our youngsters. So let’s hope the next deal we are told about is Aaron Ramsey’s new extension…
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Cannot wait to see more of him in his natural position. He hasn’t overly impressed me so far, but I put that down to Wenger playing him mainly at wing-back. It’s bad enough playing experienced players in the wrong positions, but even worse for youngsters like Nelson, because how do you expect him to develop, and see if he’s good enough, if you never play him in his best position?
Hopefully our new manager will know where a CB plays, where to play a winger, where to position a striker, etc…
I’ve seen a bit of Reiss Nelson and I see him as a No10 in a free role.He will find it very tough to claim that spot for a few seasons but this boy does have tremendous ability and potential.We need to get him as much game time in the League as just being in the team will help his learning curve.Next season in the Europa and Carabao Cup is when we can give him a run out centrally as an attacking midfielder.This is a serious talent who will be a tremendous footballer.Lets hope we can bring him on like we used to in the past with our young players coming up through the youth ranks.It seems too long since we have done this.
He could be Bergkamp’s and Ozil’s successor as well, because he showed good passes, skills and movements
I hope Arsenal would let him compete with the first team playmakers, therefore he could learn more about strategy and vision in the center
“It seems too long since we have done this.”
Bellerin, Iwobi, Maitland Niles since 2015 – 2018 all played regularly in the first team in the last 2 seasons and this. No other side in the top 6, besides Spurs, have had that many academy players given that much time in the same period.
There is clearly a case for playing young players out of position to give them some game time and perhaps keep them out of harm’s way. I recall way back in the late sixties Arsenal’s muscular CF John Radford playing for at least one season on the right wing and doing pretty well there. However, Wenger does it far too much for my liking and I do agree that it could have a detrimental effect. His spectacular success with Henry appears to have clouded his judgement and I think that it has not always proved successful.
“His spectacular success with Henry appears to have clouded his judgement and I think that it has not always proved successful.”
He’s actually been very successful across his time at Arsenal with converting players to positions they didn’t start with. Aside Henry, let me list notable ones.
1. Ashley Cole – left winger to left back
2. Kolo Toure – midfielder to central defender
3. Lauren Etame – midfielder to right back
4. Gael Clichy – left winger to left back
5. Robin VanPersie – winger to striker
6. Santi Carzola – wing midfielder to CAM to deep lying playmaker
7. Flamini – defensive midfielder to left back (2005/2006 season with resounding success)
8. Hector Bellerin – winger to right/wing back
There are definitely a few that didn’t make it but nobody wins them all. Wenger has more often than not been right about changing positions of players and that’s supported by the facts.
I disagree that many of these were good enough when converted. Cole only played as a winger in the youth team. Toure was a not good enough , nor dominant enough CB, DESPITE PLAYING IN THE invincibles, where he was lucky to play in that company, which is why he was sold on. Lauren, yes I will agree on him. “Calamity” Clichy was a terrible and mistake ridden LB and I laughed my socks off when MAN City gave us a huge fee of £7 million for a player I thought worth about fourpence. RvP did well on the one season he managed to stay fit Two good seasons in all out of about eight at the club. HARDLY A GREAT! Cazorla was always a mainly roving midfielder even when he played further back. Good player, sadly missed now. Flamini had one good season and thats it. BELLERIN IS ONE OF OUR WORST EVER FULL BACKS AND CANNOT MARK, TACKLE, JUMP IN THE AIR, IS PHYSICALLY WEAK AND HAS HOPELESS POSITIONAL SENSE.Not much of a success overall , I would say, with BELLERIN making your post look like a laughing stock. I totally agree with the post by Ingleby that you were arguing against.
He played as a right winger at the Stoke match, which is his natural position. He played as a left inverted winger once, but he sucked there
In my opinion, he should not be a right winger like Walcott or Chamberlain, just because his stronger foot is the right one. The kid has a potential to be a good inverted winger like Salah, Sanchez, Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo and Robben. He just needs more game time like Maitland-Niles
It wasn’t that impressive, but he looked decent. I want to see him express himself more on the pitch. All his appearances he seems not to want to make a mistake, but that also stops him from making an impact. Right now it’s mostly just been short glimpses of his potential. We don’t have many great wide players outside of Miki, but that may change in summer so he’ll need to take his chances.
Congratulations to the young man, hope he achieves everything he wants.
Also congatulations to Arsene for showing the courage to promote our youngsters.
Giving him the chance to play in different positions will allow the club to develop him in the right manner.
The club has obviously seen that he has all the attributes to succeed, now let’s find out where he is most suited to play.
Just remember how Henry developed fro a wide man to become the most lethal finisher the club has ever had.
Again, another natural and gifted footballer from the academy, but has he got what it takes to perform for a top four club? Impossible to judge at the moment. He needs to be loaned out to the right clubs for development.
? you guys crack me up
I don’t agree that he had an impressive debut at all. Daily Mail awarded him 5.5, which was about right. He does, though have talent and will come again. Only a fringe player still for me though . At least right now anyway.
He has talent, but he really hasn’t impressed in the first team (yet?).
I think it is fine, we have given him a contract. Just wish we had a manger, who can be trusted to develop him, including requiring him to work his a.. off, when we don’t have the ball
That is what is required of every player, except maybe the goalkeeper and partly the forward.
But Wenger can’t see it.
He had a decent game,no more than that,but he was unlucky in that he was faced with a very good defender in Bertram who is likely to feature in the World Cup finals.Maitland Niles impresses me more but they are both very promising youngsters.
Reiss Nelson will be shit just like most overrated English primadonnas.
No hope for the Prem with so many players from untalented lands like England.
Nay Sayer, a bit over the top don’t you think?