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Zelalem,do we really need him?


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this boy will soon star for arsenal.

vucic didnt show up in the big games either last year and where is he now

rangers need to go down the youth route and warburton is good at it so in him we trust

 

I really have to disagree with that mate, sorry!

 

He doesn't bring anything to table based on what I've seen of him so far.... he's 18 and very overrated by some of our fans, just can't see the player at all, and certainly not the type of player required to get us out of Division 1, in saying that, we will go up but not because he's there.

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great player and he does put in a tackle.

he needs to add more golas to his game rather than try walk it in i agree on that point

 

"More goals", he hasn't scored ANY goals for us but has a reasonable 6 assists in 14 games. However only one of these is in the last 3 months.

 

He scored one goal last season in the UEFA Youth League and one at the start of this season v Fulham U21's.

 

The problem I have with him is that he is great at passing sideways but whenever he tries a through pass almost inevitably it goes straight to the opposition.

 

Arsenal are using us to teach a youth player the game and find out if he might be good enough for their first team, whereas we need players who can make a real contribution for us right now.

 

Law is a FAR superior player and both he and Shiels are a threat to score goals which Zelalem is not.

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I think the kid's an exceptional talent. Once again, we keep judging a technical player by the standards of a 'power-player'. He's 18: Who at 18 is a brick shit-house most seem to want in a player? It's unrealistic to judge him by the standards of a more experienced player, and it's out-of-date to suggest he doesn't contribute because he doesn't head the ball or score goals. This is the attitude that brought Scottish football into the lamentable situation it's in.

 

His movement, touch, passing ability and positional awareness is second-to-none -- things that cannot be taught. He can certainly add goals, and toughen up, but that's what he's here to learn. He'll develop physically over the next few years, adding that toughness and presence to his technical game. The problem is we won't get the benefit of that, however, his contribution at the moment is beneficial, keeping possession, creating angles and assisting (he maybe doesn't assist as much as he should, but I would argue he assists the assist! I watched a recent analysis of David Silva, where the majority of his contribution is assisting the assist. Silva doesn't head the ball, put in a tackle, or score many goals: does that mean he's a poor player by our standards?). Just because he contribution is not as 'obvious', like goals and physical confrontations doesn't mean he isn't contributing.

 

This attitude is very frustrating. We will never move on if we keep judging players by unrealistic, out-of-date standards.

 

Soap box over.

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Nobody is saying he has to be more physical or saying he wont make it as he is too slight.

 

He is correctly getting some criticism as he does not hurt the opponent at all. BH sums it up perfectly above. He plays a square ball beautifully, but when he (rarely) tries to play a forward creative pass, it invariably goes wrong either by being cut out, over/under hit, or misplaced. This is the part of his game that is holding him back, not his physicality.

 

I know you didnt mean to directly compare him to Silva, a special player, but Zelalem is a million miles away from having that talent. I want our coaching staff to be working hard on him in training, getting him to lift his head to the options around him instead of just taking the simple square ball all the time. He has missed out on dozens of good shooting opportunities in games with us due to his lazy style of keep-ball. He has been boring to watch and easy to play against, and our team performances and results have suffered as a result. And none of that is to do with his size.

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