Every year in pre-season there is one player who just looks “it”. Ready to make a big difference for the season and be the break out player of the next campaign. If doesn’t always work out that way, but thankfully sometimes it does. Last season it was Mainoo. You could just watch him and know that he was pure quality and was going to be brilliant if he got regular minutes. Well, we know how that went. He exceeded expectations.
This year that player is unequivocally Amad. Going into the new season he’s the player I am simply most excited about playing for us. It’s the first time I’ve looked at our right wing in a very long time and felt that we have an indisputable first choice, and a player that is truly dangerous.
I really think this kid is the complete package. In the past I’ve wondered if he was quick and strong enough to really shine in the PL, but those fears have been put to bed. He looks rapid these days, and more importantly than that, he looks as fast with the ball as he does without it. Which is a truly rare trait. The ball just sticks to his feet.
The most surprising development for me is the quality of his shooting. This kid has an absolute hammer of a left foot. His strike against Newcastle and then his strike against Betis came from very similar positions, but were both hit with a controlled ferocity that is rare, just so much power on both shots but both stayed low and were just arrow straight like a bullet into the corner. Unsavable due to the power. To be able to hit a moving ball that hard and keep it that low, shows some serious technical proficiency.
If he stays injury free, and gets a run in the side, I just don’t see any way that he doesn’t rack up some seriously decent numbers this year. He runs at players with real intent and because his center of gravity is so low, he goes inside and out, he’ll be a nightmare for defences. He’s the perfect example of how players develop at non-linear rates. He’s just turned 22, and by many people’s standards “if he hasn’t shown more by now, he never will”, he could have been written off already.
It just shows the virtue of understanding the role of patience in player development. Especially when you consider that so many legends of the game didn’t even break into their respective first teams until they were 21 or 22. We’ve just become obsessed as a culture with the idea of wonder kids, being brilliant at 18, and if they aren’t world class by 20 or 21, then they’ve stagnated or are overrated. But that’s just not how it works. 22 is still a very young player and there’s loads more development to come from him.
I am really excited by what he can bring this coming season. It now genuinely looks like Rashford, Garnacho, Hojlund, Zirkzee, and Amad is an exciting group of players, with genuine quality and competition for places. And they are 26, 20, 21, 23 and 22 respectively. Dare I say it, there’s Sancho too. If he isn’t sold, he can play right and left and gives you 6 players for 2 positions. Antony is clearly odd man out. His quality is so much below the rest of them. He’s had two full seasons as first choice RW and he’s genuinely regressed, even from a starting point of not being good enough yet.
Vis a vis Antony, I do think there is a decent player in there, but not a player that has any weapons which are capable of elevating him to being a forward for a big club. Outside of Europe’s big three leagues, I think he could be a very good player for a top club, but at the highest level he is just too predictable and lacks any real physical weapons….like searing pace…..to make that predictability effective. Like Arjen Robben who you knew was going to cut inside and run at you, but he was just so fecking quick, and his control so good, that it didn’t matter if he wrote you a letter before the match stating his intentions to cut inside every time. You still couldn’t stop him.
But finally back to Amad, on this long winded ramble, he is a player that has an X factor. And those players are truly few and far between. You watch how he dribbles, and the little touches he makes, the positions he takes up, the way he varies his game, his work rate, and the way he hits his shots; and you just know that if he puts it all together consistently, he can become one of the best players in the team, if not the league. Now, whether he will do that is a different question, but he’s genuinely one of those that you think has the actual tools to reach that sort of level.
Still a long way to go for him. Ups and downs. But he’s a very exciting player that has matured enormously these last two years. If you look into his background you’ll see a humility and ability to overcome adversity that tells you he is not the sort of person to give up or shy away from hard work; and that right there is half the battle.
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