Lamine Yamal | Das Wunderkind

TenHagsEmpire said:
They don’t need money at all after the impending Nike deal and after the completion of Espai Barca.

And they would never sell Yamal regardless.
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ah, barcelona. forever spending money that might come in future.
 
TenHagsEmpire said:
They don’t need money at all after the impending Nike deal and after the completion of Espai Barca.

And they would never sell Yamal regardless.
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i was only kidding. He’s their new messi, he’ll be there until his 30s.
 
wr8_utd said:
Today was the first time I've actually seen him be a bit selfish and make poor choices in attack and he still ends the match with a wonderful goal and what should have been an assist for Lewa.
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True. I'm pretty sure he wanted to break the record which makes sense honestly.

Probably his worst game of the season in terms of decision making, and he still contributed with a goal and an assist for Lewa if he buried that chance.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
My biggest fear, which I've reiterated before is his injury susceptibility.

He's tall, 6ft at the age of 17 so by the time he's finished growing we're looking at around 6ft 1 potentially. With his acceleration, dribbling style and constant moving about, twisting/turning, those knee's are going to take a beating as his centre of gravity is quite high. .

And at his age, knee's are very very fragile.
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Ronaldo was/is taller and dribbled and accelerated much more and has gone on to play a silly amount of games. Lamine will need to look after himself if he wants a similar career and get lucky with injuries.
 
RedStarUnited said:
Ronaldo was/is taller and dribbled and accelerated much more and has gone on to play a silly amount of games. Lamine will need to look after himself if he wants a similar career and get lucky with injuries.
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Ronaldo played nowhere near as many minutes as Yamal did at 17

Ronaldo was in his 3rd professional season as a footballer before he reached the 4000 minutes Yamal has played - not to mention 1/3rd of it was in a much chiller, relaxed league.

People aren't aware just how much football Yamal has played - 4000 minutes at 17 years old 4 months is absolutely insane.
 
Messi had Xavi Iniesta and other world class seniors around him. Ronaldo also had that at United.

Would be interesting to see what happens to Yamal, in this much more social media driven age with no proper mentors to protect him.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
Ronaldo played nowhere near as many minutes as Yamal did at 17

Ronaldo was in his 3rd professional season as a footballer before he reached the 4000 minutes Yamal has played - not to mention 1/3rd of it was in a much chiller, relaxed league.

People aren't aware just how much football Yamal has played - 4000 minutes at 17 years old 4 months is absolutely insane.
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I think the game and sport science in general is evolving. For example we will see a lot more players play into their late 30s than ever before.

Lamine Yamal is too good right now to put him on the bench.
 
RedStarUnited said:
I think the game and sport science in general is evolving. For example we will see a lot more players play into their late 30s than ever before.

Lamine Yamal is too good right now to put him on the bench.
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It may have done so - but it doesn't change the fact Yamal is playing more at this age than almost anyone in history AND

Barca have a track record of turning their wonderkids into injury prone wrecks.
 
tenpoless said:
Messi had Xavi Iniesta and other world class seniors around him. Ronaldo also had that at United.

Would be interesting to see what happens to Yamal, in this much more social media driven age with no proper mentors to protect him.
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He has Lewandowski even if you dont consider someone like Raphinha world class
 
RedStarUnited said:
Ronaldo was/is taller and dribbled and accelerated much more and has gone on to play a silly amount of games. Lamine will need to look after himself if he wants a similar career and get lucky with injuries.
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Ronaldo has played the most games of an outfielder ever, basically rarely if ever getting injured for about 20 years. Messi is something similar, they looked after themselves but there’s an incredible amount of luck involved in that too. No matter how well you look after yourself, all it takes is one bad tackle or one misstep. Rodri was having one of the best years from a midfielder you’ll see and then he does his ACL. I’m sure Rodri looks after himself as well as those two but it’s just bad luck.
 
KeanoMagicHat said:
Ronaldo has played the most games of an outfielder ever, basically rarely if ever getting injured for about 20 years. Messi is something similar, they looked after themselves but there’s an incredible amount of luck involved in that too. No matter how well you look after yourself, all it takes is one bad tackle or one misstep. Rodri was having one of the best years from a midfielder you’ll see and then he does his ACL. I’m sure Rodri looks after himself as well as those two but it’s just bad luck.
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Yup. There is what you can control (nutrition, lifestyle, training etc etc) and there is luck. I believe a player who had great habits but suffered a major injury, has a good chance of coming back to a close, if not similar level to his best.
Pedri had a scare after a horrible tackle when passing by Tchouameni, if he had went off injured then you'd have heard the usual comments about he's made out of glass whereas it was just bad luck for him.
 
kouroux said:
Yup. There is what you can control (nutrition, lifestyle, training etc etc) and there is luck. I believe a player who had great habits but suffered a major injury, has a good chance of coming back to a close, if not similar level to his best.
Pedri had a scare after a horrible tackle when passing by Tchouameni, if he had went off injured then you'd have heard the usual comments about he's made out of glass whereas it was just bad luck for him.
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ACL's are very hard to recover from though - I can't actually recall a youth player who suffered an ACL and got back from it.

Classic torn ACL to change the trajectory of a career was Jese Rodriguez. Absolute dynamo until his ACL injury. Was never the same after that.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
ACL's are very hard to recover from though - I can't actually recall a youth player who suffered an ACL and got back from it.

Classic torn ACL to change the trajectory of a career was Jese Rodriguez. Absolute dynamo until his ACL injury. Was never the same after that.
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It's a horrible injury for sure. I still think with modern day strengthening methods and science, there are tools for players to get back to very good fitness levels.
 
AfonsoAlves said:
ACL's are very hard to recover from though - I can't actually recall a youth player who suffered an ACL and got back from it.

Classic torn ACL to change the trajectory of a career was Jese Rodriguez. Absolute dynamo until his ACL injury. Was never the same after that.
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Not anymore. Well, it’s better not to get it, of course, as you’re missing almost a year, but current medicine gives you much better chances of an almost full recovery — unlike even 10 years ago. And it’s better to suffer such an injury at a younger age as there’s way higher chances of full recovery.

Look at Wirtz for example.
 
I think he is the most mature young player i've seen. His decision making is better than payers 10 years his senior, and his football IQ as a wide forward is off the charts, really is quite peculiar and fascinating just how mature he is a a 16-17 years old, to the point you kinda struggle to see where he else he can go in terms of getting better.

He's already one of the best players in the world and he is already a 7/10 or higher in every facet of what makes a great wide forward, probably like Messi the next step is showing how great he is as not just a forward who excels in final third movements, but also as a playmaker and facilitator. I think this is probably why i don't see anyone reaching that standard, Messi was a playmaker supreme in not only the final pass, but the pass and the pass before the final pass and had traits of Xavi and Iniesta in his play.

Yamal is more like a Mahrez and his final third play is like a more refined less explosive Salah, Salah is one of the best at a final pass, but not like Messi in how he involves himself in actually playmaking and dropping deep to advance and facilitate play.

I think the next step for Yamal would be him to consistently provide numbers and moments, then elevate himself ahead of the likes of Robben Salah and other great wide forwards by proving he can be an elite goalscorer creator but also an elite facilitator, out of all the players of the last 20 years i think only Messi and Neymar have had that balance as forward players.

You have the likes of Hazard who had two of the three, elite creator and facilitator but not a goalscorer, and or Salah a also whois/was elite creators and goalscorers in the final third but you wouldn't see them making 60 passes per game and progressing play by dropping deep in central areas.
 
I really don't understand any of the Mahrez comparisons. Yamal is the antithesis of any version of Mahrez, who was a head down, mostly selfish dribbler who made a flash decision at the end of a play.

Yamal constantly scans the pitch and frames where everyone is and what to do in accordance with that. He constantly, effortlessly makes the early play and chooses the correct option at the right time, and further, Yamal doesn't need to make a single take on to play a devastating role in the team.

Even as a matured player, Mahrez's greed and decision making would often have Pep and teammates pulling their hair out. Mahrez's prime version didn't have a quarter of the teamwork and pitch IQ that we've seen this boy display.

Dribbling style and play, they don't move the same; they don’t even have the same gait or feinting style. Yamal has displayed numerous dribbling styles; Mahrez had one refined style.

I say all the above as someone who liked watching Mahrez play. Yamal doesn't evoke any recall of Mahrez to me, and I am perplexed by the comparison.
 
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Fortitude said:
I really don't understand any of the Mahrez comparisons. Yamal is the antithesis of any version of Mahrez, who was a head down, mostly selfish dribbler who made a flash decision at the end of a play.

Yamal constantly scans the pitch and frames where everyone is and what to do in accordance with that. He constantly, effortlessly makes the early play and chooses the correct option at the right time, and further, Yamal doesn't need to make a single take on to play a devastating role in the team.

Even as a matured player, Mahrez's greed and decision making would often have Pep and teammates pulling their hair out. Mahrez's prime version didn't have a quarter of the teamwork and pitch IQ that we've seen this boy display.

Dribbling style and play, they don't move the same; they even have the same gait or feinting style. Yamal has displayed numerous dribbling styles; Mahrez had one refined style.

I say all the above as someone who liked watching Mahrez play. Yamal doesn't evoke any recall of Mahrez to me, and I am perplexed by the comparison.
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I think any comparison between the two is pretty surfaced based, based on the fact they're both 5-10-11 left footed wide forwards with high technique. Its more they're body movements, how they both run, they're gait and things like that. Also Lamal being Algerian also, there is a high high likelihood that he grew up holding Mahrez in high regard, not a crazy thing him being a left footed Algerian winger also for some parts of his style to seap into Lamals game.

Other than that agree with the maturity aspect, although i think you're overly harsh on Mahrez, Mahrez in his latter years was a mature player who had put it all together, the one area where i say he lacked in comparison to other top forwards of his time is his propensity to attack the space without the ball and make runs in behind, other forwards did it far more consistently, including for example Sterling in his own side at the time.

Lamal so far hasn't show the aptitude to do that consistently either, so thats another similarity with Mahrez.
 
Fortitude said:
I really don't understand any of the Mahrez comparisons. Yamal is the antithesis of any version of Mahrez, who was a head down, mostly selfish dribbler who made a flash decision at the end of a play.

Yamal constantly scans the pitch and frames where everyone is and what to do in accordance with that. He constantly, effortlessly makes the early play and chooses the correct option at the right time, and further, Yamal doesn't need to make a single take on to play a devastating role in the team.

Even as a matured player, Mahrez's greed and decision making would often have Pep and teammates pulling their hair out. Mahrez's prime version didn't have a quarter of the teamwork and pitch IQ that we've seen this boy display.

Dribbling style and play, they don't move the same; they even have the same gait or feinting style. Yamal has displayed numerous dribbling styles; Mahrez had one refined style.

I say all the above as someone who liked watching Mahrez play. Yamal doesn't evoke any recall of Mahrez to me, and I am perplexed by the comparison.
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Agree, no idea what people ate talking about. You can't deny Mahrez's talent, but he was the king of stupid decisions.
 
Love that just a little over a year ago, there was a post about him being this up and coming star and a year later, he’s a certified, established elite level forward player.

Even better that his performance which kick-started this thread was met with the phrase, ‘Lad, it’s Spurs’…
 
The bad thing is that Barca have now played without him and immediately lost. Therefore, they will no longer rest him and we can only hope that he suffers a better fate than the other youngsters they overplayed.
 
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