It may still be the early days of Carl Laraman’s tenure but, in terms of both results and performances, things have not exactly gone to plan for Arsenal’s new U18 coach since his appointment earlier this month.
Arsenal have lost all three of Laraman’s games in charge in the Development Group, conceding 11 goals in the process and scoring just twice, with the nadir being Saturday’s 6-1 defeat to a vibrant Aston Villa side at London Colney. There were mitigating circumstances for the first two fixtures of his reign, against Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City, as young sides largely composed of schoolboys were fielded, but the loss to Villa was deeply concerning, not so much for the result but for the lack of application and apparent motivation of some individuals.
Alex Iwobi squandered a good opportunity early on against Villa
As ever there was a shining light to take from all this, with Ainsley Maitland-Niles impressing on the left wing and coming close to scoring on a couple of occasions, whilst Tarum Dawkins, who switched to that flank following Maitland-Niles’ withdrawal in the second half, also demonstrated his trickery and poise in possession.
By and large, though, there was no escaping that this was a woefully abject performance from the majority of the individuals on show. Results at Academy level do not matter all too much in the grand scheme of things, even if winning can breed success, but some of the positioning, or rather the lack of it from Arsenal’s young defenders was frightful.
Goalkeeper Deyan Iliev did not enjoy the best of days either, as he took his tally to ten goals conceded in two games, and the Macedonian shot-stopper was beaten far too easily on several occasions, even though the unfamiliar centre-back pairing of Zach Fagan and schoolboy Stefan O’Connor offered very little in terms of protection. Without wanting to be too harsh on Fagan, he continues to look rather out of his depth at this level, even though he is now a second-year, and a misunderstanding with Iliev resulted in a pass from Fagan ending up in the back of his own net. The 18 year old did make amends of sorts by scoring a header deep into stoppage time, but this was a day to forget for the majority of Arsenal’s youngsters, even though they did improve marginally in the second half, with Austin Lipman, who, it must be said, continued to work hard up front in adversity, twice coming close.
This was a side shorn of the likes of Serge Gnabry, Chuba Akpom, Hector Bellerin, Kristoffer Olsson and Isaac Hayden, who were all in action as the U21s lost to Tottenham Hotspur, and the injured Jon Toral, but despite the fielding of a cobbled together defence which included a schoolboy right-back playing at left-back in Tafari Moore, and for all Villa’s admirable qualities, the young Gunners certainly should have produced a more determined performance. Their first chance to put things right comes at home to Norwich City next Saturday.
Has Steve Gatting returned to coaching the u-16s, then?
And who’s now occupying the position that Laraman’s promotion has left vacated at Hale End?
Nice article, by the way. I appreciate the time and work you invest in this blog.
Gatting is coaching the U21s now.
think you’ll have another shake up soon….
This is sad to hear. Clearly motivation+hard work pay off vs talent+arrogance. Well we can always buy talents who wants to play and take their chances. Where are the people who says English talents is enough for the u18 team? I don’t think we have to be nice when they are showing bad work rate. If 1 from every age group make it to championship or pl we have done a good job. Plus 3-4 to league 1-2.
Hopefully they show what arsenal is all about. Talent+high work rate will always beat everything else for the most part. I see bad defending with that zone crap. Just push pressure all the time and make them hesitate.
The only people who complain about us adding talented young foreigners into the academy are bitter xenophobes, don’t worry about what they think. Any reasonable fan welcomes good players coming into the club at any age level, and from any where. Training and playing with kids like Gnabry every day only makes our English talents better.
The U18′s will never really achieve anything under Laraman. You can take the man out of Charlton, but you can’t take the Charlton out of the man. With his lower league pedigree and experiences, he simply isn’t good enough to develop our U18′s talent. He wasn’t good news at Hale End either with poor results, plus staff, scouts and boys down there left due to him and how he operated. I can’t see why Liam would have wanted to promote him to the U18′s, hope there’s a change coming or this season will be a disaster for the promising Arsenal youth.
The quality he has been working with is still very very fresh and new. Wasn’t he the man who took our U14 who won the PL tournament and then later played 2-2 vs Barca? I am sure he is a good coach.
I don’t understand why you always insist on mentioning that the U18s are w/o the likes of Akpom, Olsson, Gnabry, Toral, Bellerin, and Hayden (and even BOO if i was being generous), as if these players are genuine U18 players. Yes, their age might qualify them but it seems to me that they are all but done with the U18s now, far too ahead in their development than the rest of the class of 95. If I were any of these players I would consider it a demotion at this point if I were to play for the U18s.
It’s an important reminder that these poor U18 results are partly down to a number of very talented 17 year olds having already made the step up to U21 football. And so there is a positive to be gained; the results might be disappointing but some very bright talents are making rapid progress. Without knowing all the facts a number of fans could (and some still will regardless) get the impression that we are putting out the strongest U18 side we could and come to the conclusion our academy is doing very badly.
Not that being aware of the circumstances will stop some from carrying on with their drivel and agendas to put the club and academy down, as you can see from the comments on this site if you visit regularly.