The Premier League Panel: Is Fabian Schär the best bargain in PL history?
Ranking the ten best young players in the Premier League - as Chelsea, Bournemouth and Burnley wonderkids make their mark.
Welcome to 3 Added Minutes’ Wonderkid Power Rankings – our regular effort to rate and rank the 10 best young players in the Premier League right now based not only on raw talent, but their performances at the very highest level.
When we last checked in on the brightest prospects in England before the international break, Adam Wharton was our deserved number one – but will he hang on after Crystal Palace’s 3-3 thriller against Bournemouth, or can another rising star claim the throne this week?
As always, we like to make a note of those players who are dropping out of our Top 10: Neither Aston Villa’s Lamare Bogarde nor Arsenal’s Cristhian Mosquera played a minute this past week so they both lost their relatively tenuous hold on a place in the rankings, while Brighton & Hove Albion’s Yasin Ayari – number five last time - has now turned the grand old age of 22 and, as such, is no longer in consideration. All of which creates space for three players, two of whom are making our list for the very first time.
10. Mateus Fernandes – West Ham United (⬇️2)
Fernandes made way at half-time in West Ham’s rather bleak defeat to Brentford on Monday night and the Portuguese midfielder had cut a pretty peripheral figure – there was, however, some good work off the ball with a couple of forced turnovers, and he made every pass on the occasions that the ball did come his way. Ultimately, this just wasn’t the 21-year-old’s most impactful performance.
9. Estevão Willian – Chelsea (⬇️2)
The gifted Brazilian’s late winner against Liverpool before the break didn’t earn him a place in the starting line-up against Nottingham Forest despite a host of injuries, and as such Estevão only got 12 minutes of action this weekend. He was lively enough during his brief cameo, at least, getting a couple of blocked shots in and doing some good work pressing and tracking back.
8. Josh Acheampong – Chelsea (re-entry)
Injuries, of which Chelsea have plenty, gave Acheampong another chance to start and he was highly impressive once again. This wasn’t quite a faultless display, but he was responsible for four interceptions, six turnovers in total and won seven of his nine one-on-one duels both on the ground and in the air – all highly impressive figures for any centre-back. The cherry on top, of course, was the opening goal, a well-taken header from close range. Forest’s defending was abysmal, admittedly, but that shouldn’t count against Acheampong.
7. Lesley Ugochukwu – Burnley (new entry)
Seen as a defensive midfielder before he moved to Burnley, the France Under-21 international has moved into a more aggressive role under Scott Parker and certainly didn’t rack up many tackles or turnovers against Leeds United this week – a sum total of just one, in fact – but he’s turned into a potent attacking weapon for a team sorely in need of such a thing. His excellent header from Kyle Walker’s cross means he’s now scored in back-to-back games.
6. Eli Junior Kroupi – Bournemouth (new entry)
The teenage striker was handed his first league start against Palace and didn’t let Andoni Iraola down, scoring twice to put the Cherries 2-0 ahead before Jean-Philippe Mateta led the comeback. Football Manager 2024 cult hero Kroupi’s first goal was an unmissable header from inches out, granted, but he took the second very nicely, lashing Antoine Semenyo’s deflected cross beneath Dean Henderson and in. Kroupi has now scored three goals in just 98 minutes of Premier League football – talk about a promising start.
5. Yankuba Minteh – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬇️1)
Minteh can blow hot and cold in the final third, and he was a little icy at times against Newcastle United – just one of his nine attempted crosses found a team-mate, none of his shots were on target, and his pass completion rate in the Newcastle half was just 37%. This was one of those games in which things didn’t quite come off for the Gambian.
Still, what he’s always good at is making himself available and creating space, and his sharp runs and darting dribbles caused plenty of problems even if the end product was lacking on this occasion, and he did plenty of good work out of possession as well, forcing five turnovers. His recent form has been highly encouraging, so we weren’t minded to punish him too harshly for one game in which he didn’t trouble the scoresheet.
4. Noah Sadiki – Sunderland (⬇️1)
Sadiki hasn’t really fallen a place because of anything he did wrong – he was rock solid once more against Wolverhampton Wanderers and he only drops down because performances by others were a little more sparkling. This was still a display which underlined just how important the 20-year-old has become for the Black Cats already.
Five ball recoveries and two interceptions helped to shut down several promising Wolves attacks, he evaded pressure well when on the ball and kept possession ticking over neatly throughout the match. The only concern is that he looked to be in pain when coming off towards the end of the game, not long after he reported back from international duty with a knock. Hopefully nothing serious, for Sunderland’s sake.
3. Michael Kayode – Brentford (⬆️4)
After a couple of quiet weeks, Kayode – a former Power Rankings number one, albeit for only a single week – seemed to be right back to his dynamic best against West Ham. Indeed, the Italian was arguably the single most dangerous creative presence on the pitch during Monday’s match.
Time and again, Kayode found space down the right and delivered accurate crosses into the box. It was his ball that found Kevin Schade’s head when the German smashed one against the crossbar, and that was just the best of several chances he created over the course of a match in which West Ham’s defence couldn’t find any way to shut him down. His defensive work was solid, too. Much better.
2. Nico O’Reilly – Manchester City (-)
This wasn’t O’Reilly at his very best, perhaps, and some of Everton’s best moments against Manchester City came because he struggled to deal with Iliman Ndiaye one on one, but he still did some excellent work going forward – more than enough to hold on to his spot towards the top of our table given his recent form.
The highlight was a fine assist for Erling Haaland, generated by a precise cross after a darting run into space down the left, and he created at least as many headaches for Everton as he endured himself over the course of the 90 minutes. He probably should have done a little better with a close-range headed chance which skimmed well wide, admittedly.
1. Adam Wharton – Crystal Palace (-)
Quite why Wharton was left out of the England squad remains a mystery – the former Blackburn Rovers man remains just as dynamic on the ball and dogged off it as ever, and put in yet another strong all-round performance against Bournemouth.
Perhaps one could observe that his attempts to carry the ball forward weren’t quite as successful as usual this time out, but his passing was still incisive and intelligent and he created a couple of extremely presentable chances, all while forcing five turnovers. Few midfielders in the game do quite so much effective work in all three phases, and few are playing quite so consistently right now. It’ll take something pretty special to knock him off of top spot at this rate.
Continue Reading