The Premier League Panel: Is Fabian Schär the best bargain in PL history?
Counting down the 10 best young players in the Premier League right now - with Sunderland, Brentford & Bournemouth starlets shining.
Every week, the journalists at 3 Added Minutes sit down with a pile of stats, watch through the tape, have a brief and sometimes polite argument, and emerge with our brand new list of the 10 best Under-21s currently playing in the Premier League based not on estimates of their raw talent, but on their form and performances at the highest level. Welcome to the Wonderkid Power Rankings.
Last Tuesday, Adam Wharton continued his run at the summit of our rankings, a just reward for consistently impressive performances – but can he cling on after Crystal Palace suffered back-to-back defeats to Arsenal and AEK Larnaca?
Unusually, none of our most recent Top 10 drop out this week, although one or two players at the bottom can consider themselves a little lucky, especially with the likes of Lewis Miley pressing for a place while Alejandro Garnacho, Marc Guiu, Jamie Gittens, Tyrique George, Charalampos Kostoulas and Chemsdine Talbi all got on the score-sheet for their respective teams. Just so you know that we noticed before we get into it…
10. Yankuba Minteh – Brighton & Hove Albion (⬇️5)
We have a rule of thumb which states that players who earned a place in our top five don’t get dumped straight out of the rankings for one bad performance, but Minteh made us think about it following a frankly dreadful outing against Arsenal. The Gambian forward touched the ball 43 times and 22 of them – half of them – resulted in the Gunners regaining possession, which is quite something. He also managed just one shot (worth all of 0.03xG) all match. Minteh can blow hot and cold, but this was subarctic.
9. Estevão Willian – Chelsea (-)
The supremely talented Brazilian got on the score-sheet again this week, knocking in a composed penalty against Ajax, but wasn’t overwhelmingly impressive otherwise either in the Champions League or against Sunderland. In both matches, Estevão got into plenty of good positions and tried plenty of tricks to try and carve out chances, but for the most part he ended up running headlong into stout defending and failed to make the best of his opportunities. Two lively enough outings, but without enough end product. Had he missed that penalty, he might have dropped out this week, but the 18-year-old clings on.
8. Mateus Fernandes – West Ham United (⬆️2)
The former Southampton midfielder was dropped from Nuno Espirito Santo’s starting line-up after an indifferent outing last week and didn’t have as much impact as he would have liked for 25 minutes or so after coming on against Leeds United – but then scored in the 90th minute after drifting into space and flicking a well-judged header past the goalkeeper. It wasn’t enough to get West Ham towards a point, but served as a reminder that Fernandes has a lot to offer right up and down the pitch.
7. Nico O’Reilly – Manchester City (⬇️5)
O’Reilly was probably a little lucky to cling on to second place last week but he slides into the bottom half of the table after he was left out for the Champions League win over Villarreal and then struggled a little during a 30-minute cameo against Aston Villa. The left-back was tidy enough on the ball but found it tough going in one-on-one situations either when dribbling (he had a 0% success rate) or defending. A quiet and rather indifferent week for a very gifted player.
6. Josh Acheampong – Chelsea (⬆️2)
Acheampong is making the battle for a starting spot along Chelsea’s back line rather interesting at the moment – not only is very sound defensively, as evinced by rock solid performances against both Ajax and Sunderland, but he’s exceptionally impressive on the ball, completing 98% of his passes in both matches, playing a handful of excellent long balls and hardly ever losing possession. Arguably Enzo Maresca’s most assured defender right now, and he’s only 19.
5. Lesley Ugochukwu – Burnley (⬆️2)
We noted last week that while Ugochukwu – not so long ago considered to be a defensive midfielder – had become a surprisingly effective attacking weapon for Burnley, his all round game perhaps needed a little bit of work. Based on the way he played in the 3-2 win over Wolves, he felt much the same.
His passing was vastly improved with a lot of very nice touches under pressure, and while he still missed more tackles than he made, he also won six of his eight one-on-one ground duels while defending, made a crucial block on a shot, and wasn’t dribbled past once. This was a bustling performance which showed both defensive mettle and technical quality on the ball. Probably Burnley’s best player right now.
4. Eli Junior Kroupi – Bournemouth (⬆️2)
If second-placed Bournemouth are going to have a genuine crack at being this season’s Leicester City and have a proper run at the title, then they’ll need their version of Jamie Vardy to score all the goals. Based on the verve with which Kroupi has seized his chance, they may just have him.
The Frenchman has now scored four goals in his last three appearances – six in five if you include France Under-21 games – and his strike against Nottingham Forest might have been the best of the lot, a surging run from half-way to just under 25 yards from goal followed by a precise and powerful shot which fizzed past a helpless Mats Selz. It looks like Bournemouth’s scouting department has done it again.
3. Noah Sadiki – Sunderland (⬆️1)
Speaking of unheralded gems picked out by teams who are unexpectedly inside the top four a quarter of the way through the Premier League season… if Kroupi is Bournemouth’s answer to Vardy, then Sadiki is doing a pretty solid impression of N’Golo Kanté over at the Stadium of Light.
This was another impressive defensive display against Chelsea which included four ball recoveries, two interceptions, a 100% tackle success rate and his usual boundless energy off the ball. He’s looking better and better on the ball too, and used it efficiently, sensibly and economically throughout the surprise win at Stamford Bridge. A hugely impressive player based on what we’ve seen so far.
2. Adam Wharton – Crystal Palace (⬇️1)
You’d be hard pressed to blame Wharton for the shock Europa Conference League loss to Larnaca – for starters, he was only on the pitch for 19 minutes of it – but this was a relatively underwhelming week either way for arguably the most gifted young player in the top flight.
Both in his cameo on the continent and during the 1-0 loss to Arsenal, he just wasn’t able to impose himself on the game, his passing wasn’t quite as incisive and while he did very little wrong he wasn’t able to shut down as many attacks as he does on his best defensive days. It wasn’t that Wharton did anything worthy of criticism over the past week, but a couple of six-out-of-ten days in a row doesn’t add up to another week at number one. Wharton’s month-long reign is at an end…
1. Michael Kayode – Brentford (⬆️2)
All of which means that Italian full-back Kayode makes his way back to the top of our countdown, his second week at the summit this season, all after another very impressive display in Brentford’s 3-2 win over Liverpool in which he did a ton of good work at both ends of the pitch.
He created some fine chances and deserved an assist – Dango Ouattara should have buried his header from a pinpoint Kayode cross – and did some outstanding work tracking back too, winning every one-on-one, recovering possession seven times, and making some important clearances. This was a superb all-round performance on the back of an equally brilliant display against West Ham, and first place is more than deserved this week.
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