Brillant Young Players .... Hype or Not?

[HangTime]

Well strikers are paid to score, midfielders and wingers are assist merchants. Simply put i dont buy this 'so much more to the team'

Well, it depends what you mean by strikers. Players like Bergkamp don't have that amazing a goalscoring record, because they genuinely do give more to the team than just goals.

In fact he is now 20 and still hasnt hit 20 in a season (certainly not the league, or a hattrick?). Owen scored far more than that at a similar age.

Michael Owen has NEVER scored 20 league goals in a season. [/tom_w]

But anyway, about young players getting hyped, yeah of course they do. But that's not what annoys me, what I don't like is the way people come out with comments like "if he's this good at 19, imagine how good he's gonna be when he hits his peak in his late 20s!". The simple fact is, most teenage superstar forwards don't actually get better by a huge amount when they get older.

 

[Gilly]

[/tom_w]

I miss him

Even if he did support Leicester.

 

[Greenlizard0]

what I don't like is the way people come out with comments like "if he's this good at 19, imagine how good he's gonna be when he hits his peak in his late 20s!". The simple fact is, most teenage superstar forwards don't actually get better by a huge amount when they get older.

That's probably because in order to be playing and therefore called a "teenage superstar" you already have to have the qualities that people e.g. ten years old than you have. There's probably little they can do to improve if they're already extremely good at their position

 

[normanthefarmer]

Robbie got 5 on his home debut and more hat tricks than Rooney will ever get before he was 21.

just for the record surely scoring hat tricks in game is no stat to go on. only need to score 1 goal to win. so scoring 5 means nothing, surely scoring 1 goal in 3 different matches is better even an important goal in 2 matcches is better then 5 in one match.

 

[HangTime]

That's probably because in order to be playing and therefore called a "teenage superstar" you already have to have the qualities that people e.g. ten years old than you have. There's probably little they can do to improve if they're already extremely good at their position

Precisely. These guys who are playing in Europe and for their country at 17, 18 are only going to improve maybe 10-15% with age, compared with your common and garden 'good honest pro' who gets noticed in his early 20s and improves a good 30% over how he was as a teen.

For defenders and keepers it is slightly different because experience is (relatively) more important. In those positions young superstars like Buffon, Rio etc genuinely can and have improved a fair bit since their early years.