Newcastle and Manchester United starlets are among the risers in our latest countdown of the Premier League’s best young players.
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Sometimes, the Wonderkid Power Rankings are a joy to compile, as we get to watch the Premier League’s most remarkable talents playing their hearts out as they bid to force their way into first teams and make their name in the toughest division in the world. On other weeks, we mostly watch them fail.
This week wasn’t a complete write-off, and a couple of our young guns did impress, but for the most part this was a down week. Forwards cut frustrated figures, defenders shipped goals, midfielders couldn’t pick their passes – and one member of last week’s Top 10, Myles Lewis-Skelly, contrived to get himself sent off, which also gets him kicked out of our rankings for the time being.
Still, for all the struggles we witnessed we have two of the top flight’s Under-21s trending upwards and one brand new entry who arrived in the January transfer window, so there’s plenty to smile about - but did anyone do enough to unseat reigning Power Rankings champions Dean Huijsen?
Before we get started in earnest, we also wanted to note the absence of one player who has been a staple of these rankings since their inception – Levi Colwill, whose recent form saw him slide out of the Top 10, and who won’t be back given that he turns 22 this Wednesday. It’s a shame that he signs off on a bum note, but he’s been a near-constant over the past 18 months, so it only seems fair to applaud his excellence and consistency since breaking into the Chelsea squad last season. Happy birthday, Levi. Now, on with the latest rankings…
When it came to the work that Baleba is actually paid to do – forcing turnovers, hassling opposing midfielders and keeping possession ticking over – he did everything in his usual solid, unfussy manner without raising any alarms. When it came to the work the Cameroonian isn’t in the side for, however, it was a different story, and Baleba missed two seemingly straightforward chances towards the end of the game which were worth 1.01xG between them. Basically, Baleba really should have got on the scoresheet, but given that Brighton thumped Southampton 4-0 anyway and it would be harsh to knock a defensive midfielder down a peg for failing to score, we’re keeping him in tenth this week.
Have Manchester United made a smart signing for once? On the evidence of Dorgu’s last two matches, they might just have done something right in the transfer market. Dorgu needs to be more effective in the final third – he only completed one cross in nine attempts in the recent games against Tottenham and Everton – but he’s been quietly impressive off the ball, winning 15 out of 19 ground duels in those two games and refusing to allow a single opposing player to beat him on the run. A promising start to life at Old Trafford, not that much else is going right for Ruben Amorim right now.
The Gambian winger’s output is definitely starting to trend upwards and he picked up an assist in the rout of Southampton, seizing on one of many, many defensive mistakes to offer Kaoru Mitoma a tap-in to make it 2-0 – but like Baleba, he absolutely should have done more given the number of dangerous positions he got himself in. As for his second-half miss, when he rounded Aaron Ramsdale only to dawdle long enough in front of a near open goal to allow the former Arsenal man to get back and claw it out from under Minteh’s feet… let’s be generous and credit the goalkeeper. Very generous.
We noted last week that the Hungarian left-back is in a bit of a lull of late, at least by the high standards that he’s set this season, and that continued in the surprising 1-0 defeat to Wolves. His good positional sense ensured he made some important interceptions and clearances, but he struggled to handle Nelson Semedo and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde running at him and didn’t make much of a dent going forward, attempting six balls into the box but landing just one. A pretty poor day at the office, all told, and in a week when more youngsters impressed he might have slid further down the rankings.
Another player who would have fallen further most weeks, Nwaneri has had been outstanding of late but cut a frustrated and isolated figure in the loss to West Ham, failing to find room for a single shot and constantly trying to force the ball past defenders on the dribble only to lose possession. A game in which a staggeringly talented teenager showed us his inexperience rather than his immense technical quality, although credit must go to the Hammers defence for handling him extremely well.
Completing a mid-table trilogy of players who can be a little grateful that they only fall one place is Savinho, who played every minute of Manchester City’s humbling defeats to Real Madrid and Liverpool without making much of an impact.
Normally, Savinho is constantly involved but a little hit-and-miss – this week, he barely even had a swing. He completed just one dribble in both matches, didn’t have a single shot on goal (both rarities for a Brazilian who lacks nothing in daring) and was generally a pretty peripheral figure. There were few mistakes or foul-ups, but if you only watched the highlights of either game you’d probably fail to notice he was even playing. Not normally the stuff a top five spot is made of, but it’s been that kind of week.
On a similar note, Bergvall’s tidy outing in the 4-1 win over Ipswich Town wouldn’t normally merit a three-place surge up the rankings, but someone had to be the beneficiary of all those bad days and the Swede simply didn’t put a foot wrong against the embattled Tractor Boys, even if he wasn’t exactly the star of the show.
As per usual, Bergvall was immaculate on the ball, always finding space and moving it on to keep moves going and did some solid work off the ball, forcing a couple of turnovers and keeping it tight down the middle of the park. In truth, he wasn’t as involved as he sometimes is and certainly didn’t have a huge influence on the final result, but there’s no arguing with his consistency or the maturity of his performances.
Speaking of tidy and highly impressive young midfielders who are quietly developing into seriously good Premier League players, Southampton’s struggles have really masked just what an impressive player Fernandes has become – and while this wasn’t his best all-round game given that he struggled to make tackles when the ball was heading back towards Ramsdale’s goal (which was all the time), his passing range was on full display once more.
Everything the Saints do well goes through Fernandes. Almost every attack and half-chance involves his pin-point passing, vision and ball-carrying quality, and it was his through ball which set Cameron Archer through for an equaliser which turned out to be offside. A player who stands out a mile amid all the mediocrity surrounding him.
All good things come to an end, and Huijsen’s four-week spell at the top of our charts is among them. The Amsterdam-born Spaniard has been sensational since breaking into Andoni Iraola’s starting side back in December, but endured what was probably his first genuinely bad game for Bournemouth in the home loss to Wolves.
He was culpable for Matheus Cunha’s goal, coming out to head clear a Semedo cross only to fail to reach the ball, allowing the Brazilian in behind him with only the goalkeeper to beat – and he was partially responsible for a double chance earlier in the game when Bellegarde skipped past him outside the box. There was plenty of solid work in there, too, and his ability to be in the right place at the right time every time the ball gets played in behind is uncanny, but this was a rare bad day for a brilliant young defender.
All of which means that Newcastle left-back Hall can reclaim the throne he sat on for a large part of the winter after playing a huge role in a thrilling 4-3 win over Nottingham Forest in which he picked up one assist if you’re a statistician, two if you run the Fantasy Premier League, and three if you’re a player who had him in your team. The numbers will say one, but that doesn’t fully reflect his attacking contribution.
Nobody can deny him the assist for the first goal, a cross for young Lewis Miley who finished superbly on the turn, but it was his surging run into space and deflected cross which teed up Jacob Murphy for the second and his cross which hit Ola Aina’s arm to draw a penalty which made it 3-1 – and his fine ball down the flank which set Joe Willock away to tee up the fourth. His vulnerability against quick dribblers running at him did crop up a couple of times, admittedly, but he did the solid majority of his defensive work well, too. A really big game from a fine young player coming back into his best form, and comfortably the best outing from any of this week’s Top 10.