He absolutely did improve technically. For some reason you seem unable to accept that experience, training and repetition can improve technique. Also, you'll note I said from his time pre-spurs.
JJ Gabriel | 2026/27 Performances
- Thread starter Bastian
- Start date
- Status
I don't think Wenger was saying that your technique can't improve after a certain age, it certainly can. I think what he was saying was that you aren't going to get into any serious club without it at a young age and then if you can't your carear is over more or less.
You improve at anything you do for years and years. Yes you get weaker and slower but there's no reason why your technique would stall at such a young age. You also find more efficient ways to use and showcase what you've got with experience
You improve at anything you do for years and years. Yes you get weaker and slower but there's no reason why your technique would stall at such a young age. You also find more efficient ways to use and showcase what you've got with experience
Last edited:
I must admit I always enjoy watching someone make a point, quite possibly realise soon after that it was complete bollocks, but admirably attempt to double down and defend the position rather than just admit they were wrong.
A random reply to this but I watched the Botham/Chapell doc last night and they are the definition of this. I've never seen two people despise each other as much it's hilarious.
Stay on topic
New
Ok guys enough waffle, keep it to the topic of JJ’s performances during the season please
Neither of our senior attackers has set the world alight against Hull. So, if JJ continues at U21 the way he started, he might be part of our senior squad (i.e. getting playing time) within months
Last edited:
He's clearly a special, special talent. I'd argue the best I've seen coming through the ranks. But he's physically nowhere near ready enough for the men's game. I wouldn't want to see that happen yet.
Modric was never underrated in England ffs.
Also never overlooked, United tried to sign him before Real came in for him. Not sure what you're basing your opinion on, but it's wrong.
You’d have to carefully select the teams he played against for now. For example I think against Hull, where the CBs are all big units he’d have been bullied
looking forward to him being the only bright spark in a shite season.
Maybe not, he should have bulked up a bit compared to last season, and then his lower center of gravity and quick feet…
There’s bulked up and bulked up. He’s 15 and a wet towel is heavier
I personally wouldn't put him up against prem opponents just yet but I do think he might have caused some chaos in Hulls defence.
Rashford, Cunha, Mbeumo are all fairly predictable with the ball. Amad is the only senior player who leaves the opponent guessing his direction. Lacey and Gabriel have that quality and whilst they'll get pushed about outside the box, in and around the box they're also the most likely to get pens awarded or a shot off.
It won't be long til the FA Cup. I've no doubt Gabriel will get gametime in the early rounds even if it's just a sub.
Depends on a draw. If we get City or Arsenal in the early rounds, then maybe not
I agree. He should be training with the first team with the instructions of not tackling him. Playing matches where professionals are happy to leave a mark would be disastrous for a 15 year old.
It's literally the first thing that will happen to him when he comes on. The physical side of things will come, but you want him to be able to get up after a tackle and not deal with recurring injuries later in his career.
England are a couple world cups away from a team featuring Bellingham, Dowman and Gabriel. Exciting times.
Why not the next one? 4 years. Both Dowman and JJ will be 19/20
No pressure lads
If they don’t want pressure then they’re in the wrong business.
You're right. I suspect they'll probably both go as they look like elite talents.
Agreed. It's also a part of being at the main superclubs in Europe. However they are children.
Jesus Christ. One is 15 and one is 16/17
Pressure is your GCSEs.
I swear you’re normally quite sensible.
The transfers window has sent me mad.I swear you’re normally quite sensible.
The type of pressure that you’re advocating putting on 2 young lads, to not only be regular in their first team pools and have played enough to get World Cup squad places at such a young age is enough to break some if they’re not mentally resilient. GCSE is nowhere near the same pressure
Just let them develop at their own paces and stop making huge targets for them at age 15 and 16
Not sure I agree with that, GCSE's or lack of can determine a young persons future, playing in the WC at 19/20 doesn't
GCSEs mean feck all, you just move on to A levels and then whatever the next box ticking exercise is.
If you feck up your GCSEs then you're just thick. All my thick mates who didn't do well at school had the last laugh by becoming tradies and making loads of money that way.
Doing bad at your GCSEs means nothing in the long term, and nobody else gives a shit. fecking up at a WC in front of millions, perhaps billions of people, that isn't going to be forgotten.
To an ordinary kid
To a footballer it’s entirely different. We shouldn’t be putting them under that microscope at this age
Can you even do A leverls if you feck up your GCSE's?
No idea about now but when I was at school in the last century you couldn't
Hate to think what you said about Messi, Neymar, etc at 16 and how you wanted them to bulk up, potentially at the cost of how they can move nimbly.
I didn’t say bulk up which insinuates putting on lots of muscle tone. I said that he’s still in a boys body, which he is. He looks like my 14 old. I’ve always said, let him develop naturally and when he’s ready the coaches will knows
But so far we’ve seen people adamant that a 15 year old should be fast tracked to the first team to play PL football, and we’ve had people saying that he should be playing in the World Cup when he’s 19.
My argument broken down; everyone just calm down. When he’s ready he’s ready
Do you really think Messi and/or Neymar would have survived the physical battle of the PL at 16?
Gabriel needs to 'bulk up" naturally if he's to make it in the PL, he has a boys body, mainly because he's still a boy, he has all the ability but that on it's own isn't enough these days
The premier league is a lot more rough on even the strongest players too. I wouldn't fancy throwing him in just because he's finding u23s quite easy so far but saying that... these performances do bode well for him getting his senior debut this season at some point.
I personally think it'll just be a token few minutes at the end of a league cup game against a beaten team or something. Make a big deal out of how he's the youngest United debutant in the modern age and then let him stay hungry and under the radar in the 23s... next season he's surely going to be knocking at the door for real minutes off the bench if he can keep this up though.
I personally think it'll just be a token few minutes at the end of a league cup game against a beaten team or something. Make a big deal out of how he's the youngest United debutant in the modern age and then let him stay hungry and under the radar in the 23s... next season he's surely going to be knocking at the door for real minutes off the bench if he can keep this up though.
Ridiculous talent, we hadn't had a gem like this one since the one that cant be named.
The talent is there, he's only 15 and his body looks just like it so it make take a couple of seasons before he can be integrated into the man's game.
The talent is there, he's only 15 and his body looks just like it so it make take a couple of seasons before he can be integrated into the man's game.
I think Dowman was slightly higher rated due to his physicality but JJ is just as special.
That goal today is sensational. He’s going to be amazing. Doing that in his first step up to the PL2. He’s already too good for that level.
At this age and level he looks better than Mason.
Some of you really need to get a handle on what professional football is in the sense you absolutely should not throw a boy into a man’s game.
This is their livelihood and from their perspective, once you are out on a professional pitch, you are fair game. Some fellow pros might go nice and not aim to take out a fragile waif of a boy, others absolutely will not, and then what? A yellow or red card whilst JJ is in bits because he’s not built to handle the men’s game yet? And then who should the finger be pointed at for him being out there in the first place? I think some of you have a romanticised ideal where he gets to be all pretty and fancy whilst pros, trying to win the game for their team, idly coo and let him be. This kid taking potential bonuses out of their pockets and what not. It may happen, but the consequences on the other side are so dire that the club will not be negligent or stupid enough to risk them until he’s physically ready.
It’s not his age holding him back, rather, his build. If you cannot see that he’s still built like a child the conversation is already redundant - grown men go easy when playing with children or they don’t play at all, which is why we have developmental stages - the youngsters that do come through super early are not built like Gabriel - they are typically manboys or, they are already extremely strong and wiry relative to their age, like Dowman. Even a young Giggs was built like a twig on first inspection, but when you actually look at him properly, he was sinewy, extremely agile and explosive and his speed and agility was already in its matured form - he didn’t get any faster or agile, which is what accelerated development typically looks like in terms of attributes if you don’t have a freakishly adult build at a pre-adult age. Gabriel might not get any more agile, but he almost certainly will get faster, stronger and more robust, and then he’ll be almost certainly in the squad.
You can’t simply parse skill from the other factors. Professional football does not and should not work that way, so every bit of skill you see him pull off, ask if that’s applicable against full-grown men giving him no quarter. Right now it’s clear that touch contact is dangerous for Gabriel at PL level - you absolutely do not want him getting a full-blown crunching tackle from a relative juggernaut in comparison to what he currently is. Look beyond - or stop isolating - the skill element and consider the other factors; I doubt he’d even get a run out in La Liga with his current build and that’s a much friendlier league for prodigious talent to be introduced to. His time in the PL will come when his body is ready to handle it and it would be irresponsible for it to come before that.
This is their livelihood and from their perspective, once you are out on a professional pitch, you are fair game. Some fellow pros might go nice and not aim to take out a fragile waif of a boy, others absolutely will not, and then what? A yellow or red card whilst JJ is in bits because he’s not built to handle the men’s game yet? And then who should the finger be pointed at for him being out there in the first place? I think some of you have a romanticised ideal where he gets to be all pretty and fancy whilst pros, trying to win the game for their team, idly coo and let him be. This kid taking potential bonuses out of their pockets and what not. It may happen, but the consequences on the other side are so dire that the club will not be negligent or stupid enough to risk them until he’s physically ready.
It’s not his age holding him back, rather, his build. If you cannot see that he’s still built like a child the conversation is already redundant - grown men go easy when playing with children or they don’t play at all, which is why we have developmental stages - the youngsters that do come through super early are not built like Gabriel - they are typically manboys or, they are already extremely strong and wiry relative to their age, like Dowman. Even a young Giggs was built like a twig on first inspection, but when you actually look at him properly, he was sinewy, extremely agile and explosive and his speed and agility was already in its matured form - he didn’t get any faster or agile, which is what accelerated development typically looks like in terms of attributes if you don’t have a freakishly adult build at a pre-adult age. Gabriel might not get any more agile, but he almost certainly will get faster, stronger and more robust, and then he’ll be almost certainly in the squad.
You can’t simply parse skill from the other factors. Professional football does not and should not work that way, so every bit of skill you see him pull off, ask if that’s applicable against full-grown men giving him no quarter. Right now it’s clear that touch contact is dangerous for Gabriel at PL level - you absolutely do not want him getting a full-blown crunching tackle from a relative juggernaut in comparison to what he currently is. Look beyond - or stop isolating - the skill element and consider the other factors; I doubt he’d even get a run out in La Liga with his current build and that’s a much friendlier league for prodigious talent to be introduced to. His time in the PL will come when his body is ready to handle it and it would be irresponsible for it to come before that.
- Status