Sekou Kone

Rozay said:
You seem unnecessarily concerned with this. I haven’t seen his passing to be a problem at all.
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I don't think his passing technique itself is an issue, but I think he's quite an intuitive player and technique selection can sometimes be wrong or he's his footwork and timing in anticipation of the opponent is off leading to rushing a pass.

He's very promising but sometimes erratic.
 
Toblerone92 said:
Plent of midgets make great CMs, see Veratti, Hazard, Modric, Cazorla etc.
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Don't think he's short though. Probably about 180 cm.

For the position it's slightly below average but not a huge deficit either way.
 
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Looks like he's coming along nicely, I still think he'll be with the u21s next season, potentially a loan next Jan and then first team the season after.
 
Kone is one I am definitely excited about. That classic all round playmaker which United badly need. Technically strong, intelligent, good range of passing, dynamic. He needs to be knocking on the first team door. Great technique for the goal regardless of the deflection.
 
Cracking goal. He was one I was hoping Amorin might have given a few minutes to, but looks like we will have to wait a bit for any first team action
 
Red Royal said:
Cracking goal. He was one I was hoping Amorin might have given a few minutes to, but looks like we will have to wait a bit for any first team action
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His overall performance in the game suggests he is not ready yet. You can see the natural talent but CM is tough to step into as a teenager and he would be bullied by PL midfielders. More U21 football and maybe some time on loan next season depending on how he progresses physically would be best for him I think.
 
Gandalf said:
His overall performance in the game suggests he is not ready yet. You can see the natural talent but CM is tough to step into as a teenager and he would be bullied by PL midfielders. More U21 football and maybe some time on loan next season depending on how he progresses physically would be best for him I think.
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Entirely agree with you. He had moments against Everton when he was excellent, other times you go FFS. Another year , perhaps only half a season before he's ready for the 1st team.
 


Started very slowly but grew into the game. This might be a big summer, hope he goes on tour.
 
He'll have one or two little outings next season for the first team in cup comps but he'll largely be in the u21's.
Shows alot of promise though
 
He’s going places. I agree that he’s not ready yet, but I think the things he needs are easy to see where and how they will come provided he just gets to keep playing.
 
I think it’s a positive sign in his development that after a slow start he grew into the game more and then provided a telling impact late on. Once he irons out the blips in concentration and becomes more conditioned to the pressing, speed and physicality of English football he can provide a different dimension to our play.

As others have suggested another one who could se time on the tour next season. Midfield will be competitive im sure for the under 20 age group.
 
Interesting that the club are so invested in him that 3 U21 coaches are learning French so they can get their instructions across better.

He must be highly regarded.
 
Borninthe80ts said:
I think it’s a positive sign in his development that after a slow start he grew into the game more and then provided a telling impact late on. Once he irons out the blips in concentration and becomes more conditioned to the pressing, speed and physicality of English football he can provide a different dimension to our play.

As others have suggested another one who could se time on the tour next season. Midfield will be competitive im sure for the under 20 age group.
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Agree on your last point. There seems to be a number of strong young players that fit into the midfield square in Amorim’s system - Mainoo, Collyer, Kone, Thwaites, Moorhouse, Fletcher, Fletcher, Gore, Ibragimov, Lacey and others - and it will be interesting to see which get and then take their chance.
 
Mingus said:
Interesting that the club are so invested in him that 3 U21 coaches are learning French so they can get their instructions across better.

He must be highly regarded.
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It seems to me that there should be an easier solution to this....
 
Drainy said:
Hope you're being facetious.

Learning other languages is a valuable skill for an industry like football. French and Spanish in particular would be incredibly useful
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Agree 100%. Great excuse to learn an other language + make a kid far from home more comfortable. Should also come in handy for us when we inevitably get more kids/players who don’t speak English well in the beginning.
 
Drainy said:
Hope you're being facetious.

Learning other languages is a valuable skill for an industry like football. French and Spanish in particular would be incredibly useful
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Em.....while I fully agree that learning a new language is a fantastic thing, I would be more of the opinion that it might be a fantastic opportunity for Sekou to accelerate his English acquisition, helping with every aspect of his attempts to feel at home and build relationships in the country where he's living, rather than a fleet of coaches trying to communicate with him in pigeon French. Am I missing something??
 
Still ill said:
Em.....while I fully agree that learning a new language is a fantastic thing, I would be more of the opinion that it might be a fantastic opportunity for Sekou to accelerate his English acquisition, helping with every aspect of his attempts to feel at home and build relationships in the country where he's living, rather than a fleet of coaches trying to communicate with him in pigeon French. Am I missing something??
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Obviously he should be trying to learn English too, but maybe he's struggling with it. We presume French is his native tongue but not necessarily, so its not beyond imagining that possibly learning English could be more difficult than we were assuming?
 
Still ill said:
Em.....while I fully agree that learning a new language is a fantastic thing, I would be more of the opinion that it might be a fantastic opportunity for Sekou to accelerate his English acquisition, helping with every aspect of his attempts to feel at home and build relationships in the country where he's living, rather than a fleet of coaches trying to communicate with him in pigeon French. Am I missing something??
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Im sure both things are happening. I know we’re daft sometimes, but I really don’t believe we’d be so stupid as to not put him in English class of some sort.
 
Still ill said:
Em.....while I fully agree that learning a new language is a fantastic thing, I would be more of the opinion that it might be a fantastic opportunity for Sekou to accelerate his English acquisition, helping with every aspect of his attempts to feel at home and build relationships in the country where he's living, rather than a fleet of coaches trying to communicate with him in pigeon French. Am I missing something??
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You seem to be missing the fact Kone is also learning English.
 
Drainy said:
Obviously he should be trying to learn English too, but maybe he's struggling with it. We presume French is his native tongue but not necessarily, so its not beyond imagining that possibly learning English could be more difficult than we were assuming?
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Grand, I obviously think we should be doing everything we can to help our young players, just seemed like a bit of a weird way to go.
 
Still ill said:
Grand, I obviously think we should be doing everything we can to help our young players, just seemed like a bit of a weird way to go.
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Just seen via a Google search that apparently only a third of men in Mali are fluent in French. I would guess that as part of their football programmes they would be learning it, but it's not the national language.
If the lessons are French to English it adds a layer of difficulty to the lessons.

Good on the coaches for putting in the effort.
 
Rainy nights in Stoke said:
Im sure both things are happening. I know we’re daft sometimes, but I really don’t believe we’d be so stupid as to not put him in English class of some sort.
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limerickcitykid said:
You seem to be missing the fact Kone is also learning English.
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Drainy said:
Just seen via a Google search that apparently only a third of men in Mali are fluent in French. I would guess that as part of their football programmes they would be learning it, but it's not the national language.
If the lessons are French to English it adds a layer of difficulty to the lessons.

Good on the coaches for putting in the effort.
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OK, I may have entered this conversation in a somewhat offhand way. Apologies to all.
 
I think it’s a great move for our coaches to learn different languages to support youth players.
 
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