Originally posted by baitman
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You are not wrong with what you are saying, but as Charly mentioned that is down to his current level of tactical awareness and also down to his own levels of game experience at this level.
He is young and not very experienced so like a lot of young athletes he will be hyper focused on the moment when he receives a ball and blinkered to the point where his world is him and the defender facing him. He gets beyond that defender then you can see his head go up and taking a look to decide if there is a ball on or if he needs to draw in another defender.
How he is playing atm may not be the "smartest" , but it will become more refined through coaching, through in game experience at this level and through communication from team mates.
Have no idea how good he may or may not go on to be. Right now he looks a lot like like a young Shaun Wright Philips to me or even a little like Sterling (though missing some of the strength Sterling had when young) but when a player is only 17 or 18 it is very difficult to figure out just how much of his potential he will go on to realise save for the rare player that looks close to ready by the time they hit 18.
For me the best place for him to develop is with us as imo he is ready to be coming on for 20 to 30 minutes in place of one of the wingers most games and also to be getting maybe 10 to 20 starts (across all comps) on top of those minutes. If we can give him that sort of time on the pitch then we get the benefit of his youthful fearlessness whilst also getting to round out his game at a high level without it being in any way to the detriment of the team. Imo of course.
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