Without question, Arsenal have been in a poor run of form since the new season kicked off back in mid August.
With already four losses in their first seven games in the Premier League, every Arsenal fan has been occupied by the poor results so far and the calamitous nature of our defence. Add to this the recent north London derby defeat to Tottenham last week, its no wonder that a young kid called Ryo Miyaichi has suddenly disappeared from the minds of several Arsenal fans.
Miyaichi was signed back in January of this year as a 17-year-old school boy from Japan. After he failed to secure a work permit in England, Arsenal were quick to send him out on loan to Dutch club Feyenoord, where he showed no signs of being overawed by the huge step up in class as he helped Feyenoord to a respectable mid table finish last season.
His 3 goals and 8 assists in 11 appearances are impressive stats considering his tender age. Even more impressive were the quality of his performances that earned him comparisons with Brazilian legend Ronaldinho and Barcelona star Lionel Messi .
When he returned to Arsenal this summer for pre-season, there was a sense of excitement surrounding the young Japanese star. He was pretty impressive during the Asian pre-season tour and Arsenal finally succeeded in landing a work permit for Ryo under the special talent quota. There were high expectations for the starlet; especially after Arsene Wenger expressed that he was ready for first-team football at the Emirates. But the story so far has unfortunately been the absolute opposite.
Ryo is yet to make his Premier League debut for the Gunners despite the poor performances of several first-team players.
AOC has proved in recent weeks that if you have the quality then you are good enough to play, no matter how young. Furthermore, Ryo did himself no harm with his performances in Holland last season and during the pre-season. So what is really preventing Wenger from utilizing the Japanese whizkid?
One thing is of course the huge number of wingers at Wenger’s disposal. With the likes of Arshavin and AOC on the bench, there is no doubt that the Frenchman is keen for all of them to get regular game time.
Another reason, according to me, is that Wenger is worried by the number of injuries to his young wonderkids. For the last two seasons we have had young teenagers becoming mainstays in the first-team and then suddenly getting injured. While Ramsey’s injury was a result of a bad tackle, there is no denying that Wilshere’s injury was down to the huge number of matches he played for Arsenal and England last year. No matter how talented, 60 games a season is just too much for the legs of a 19-year-old.
With Ryo not used to the physicality of the Premier League and posing such a small stature, I feel that the fear of injuries to his youngsters is holding back Wenger from unleashing Ryo and AOC.
But still given Arsenal’s poor performances of late, Wenger will be doing nothing wrong if he decides to play Ryo and AOC ahead of Arshavin and Gervinho .
So is it high time Wenger started using the young Japanese starlet?
Personally, I think it is.
While he is extremely young and inexperienced, I feel he can bring the element of surprise to Arsenal’s attacking line. With raw talent and several tricks up his sleeve, Miyaichi has it in him to succeed in the Premier League. He is also quick and generally likes to cut in from the wings, while also being equally good at dribbling along the touchline and taking on full-backs. While there is no doubt that he will have to upstage the likes of Walcott and Gervinho to land a first-team role, Ryo at least deserves a regular cameo role at this stage.
You wouldn’t earn nicknames like ‘Ryodinho’ and ‘the Japanese Messi’ for nothing, would you?
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Written by Vivek Arulnathan for Gunnersphere
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hes toilet stop the stupid hype. hes not even the best player in the reserves
“With Ryo not used to the physicality of the Premier League and posing such a small stature” – Small Stature? What a misinformed article! Ryo is 6 feet tall – Taller that most folks in the ARsenal team.
The young man should be given a chance to prove himself. He was bought for that purpose in the first place.
To suggest you have no doubt Wilshere was injured due to last seasons workload is just crap. It is fact that Jack has been carrying the injury on and off since he was 16,so do not presume to tell us your opinion is fact,especially when wrong..
Wenger would be foolish to bring in too many new players at once……these are kids,so give them a taste here and there,let them grow and steadily up the workrate.
This is easily the best batch of 17-21 y.o’s the club has had.
Ryo,Campbell,Ox,Coquelin,Frimpong,Jack,Szczesny,Jenkinson(will prove plenty wrong),Gibbs……..not a bad list.
Combine these with the experienced,older heads….especially when they’re fit and playing….a nucleus of a league winning side.
Injuries have been our killer this season,so once these are sorted and these kids get some experience,we will be right.
Obviously,we all hope this happens before the seasons too far gone,so fingers crossed.
I think ryo is good enough to be a starter and get first team football at arsenal.I am still surprise why wenger haven’t give ryo a chance while feyernord are crying to have ryo back on loan.I beleive that ryo deserve a chance, and i would not be surprised if wenger picks ryo, AOC and may be walcot ahead of arshavin,beneyoun and gervinho because gervinho looks anonymous on the pitch this time while arshavin is a flop this time onless they improve their game.finally wenger pls give ryo a chance because he deserves a chance.
you forgot another reason he hasn’t played – HE’S NOT FIT!
To his credit, I am glad that AW does not listen to some the comments coming from bloggers. I totally disagree to the comments suggesting that Gervinho did not perform well, on the contrary, I believe he did fantastic considering he joined the team recently and also new for the premier league. By far he was one of the best signings of the summer, he has a great future in the team and once he gets used to his team mates, he will be the one to watch, the guy is unstoppable.
AW should give Miyachi first team chance while the excitement of loyal Arsenal supporters died down, he is doing these young players a disservice to deny them the chance where they could make a difference. It would be irrelevant if AW brings these young gunners all the chances of winning or contesting for top position died and buried. AW should bring in these young bloods in pairs, like AOX and Coquelen’s game complement one another; I wish I could say the same about Miyachi but AW deprived this youngster a chance to play. What I wanted to say was that AW should play these youngsters a decent 45 minutes and take them out before their legs get tiered and they make unnecessary moves to impress/compensate which could result in injury, which was the case with Wilshire.
Some of you are quick to 4get that Real wanted Ryo while on loan to feyenoord. This kid is better by miles than Gerv or Arsh, if played alongside AOC, Arsenal attack will b one of the best in EPL.
AVB is better than his predecessor Ancelotti. If someone is going to come in I would prefer it to be a younger manager not of the same generation as Wenger/Ancelotti.
A fresh injection might be all that is needed.
Someone at Arsenal will have to teach Oxlaide-Chamberlain and Myiachi how to properly defend against a corner kick before either of them are given any playing time. Arsenal is already bad enough in defending against set-pieces without putting a kid out on the pitch who doesn’t even know where he is supposed to stand or who to guard on a simple corner kick (witness AOC’s shocking perfomance in his own end against Olympiakos–which was not helped in the least by Rosicky).
this is another of those asian signings that was brought in to sell shirts in that area nothing more another inamoto, average at best they tour china and the far east and buy this japanese kid for christ sakes….and now another 17 year old from real madrid is on his way….see a pattern here..buy relatively cheap 2-5 mill sell for 20-30 in 5-6 years time.. this club are now in the profit business not the football business which is fine…just dont piss on our leg and tell us uit’s raining
If Ryo is not fit as some claim how about Park? He has been scoring goals for his country you know.
To me Ryo and AOC should be played in premier league with charmak in front. The two of them can take the left and right and crosses will be flowing in from left and right for charmak to head home.
It is a good combination i am seeing from afar.
Ryo is coming back from an injury, seen him play in tehlast two reserve games and he doesn’t look match fit yet, so has looked very average. Neil Banfield seemed to spend most of the game shouting at Ryo!
He definately has potential, but he is not quite ready yet – Chuks is the one who impresses, just a shame he doesn’t have the body of a footballer!