Arsenal: Arsene Wenger nails key Alex Iwobi shortcoming

Arsene Wenger has called on Alex Iwobi to add goals to his game. The Arsenal manager has nailed the key shortcoming of the talented youngster’s game.

The breaking-into-the-first-team of young players is always a wonderful process to watch. There are few feelings in football like being able to see a player, with natural talent, work on their skills, develop their game and grow in their role in the side, eventually achieving success at the senior level having graduated from the academy and worked their way through the ranks. Given Arsene Wenger’s penchant for acquiring and developing youth, this is a frequent joy as an Arsenal fan.

In the current squad, players like Hector Bellerin, Aaron Ramsey, Rob Holding and Theo Walcott are all beneficiaries of Wenger’s youthful priorities and investment. Another who is beginning to establish himself as a regular first-team contributor is Alex Iwobi, who started last weekend against Chelsea, impressing with an energetic, industrious display.

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His natural talent is unquestioned. He has an excellent first touch, caressing the ball with care and confidence, even in tight, congested areas, surrounded by defenders; his vision and creativity are incisive and unpredictable; he is positionally intelligent, finding those pockets of space in between the midfield and defence, receiving the ball on the half-turn and driving at the exposed defence; his burst of pace and athleticism is dynamic and dangerous, with the ability to skip by defenders with ease.

But there is one key shortcoming that Iwobi is lacking. And in the build-up to Monday night’s tricky trip to the Hawthorns to face a disciplined and determined West Bromwich Albion team, Wenger nailed exactly what it is: a lack of goals and assists. This what Iwobi’s manager had to say:

"“I like the fact that he can play in tight areas, that he turns the game forwards, that he’s very mobile. We forget sometimes that Alex is still a very young player and that there’s a lot more to come from him. There must be a lot more to come from him because he has more personality in the game now. We expect him to be more efficient in the final third offensively, because you feel there are goals in there and assists too. They have to come out.”"

In the 2015/16 season, Iwobi played 632 Premier League minutes. He scored two goals and amassed two assists, recording a direct involvement in a goal every 158 minutes. The next season, Iwobi played 1463 Premier League minutes: he scored three goals and also assisted three, yielding a direct involvement in a goal every 243 minutes. That is a goal or assist every 2.7 games. Alexis Sanchez, in contrast, had a direct involvement in a goal every 94.8 minutes, amassing 34 goals and assists across the whole season.

Now, Iwobi isn’t simply going to be able to replicate Sanchez’s goal and assist production. In fact, only one player had more goals and assists in the Premier League last season, Harry Kane. But he must be more clinical, creative and productive in the final third than he has been.

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At just 21 years of age, there is still plenty of time and room to improve, and he certainly has the talent to create and score more goals. Patience will be required as he continues to develop, but it is clear where his game must progress. Thankfully, Wenger is acutely aware and he will be pushing the Nigerian hard in this area.

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