Feyenoord’s head coach Arne Slot admits he’s been surprised by Reiss Nelson’s lack of end product since the winger arrived on loan from Arsenal in August.
Lacking match fitness when he signed for the Dutch giants, the 22-year-old had to wait until December for a chance to start a match.
There have been a lot of cameos off the bench but with only one goal and one assist to his name, he’s struggled to match the form he showed in a previous loan spell with German side Hoffenheim.
If Arsenal were hoping Nelson’s spell in Holland might see his value increase before he enters the final year of his contract, the assessment by Slot certainly won’t help.
“The talent is there, but what Reiss still struggles with is creating big chances for himself or his teammates,” he told Voetbal International (relayed by Sport Witness).
“You see a lot of skill, speed and agility, but the final push is still missing. Then it’s just not a finish or just not an assist.
“The most difficult thing in football is to get the best out of your play. And if you play for Feyenoord, where you often end up in a promising position as a winger, you expect a higher yield.
“I don’t think he is much of a goal scorer anyway. I don’t see him doing that much in training either, but at Hoffenheim, in the Bundesliga, he scored seven goals. That’s excellent.”
Reflecting on Nelson’s most recent Eredivisie performances, he at least expressed hope of an improvement:
“I did notice that against NEC [Nijmegen], he looked for his direct opponent when he had the ball, which was lacking in the game with Vitesse.
“I think Reiss is much more of a preparer than a finisher, and I’m convinced he’ll show he can do better.”
I really like they way our clubs doing with loans agreement. This is a fair assessment of player that have lots potential but struggling to expose himself. Hope he comes good though
A player who was an exceptional academy talent. Iwobi has had a PL career and Reis may not?
What an unnecessarily critical guy/assessment
Ouch. That’s quite damning.
Reiss Nelson has always been like this though, like this is spot on. There’s so much talent on show, but there’s just no bite to him. I don’t know if this example holds any water with anyone and honestly it could just be a personal gripe I’m reading too much into, but I still feel it’s best exemplified by when we beat Forest 5-0 in the FA Cup, and when Nelson scored he just traipsed off so lightly towards his teammate and gave them this really soft hug, like scoring a goal does nothing for him – particularly compared to… Read more »
Ow truth hurts. That is so Dutch. Maybe should send all our maybe players to a Dutch coach!
Any chance of sending Arteta as well. A little feedback might help. A few observations may be, man management, tactics, team selection and what the fxxk are Xhaka and nketia still doing at our club.
How to call a fella out to get the best out of him rather than alienating him kind of thing
Absolutely
Aubameyang is a bad influence on the rest of the squad. Young players look at him and think that they can get away with half efforts the same. I say good riddance.
There’s a pretty good manager at Ajax we can bring to London instead.
I would swap him today. Still hope Arteta works out, just so far from being convinced. Just to remind some, Xhaka wanted to leave, I recon about 98% of fans wanted him to leave, Roma offer 12 million for a 28 year old supposedly in the prime of his career, no club in world football was willing to offer more. Chris wood just went for 20 million. Arteta then makes him captain and says how important he is to our team. Let that sink in one more time 😂
I’m not exactly sure of your point. We need a repacement for Xhaka, but until we get one he is, unfortunately, our second-best midfielder and–when he stays on the pitch–very important to the team.
As for the Chris Wood buy–you may not have heard, but Newcastle have new owners.
Let it sink in that arteta didn’t make him captain? Ok At least make your crap arguements accurate.
Haha, meant new contract. Not an argument, just an opinion. Chill out 🤓
It would be delusional to deny that the majority of our best performances have happened when Xhaka’s on the field. For whatever reason, the team usually performs better with him out there, especially Partey. It is what it is. If they couldn’t find a good replacement for him last summer, why would they get rid of him? It’s not ideal having him around still for obvious reasons, but I’m glad the club isn’t just bringing guys in to appease restless fans – it seems like they are being intentional about transfers and replacements, and whoever replaces Xhaka, that has to… Read more »
what a lovely insightful post. thanks
And then there is Ronald Koeman.
I hear Shteve McLaren ish available. Taishty.
I’d imagine we’ll move him on the summer with a sell on clause
Ship him on to Germany where he gedeiht!
Oof that is a pretty rough assessment.
But also loving the well-reasoned analysis! Very honest and open feedback, giving specific examples based on observations from games and training!
I feel like a lot of coaches would have just said that “Reiss is lazy and doesn’t want it enough”
*Cough* the English ones *cough*
This statement is outdated. Maybe people like Sam Alladyce may have had this mindset but English managers are definitely more progressive since them days.
Don’t know why we didn’t just loan hit out to a Bunndes team. He’s already got experience there and has German family.
A honest assessment !
Well just a little off topic ,whats happening ? We loan players out n look thin in number .auba in d cold .and we still wanna finish 4th ? I doubt it with laca n nketiah .n whats with arteta n nketia ? Dude said he doesnt wana sign n ur forcing him ? Gosh ! Rejecting palace bid n maybe new castle .sell n n get beireth as back up if we dont want top 4 again n end this nonesense
n what n?
malfunction keyboard and bryan
I think it’s Brya the “n” was a typo
this reads like a telegram
It doesn’t matter.
There is not much chance of him becoming a regular at Arsenal.
You can have all the skill, pace and agility but if the mindset is not there then you need to reassess your career targets.
Perhaps he can find a championship team or lower tier european club that will make him look better than he is and he can do enough to set himself up…
Just not at Arsenal…
Wing back…
His Arsenal race is done. Sadly.
Wow, very sober assessment of Reiss. In truth, that coaches criticisms were all visible in his cameos at Arsenal before he went on loan. He scored a few in early Europa rounds didn’t he, but seemed to have limited impact during his few Premier League cameos. Hope he can play his way into his best form, his Hoffenheim form, and find the end product he showed there.
Yeah. I dont think he’s going to play any longer at Arsenal. He’s not at the level we need him to be. It’s best if he just moves on in the summer.
So a young player shows a lot of promise while on loan in a foreign league. Then Arteta becomes the manager at Arsenal. Then Arteta doesn’t play him much. Fans wonder why he can’t get game time. Arteta loans him out again. He underperforms and his loan manager just gave the most honest/brutal assessment of the player publicly that explains exactly why the player hasn’t succeeded at Arsenal. It’s almost as if Arteta does kind of know what he’s doing. That when he decides a player isn’t ready to play for Arsenal, or isn’t the right fit, perhaps he’s right.… Read more »
Imagine Arteta knowing more about his team and options than the millions of armchair managers online! Amazing :p
He knows knows so much about his team, he won’t even have a CF for the rest of the season.
Is it difficult to understand that a guy who rarely played for his club for two years may lose confidence and sharpness?
Well, let us see how well Arteta does until the end of the season before we judge him harshly. But let’s agree that by the end of this season, he will have had enough time to prove himself (in)capable. Two 8th place finishes, Willian, several instances of questionable player management/discipline, getting booted out of Europa league (pathetically) a couple times, once to the guy who got fired to hire Arteta, (and who then got CL football as a result), etc……that will add up to a fairly poor body of work if we do not improve. Some of us remain unconvinced… Read more »
You can’t hide from the Dutch.
They’ll tell you how it is, and usually they’re on the money.
This is either an attempt at tough love, in order to invoke a reaction, or this is a manager who’s simply had enough, that assessment is brutal
He doesn’t watch Arsenal does he?