Ainsley Maitland-Niles shone in last night’s 5-0 win over Southampton in the FA Cup, but 19 year old was modest afterwards when discussing his performance.
Played in his favoured central-midfield role, alongside Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, he was hugely effective, and his display was mature beyond his years. His defensive work in particular was very impressive.
Speaking after the game, he said he’d been congratulated by his teammates, and on that basis he said he must have played well.
“All the boys said congratulations and well done so I’m guessing I played well,” he said.
“I feel that I played well as well, so I’m happy with my performance. I prefer to play centre mid than right back, but I’m happy to do a job for the team.
“You’re just in the centre of everything and most of it was going through me today, so I just like to be involved in the play really.”
He also drew some praise from Arsene Wenger, who said, “We saw some young players in midfield who, in my opinion, have done very well.”
The double-barrelled trio of Oxlade-Maitland-Reine-Niles-Adelaide-Chamberlain probably won’t be first pick very often, but they did us proud last night.
I guess you did.
I know you did!
Good guess.
Sure you did.
He definitely did
he did indeed
Getting a chance to play in his best position made a big difference to his game,worked out to be a good confidence boost For him and the ox.
Well may you guess
He looks good in that position. Maybe we have more than our coq!
Ken Dodd said he did. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGor7ZyCawI
Tough crowd!! (Or maybe too young to remember?) 🙁
Some people have no sense of humour mate.
The future!!! And the Jeff!!!
I’ve no doubt, (as a person who dines with Wenger a lot), that Ox is gonna get his chance in midfield (with present injuries and lack of availability in mid) ,,,Thereby Rambo moves right wing (licence to roam) and Alexis goes up top….. Tuf on Olivier…. But he will get his chances from the bench. Dat Guy will take the left side …..
I am somewhat deluded .. I don’t actually dine with Arsene.
and as for my tactical awareness, ???
we definitely havent seen enough of maitland niles. in the academy sides he’s a pretty good dribbler and is known to score some stunning long rangers . hopefully with enough games we will see his full range
The boy is good. I was impressed with his all round display.
Clean tackling masterclass..Don’t think he gave a foul away and checking his numbers on ‘by the numbers’ the kid had an extremely good game.
Thought he played well too I have not previously watched him closely before yesterday…though the saints gave us time on the ball..he was calm and made good decisions…but I must admit I was quite impressed with his defensive awareness…and particularly impressed on 3 occasions tracking back to our penalty box staying on his feet and shepherding the ball out of play for a corner rather than jumping in..
I was kinda hoping that Xhaka would take note and learn from this kid how to be a mature player..
Decent midfield play dude
You guessed right.
Played a quite positionally disciplined match, and with those tracking runs to shut down their breaks from the flank it looks like a little fullback work certainly didn’t hurt.
I had not had the opportunity to see him in the middle in a competitive match, but I was impressed.
I absolutely loved his performance, largely due to the fact that he remained sharp and disciplined – something young players tend not to do.
His ability and potential are rather immense in my opinion. I’m not too sure about that ‘stache of his. Sorta like William Carvalho’s – both look like 70’s porn ‘staches, both make them look much older.
What ?!?! His stache is superawesome probably the source of all his powers. Combined with his funkadelic afrohairthingy he makes Carlos Valderrama look like a cockatoo.
Was very impressive!
You played ever so well.
Southampton played like they were scared of his mum.
Team hyphen for the win!
did did did.
Well done lad, you did.
The future’s so bright, I had to wear shades to work this morning. Surely the Hornets can not sting us? Another 5-0 would be fooking great. Alexis hat-trick. Coquelin, Ramsey. Arsene to lead chants in the stand.
Great performance. Keep it up!! reminded me of Song.
The new young Mathieu Flamini.
Versatile player, tenacious no nonsense.
Adelaide showed some excellent footwork reminiscent of Diaby.
Wenger again developing some excellent youngsters following Iwobi and Bellerin.
Anyone know how long Maitland-Niles’ contract is for? He signed professional terms in October 2014 when he was 17; he was on loan at Ipswich last season, and now seems to have risen above Krystian Bielik in the pecking order…
I think there was an article on here a few days ago (that could mean anywhere between 2 days and 6 months ago) that has the information you are looking for…..
You did wonderfully well.