Arsenal’s prime Ozil regen is tearing up the U18s – & he’s only 14 years old
Arsenal recently lost 16-year-old striker Chido Obi Martin when his contract came to an end. The Danish wonderkid looks set to join Manchester United, although that hasn’t quite been confirmed at the time of writing.
So what? You might think. He’s just some kid. But that kid scored 24 goals in seven games for Arsenal’s under-16s at the end of last season…
He scored 10 in one single game against Liverpool U-16s, and he was only 15 at the time. He’s got all the potential in the world. But do you know part of the reason why Obi was scoring so many goals?
Max Dowman. A striker won’t score many goals without good service, and Max Dowman has been a revelation for Arsenal U-18s despite being 14 (FOURTEEN) years of age.
We shouldn’t really be putting pressure on such young shoulders, but he really does remind us of Mesut Ozil when the German was at his most mobile.
Dowman plays in midfield and is the one his teammates look to to make things happen. He has that wonderful knack of picking up the ball deep, beating his marker with an imperceptible shimmy or a delicate nutmeg, and driving the team up the pitch. Have a look for yourself.
When he drives up the pitch, opposition defenders quite understandably go into panic mode more often than not, and are naturally drawn towards Dowman to halt his progress.
It’s then that the 14-year-old phenomenon tends to release another attacker. With two or three players closing in on him, space inevitably opens up elsewhere, and Dowman seems exceptionally good at exploiting that space.
His passing is also of the highest quality. He plays those passes you don’t even see from your sofa, let alone when you’re on the pitch, threading needles with perfect weighting for the forward to receive.
Dowman isn’t just silky feet and gorgeous passing, though—his physicality is superb for his age. Some highly creative players lack a little bit of physical presence—David Silva, Andres Iniesta et al.
They’re not weak, and they’re experts at riding tackles and evading challenges, but Dowman doesn’t seem to mind muscling an opponent off the ball if necessary, which is wild considering he’s playing with far more physically developed footballers than himself.
Dowman is naturally left-footed but he can be seen in some of the clips above scoring some quite scintillating curlers into the far corner with his right foot. He’s also on corners and scoring from free kicks.
His youth-level coach at Arsenal is the once-prodigal Jack Wilshere. Not a dissimilar type of player to Dowman himself, actually, and he’s a fan. Wilshere spoke to reporters after Dowman was called up to train with the first team at the end of last season.
“There’s always a concern when fielding such a young player in these matches, but if you’re good enough, you’re old enough. He can be more consistent but he’s only 14 and hasn’t even started his GCSEs yet.”
Another thing the wonderkid has going for him is his frightening levels of composure. If we were 14 years old, playing against people who could realistically be at university, we would probably panic every time the ball came near us.
Dowman seems to have more time than anyone around him when in possession.
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It’s a cliche but he’s a few seconds ahead of the players around him at any given time, and that is a skill far more difficult to teach than ball control or shooting technique.
Watch him here as he receives the ball under pressure in his own half, turns, nutmegs his marker, drives up the pitch, and slips a ball between the centre-backs for his teammate to run onto and potentially shoot.
Max Dowman is performing at an insane level for 14… yes, 14. Playing in the U18’s.
The craziest thing about him playing up in U18’s is he isn’t there because of physical maturity but his technical ability & intelligence.
🎥: @ScoutAppreciatehttps://t.co/8eFr57Ejsw
— Ben Mattinson (@Ben_Mattinson_) August 4, 2024
He takes the play from a totally unthreatening position to having his team in on goal within the space of a few seconds.
Arsenal have a player on their books right now who’s pretty good at doing just that. In fact, he might be the player Dowman most resembles in this current Arsenal senior team. We’re talking about captain Martin Odegaard, of course.
Similar build, both left-footed, similar style of play, both super-creative and calm in front of goal. Odegaard is 11 years older than Dowman, but the Norwegian is still only 25 and has plenty of good years ahead of him.
Dowman seems like the ideal successor to Odegaard’s throne one day, but we might yet see the two of them running the Gunners’ midfield in tandem.
What a sight that would be.
By Andrew Martin