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Five Bundesliga youngsters destined for a Premier League move, feat. Wolfsburg and Leverkusen stars
3 – Max Arnold – Wolfsburg
The youngster is another versatile midfielder that should soon make the switch to England. At only just 21 Max Arnold has an eye for goal, with 17 goals in just 107 appearances, and further demonstrated by the and is unafraid to mix it up, as his spat with . Breaking into the Wolfsburg side in 2013/14, he has already played over 7000 Bundesliga minutes and after tearing through the Germany youth teams, Arnold was capped by the senior side in 2014 prior to turning 20! In this tumultuous season that saw Wolfsburg lose its leader in Kevin de Bruyne, Arnold showed his versatility by making ten appearances as a central midfielder, eight in a more defensive role, six as an attacking midfielder and even one as a forward! His 11 substitute appearances came mostly in the first two months of the season.
Besides his versatility, he is a very reliable passer at 86% and is averaging two key passes per 90 minutes – the among Bundesliga midfielders! He also gets fouled over twice a game – the 8th best mark in the league. Max Arnold could be better at keeping possession sometimes and winning more than 0.5 duels in the air per match – he is 6 ft 1 after all. In terms of competition, Arnold; despite having to compete with Luiz Gustavo and Josuha Guilavogui – two passing machines for Wolfsburg – comes off looking great when such as Xabi Alonso, Arturo Vidal, Granit Xhaka and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Aside from attempting fewer passes, a product of Wolfsburg’s subdued season, 56% possession dominated by Gustavo and Guilavogui, Max Arnold looks every bit like the real deal and at 12 million could help any of the big four English teams. Even someone like Leicester City, flush with cash after this season’s success could take a long hard look at him, if they do indeed lose N’golo Kanté. After losing Kevin de Bruyne, Wolfsburg should probably do their best to hang on to Arnold, after letting our next player leave for just 350k Euros in 2014.
4 – Julian Brandt – Bayer Leverkusen
Julian Brandt is a 19-year-old attacking , with a 10 million Euro price tag at Leverkusen. Despite solid size at 6ft and 181 pounds, he is a fleet of foot player and a ferocious dribbler that loves to march forwards. Having mostly been used as a substitute last season and in the early parts of the 2015/16 campaign, Brandt has finally earned an opportunity to play thanks to Leverkusen’s injures and/or under-performance of its attacking players (Calhanoglu, Bellarabi). He has scored four times in just eight games in the spring, and is the club’s second leading scorer, despite ranking only 11th with 1281 minutes played. His are blurs of , sublime first touch and great often on the end of lightning fast Brandt has a for goal from direct play and set pieces (if Hakan Calhanoglu ever allows anyone else to take them), and has already developed a habit of scoring His emergence might have saved Leverkusen’s season and Roger Schmidt’s job; which was very much in jeopardy after crashing out of Europe twice, going on a near 4 game losing streak and his shenanigans against Dortmund ) as die Werkself took 11 points from their last 5 games – the only 5 times Brandt has played the full 90 minutes. and both missed out on him in 2014, and would also be smart to take him into consideration given their uninspiring campaign.
5 – Jairo Samperio – Mainz
This promising talent has been one of the big reasons why – despite losing Shinji Okazaki, Johannes Geis and head coach Thomas Tuchel – have shocked the Bundesliga with a blend of strong defence, great goalkeeping, amazing squad depth and superb counter-attacking. The 22-year-old Spaniard is a smallof the Jesus Navas mould, but without the Man City man’s aversion to goal-scoring, as his seven strikes have proven. Jairo Samperio took a while to get used to the Bundesliga, appearing as a substitute 11 times while starting 11 times last year, but has warmed up since the end of November with six goals and three assists. He is a on, as Bayern found out in a shocking 2-1 win, often emerging best out of tackles thanks to his speed and toughness, creative and efficient , and can even score . With eight assists according to , the Spaniard has proven his value and unselfishness to the team, as Mainz have six players with three or more goals.
Although he has in his career-high 2000 minutes this season lined up as a left winger, he loves to play inside – 70% or 19 of his 27 chances created have come from the middle of the opposition half and from inside the box, proving that he is a huge reason why Mainz take the most (62%) shots inside the 18-yard-box in the league. Those numbers are staggering, because Mainz’s 16 shots from established possession inside the opponent half are Darmstadt and HSV per stats. He needs to improve his consistency, strength (to win more than 37% of duels) and his passing (just 64%), but at 22 and with just one full Bundesliga season under his belt, those could happen.
While a o the sublime season that is having this season for Leicester might seem insane, if we strip away penalties, the 28% conversion rate and raise our doubts about the sustainability of such a season, (1.3 shots per game compared to Mahrez’s over 2 a match), could he give Leicester 80% of Mahrez at 4.5 million and three years younger?
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