Man Utd Confirm Interest In Freddy Adu.

Mikk

WC's Sexy Beast

From: BBC


So how good is he?

If he is as good as they say then i'm surprised no one has signed him already.

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Maybe you guys can help me out here.. When are football players in their prime usually?

Say he's 17-years old, should he be close to as good as he's going to get or no?

Tyler Durden

It totally depends, some players mature well and get to their logical "peak" from 26 plus (up to their early 30's) whilst others peak very early and then tend to have shorter careers.

A lot of that depends on the type of player they are. If they are a speed demon reliant on their pace over the first five yards, then once they've suffered a few injuries and maybe played a lot of games before their mid 20's they may struggle to ever get their form back.

Then their cheif option is to re-invent their playing style. I'll give you a small example. England main forward (goalscorer) used to be a guy called Alan Shearer who was very strong and pacy as a young man. He suffered a couple of very serious injuries and eventually remodelled his play. He'd lost his pace, so he bulked up, became stronger at his team play and with his back to goal, holding up the ball for others.

So you just can't tell. Pace and awareness may make you great young player, but wisdom comes later and if the player doesn't have the intelligence to change later in their career it may not be as long as it originally looked like it might be!!

Blitzkrieg

Administrator

Alright, I think I understand. Thanks. What the man Shearer did, sounds a lot liek Michael Jordan later in his career. He could no longer dominate with his pure athleticism, so he developed a more dangerous outside shot and also bulked up to be able to take defenders down low and post them up.

Of course, speaking on Adu, I have no idea what his potential is or what he's projected to be. In America he's considered a phenom but our league is kinda shaky and you never know with the media anyway because they try to blow everything up. He was 14-years old, so they loved him for it.