Arsenal youngster making the most of Bundesliga opportunity
The trend of young English players leaving these shores for Europe is one that is unlikely to slow anytime soon. Ademola Lookman enjoyed a successful stint with RB Leipzig last season, while Jadon Sancho is now a fully fledged England international following his move from Manchester City to Borussia Dortmund.
Indeed, Sancho continues to go from strength-to-strength with each passing week under Lucien Favre for title chasing Dortmund having now had a direct hand in eight goals in his last six appearances for the Bundesliga giants. No player has registered more assists than Sancho (6) in Europe’s top five leagues this season and he’ll look to continue his good Dortmund form when they host Hertha Berlin this weekend.
He has set the standard for the next generation of English players hoping to make a name for themselves abroad in a bid to develop and fully realise their potential. While some may falter in the future, others have thrived in following Sancho’s footsteps to Germany, others have thrived, with Reiss Nelson a case in point, albeit from a small sample size.
The 18-year-old secured a loan move from Arsenal to Hoffenheim earlier in the year after penning a long-term deal with the Gunners. The Bundesliga side are keen to make his loan move permanent after a bright start to life in Germany, with Nelson adjusting to the rigours of German football with relative ease, but Arsenal are understandably prepared to block the switch.
A transfer tug of war in the near future comes as little surprise with Nelson netting four goals in four league outings already for Hoffenheim, including a man of the match showing in a 3-1 win over Nuernberg. Nelson netted twice in the victory to gain a WhoScored rating of 8.84 and was unlucky not to make the Bundesliga team of the week due to the outstanding performances by Eintracht Frankfurt pair Luka Jovic and Sebastian Haller in a 7-1 dismantling of Fortuna Dusseldorf.
What’s impressive about Nelson’s goalscoring form is that he has had just six shots in total, returning a 66.7% conversion rate, all the while hitting the back of the net with all four shots on target. His prolificacy means that only PSG star Kylian Mbappe (9) has scored more goals than Nelson of all teenagers in Europe’s top five leagues this season.
Hoffenheim host relegation-threatened VfB Stuttgart on Saturday evening and after playing a cameo role in the Champions League in midweek, one would anticipate Nelson to start this weekend and, importantly, maintain his good goalscoring form. Only Nuernberg (19) and Fortuna Dusseldorf (18) have conceded more goals than VfB Stuttgart (17) in Germany’s top tier this term, who in turn have kept just one clean sheet from their eight league outings.
Julian Nagelsmann’s side don’t have the best goalscoring record in the Bundesliga this season, but they’ll be aiming to improve their goal getting quality this weekend with Nelson leading the charge. His good form following his move to Hoffenheim triggered a huge price spike on FootballINDEX. On October 7th, his highest buy price was £3.20 per share, but two weeks later, that had increased to £4.03.
In the days since, it’s dipped marginally to £3.90 per share, but it still represents good value in Nelson, who has the potential to see a huge boost in his buy price should he maintain his good form in front of goal against a porous VfB Stuttgart outfit. As speculation over his future potentially intensifies as we edge towards the transfer window, we could witness a further rise in his buy price.
Either way, Nelson has taken to the Bundesliga like a duck to water and considering his good form in front of goal, he’d be a handy addition to your portfolio, with it possible that we could see the striker secure back-to-back WhoScored man of the match awards if he replicates his impressive display against Nuernberg last weekend.
