Playing for 90
Fansided

Three favourites to win the 2017 Golden Boy award

By Benjamin Barkworth

SWANSEA, WALES - SEPTEMBER 10: Renato Sanches of Swansea City arrives prior to the Premier League match between Swansea City and Newcastle United at Liberty Stadium on September 10, 2017 in Swansea, Wales. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
SWANSEA, WALES - SEPTEMBER 10: Renato Sanches of Swansea City arrives prior to the Premier League match between Swansea City and Newcastle United at Liberty Stadium on September 10, 2017 in Swansea, Wales. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images) /
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Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images.
Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images. /

Gabriel Jesus

Jesus’ time at Manchester City fits perfectly with the time scale of this award because he started playing for them in the second half of last season. They bought him in the previous summer, but he stayed at Palmeiras until January. In his fourth game for the club he broke a metatarsal in his right foot, which ruled him out for a few months. Although, he still managed to finish with seven goals and four assists.

This season has started in a similar fashion because he has scored five goals in 418 minutes. Combined with the previous season, he has scored 12 goals and assisted four in 1069 minutes. These are really impressive numbers because he is averaging a goal per game. The only thing going against him is his lack of minutes compared to the other main contenders which means there is a smaller sample size to use.

Pep Guardiola’s system is ideal for strikers because of the sheer amount of chances that are created. This could potentially affect Jesus’ credibility because of the assumption that most strikers could thrive in that role. However, that isn’t the case because of two key reasons. Guardiola requires his strikers to work hard and be intelligent with their play. Also, he threatened Sergio Agüero’s place prior to his injury and they are now played together.

As a lone striker, Jesus suits the team better than Agüero due to his excellent decision-making, intelligent positional play and smart pressing. Agüero is not a poor player by any means considering he is probably one of the top ten strikers in the world. This shows the remarkable ability Jesus has as well as his ridiculous potential considering he still has room to grow.

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