History for carlind

YoungHeartHM

MetalLegNZ

5 weeks til the tournament, still no host nation and no naming of squad yet.

But here is a rumour, Noah K from the Weenix is off. Has a contract offer from Europe, but is waiting to see how he goes at the WC before signing.

Has made the bench a lot, but yet to make A League debut. Hell of a dribbler.

Well that's awesome if he has got something lined up overseas. Especially if he is going to try his luck in the hotbed of Europe. Good on him. 

He can't sit around forever waiting for his shot with the Nix. I seriously thought he would have had his A-League debut by now, but as a club we seem to have shunned mixing youth into our setup this season which is a little bit of a let down if I'm being honest.

Talay has always been a bit averse to rotation, it's just that the last couple seasons he had his hand forced through injuries and covid. I'm sure we all would've been surprised being told at the end of last season that Surman would have only 148 minutes through 22 games in what was supposed to be his breakout season this season. I think he even gave Nikko Boxall that one minute sub the other week just so he wouldn't leave without ever playing.

If you look at Karunaratne's position as a wide ten, only Sasse isn't contracted for next season and even he has an option clause so could well be around. He might get a run if there are injuries, possibly this week with Old out, but that's the only chance I see.

Would be interesting to see where he goes if he does. Europe is very disparate in it's levels, so just simply going to Europe could really entail any level of quality. I do slightly worry he could be a bit one-dimensional to get a high level Euro gig, he carries the ball well and positions his body well to draw fouls - he was the most fouled U22 NZ forward in the National League - but lacks the end product that takes you to the next level.
 
In the National League last year he failed to score or assist and only had 0.15 xG/A per 90, which was the lowest among U22 NZ wide forwards to play 300 minutes in either the National League or NCAA Division 1 last year, per Wyscout. Even in Central League he only scored once and he didn't score in the OFC U19s. For reference Jesse Randall had seven goals and nine assists averaging 0.87 xG and 0.33 xA a game in the National League and even he didn't get the League One gig. 

That'll only improve with playing proper senior football, so hopefully it'd not be too ambitious a step. That could mean going lower tier Nordic if need be, which is the current flavour of the month after all.