Prospects to watch tonight…

By: Evilo | November 15th, 2008

Here is a list of U22 youngsters to keep an eye on tonight :

Marseille – Lorient
OM should feature a lineup that includes future great Hatem Ben Arfa. Keep an eye on him and his short passes. I smell a great game from him against Lorient’s banged up defense.
In the Lorient lineup, some players worth keeping an eye on are Andrew Ayew (loaned by OM) who could come off the bench and most of all Kévin Gameiro, who should with his speed be extremely dangerous to the slow OM defense.

Toulouse – Grenoble
Toulouse will have youngster M’Bengue starting at LB and tough customer Etienne Capoue rocking the midfield.
Grenoble will be lead by its talented Feghouli and former PSG reject Franck Djadjedje.

Le Havre – PSG
Le Havre will as usual start his young phenom Nestor on defense.
PSG shouldn’t start any U22 player, but young towering striker prospect Charbonnier has made the trip and should start on the bench.

Le Mans – Valenciennes
Gervinho should be the star of this game for Le Mans, business as usual for him, and impressive young striker Maiga should start too.
For VA, Carlos Sanchez should start in midfield.

Nancy – Caen
For Nancy, Dia should be on the bench while Malonga is injured.
For Caen, there’s a good chance Julien Toudic has a chance to show his impressive offensive skills tonight.

Auxerre – Sochaux
Rémy Riou will start for the home team, as usual, and Narry should start in midfield.
For Sochaux, Jokic and Carlao will try to defend as well as they can, while Erding will try to build on his emerging stardom on offense. It’s worth nothing that Boudebouz (who scored last week) and Martin could see time too.

Lille – St Etienne
We’re all hoping to see Hazard get some more playing time, but he won’t start tonight.
For Les Verts, Mirallas might see time against his former team, while Payet has a good chance of starting under new head coach Perrin.

My predictions for top 5 of the night :
1- Ben Arfa (too many injuries in Lorient’s D)
2- Gameiro (too fast for OM’s D)
3- Gervinho (too good)
4- Rémy Riou (should see some balls tonight, but he’s solid)
5- Feghouli (big shot in the waiting)

My predictions for Flop 5 of the night :
1- Mirallas (Les Verts are still pathetic in my book as of now and Lille isn’t the easiest opponent)
2- Payet (same)
3- Jokic (should suffer against Kahlenberg and co)
4- Dia (on the bench against Caen at home? that’s not good)
5- Sanchez (VA is really weak these days)