Serge Gnabry vs Adnan Januzaj – Who has the bigger future?

In the world of football, everyone is looking for up and coming talents that could be stars in the years to come. At this present time, there are arguably no two bigger talents that share such similar characteristics than Serge Gnabry of Arsenal and Adnan Januzaj of Manchester United.

Both foreign (that debate is for another time!) who have been in this country since their mid teenage years, both predominantly wingers who are quick, skillful, wear the number 44 and both already in the first team setups of two of the biggest clubs in the world of football at the young age of 18. Here I will give an unbiased analysis on what makes them similar/different and who I think has the bigger future in the game.

Firstly, style of play. Januzaj is a quick winger who likes to cross a ball. He can brilliantly cut inside onto his weaker (but still strong) right foot and swing a ball into the back post. He’s more of an assist man and has the vision. He isn’t fast in the sense that he could out sprint Nani in a 100m sprint but he has the ability to glide past players with/without the ball and find space exquisitely.

The German, on he other hand, is more direct; doing stepovers and then bursting past fullbacks with ease. He likes to test them, get to the byline or get in behind the defense by making diagonal runs from the touchline to the centre of the pitch. Both truly different but in terms of who is more effective out wide it’d have to be Gnabry for me, purely due to the fact that he can stretch teams when used correctly, he can become an exceptional winger, which is a dying art in itself.

In terms of being played centrally, it’s a completely different story. Januzaj could easily play the no.10 role as he can some short for the ball and spray it around, or could pick a killer pass to open teams up, as well as scoring from range as we saw against Sunderland. He’s very comfortable in the ball and won’t slow the game down.

Elegant and efficient, his playing style, when central, is classy and will probably be played there towards the mid-latter stages of his career. Ganbry was played in a CAM position against Reading in the 7-5 phenomenon and kept getting lost. His direct style isn’t one which, in my opinion, doesn’t work when playing just off the striker as there’s very little space in front of you. If he was played along side the holder then he’d be more effective but then most of his skills wouldn’t come to the fore. Januzaj, for me.

Finally, who will have a bigger career in my opinion. Januzaj already has vast first team experience, starting most of United’s games this season. However, I don’t personally believe this is solely down to his talent.

The Belgium born player has immense of potential in him, do doubt, but he is only a first team regular in Manchester because David Moyes needed to make a point at the start of his reign and give the fans a good taste of things to come under him. He wanted Januzaj to be his player rather than someone like Wilfried Zaha who was bought by Sir Alex.

Whilst Gnabry, who was in and out of the Arsenal team due to injuries to key wide players, has been seen as the future by fans for a couple of years now and has international experience to go with Champions League and Premier League experience. It’s very hard to pick one as they are completely different type of players, but the Arsenal boy just edges out for me due to his direct style. I have no doubt that both will be lighting up the world stage for years to come.