By Football Wonderkids Speaking to Harry Hudson

7th Nov, 2022 | 9:00am

Youth football expert highlights 'misleading' Premier League 2 stats

We’re delighted to welcome the founder of Kinetic Academy Harry Hudson as our exclusive columnist. Each week the youth football expert will be giving his views on the biggest talking points on wonderkids across the UK…

Premier League 2 is the pinnacle of youth football at an Under-21 level and is usually the final step on the path to first-team involvement.

Currently, Leeds United attacker Mateo Joseph Fernandez is the top scorer in the competition with 11 goals to his name in eight matches which has helped the Whites top Group 2 of the competition.

That fine form also saw him crowned Leeds’ Premier League 2 player of the month for October courtesy of a hat-trick away at Middlesbrough in a 4-2 win.

While the Spaniard’s form is impressive, Kinetic Academy founder Harry Hudson believes the statistics from the competition can be misleading with other star youngsters at other clubs out on loan rather than being stuck in youth football.

“Sometimes, Premier League 2 can be a little bit misleading,” Hudson said exclusively to The Football Wonderkids. “The big clubs like Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City have their highest level youngsters out on loan.

“So being the top goal scorer in Premier League 2 doesn’t always mean you are the closest as you should be to the first team.

“Quite often, there are the three, four or five closest first-team players out on loan so that is something to consider but every club does things slightly differently.”

West Brom forward Reyes Cleary has joined Fernandez on 11 goals in the competition while Arsenal are narrowly top of Group One ahead of Liverpool and Manchester City.

In other Kinetic Academy news, Hudson, while keen to see youngsters given a chance, wants Jesse Marsch to remain patient with his talented teenagers.