Kadan Young central role for Aston Villa Under-21s draws comparisons to Gabby Agbonlahor
Kadan Young has quickly become the new kid on the block at the Aston Villa academy, and his role in the Under-21s’ victory over Sunderland drew comparisons to former striker Gabby Agbonlahor.
The Young Lions continued their relentless form in the Premier League 2 Division 2 with a breathless 6-4 victory over the Black Cats (Friday 24 February), with Rory Wilson notably bagging a brace and Young notching up a goal and an assist in his new-found role.
The 17-year-old winger has burst onto the scene at Bodymoor Heath this season and impressed for the youth teams so much that he was granted a chance to play for Unai Emery’s first team in the mid-season training camp in Dubai.
Despite being dropped back down to the Under-21s after being named on the bench for the first team’s Boxing Day clash against Liverpool, he has continued to bang down the door with a string of strong performances.
During the ten-goal thriller against Sunderland, Young was deployed as one of the centre-forwards in a 4-4-2 formation before a tactical shift in the second half due to an injury to Todd Alcock.
Starting on the left side of a front two alongside Chisom Kenneth Afoka, the attacker used his pace and power to cause massive headaches for the opposition’s defence.
After 12 minutes, Young’s piercing run in behind the Sunderland back-four resulted in a blatant foul in the penalty area, to which Seb Revan converted. It seemed the only way Young could be stopped after that was by fouling him outside the penalty area.
The 17-year-old, however, got his name on the scoresheet just three minutes later as he burst past the Black Cats’ defence and struck home a smart left-footed finish.
Although he only played 45 minutes in this new-found position in a front two, the performance had shades of Gabby Agbonlahor about it. The youngster’s strength, power and the pace he can travel with the ball at his feet are very similar in that regard, while the position he played in was exactly the one that Agbonlahor famously made his own under Martin O’Neill.
During his pomp, Agbonlahor – who is the club’s leading Premier League goalscorer – was one of the most feared strikers in the country due to his blistering pace and cool finishing ability. If Young wants to improve his trade as a central attacker, there would be no better place to start than studying footage of Villa’s former number 11.
In other Aston Villa news, this academy player could be the next star in waiting at Bodymoor Heath after back-to-back goals for the Under-23s.