Yankuba Minte was one of the stars of the early part of the Premier League season before injury derailed his progress, but there are signs Brighton’s summer signing from Newcastle is ready to make a difference for his side in 2025.
A positive performance off the bench for the Seagulls against Aston Villa puts him firmly in Fabian Hurtzeler’s thoughts for Saturday’s visit to Arsenal.The Gunners are in form but any opposition will struggle to deal with the flying Minteh :
Winger brings something else. With a top speed of 35.38 kilometers per hour, he is the fastest player in his team, the only Brighton player among the 50 fastest players in the Premier League this season. It is such a useful weapon, the basis of his creativity.
Yankuba Minte is Brighton’s fastest player in the Premier League this season
Jonathan McKinstry is Minte’s head coach at international level with Gambia.This ability to run away from people is special. “Basically, he has the most important attribute for an offensive player in football, and that’s speed,” McKinstry said. Sky Sports.
“If you talk to any defender, what they hate to play against is real pace. You don’t need all the tricks in the world. If you can push the ball into space and have that acceleration to get past somebody for: , it causes a lot of problems for the opponents.
Minte is fourth in the Premier League for attempted dribbles this season and 11th for successful passes.There were also a couple of goals in the win against Tottenham and at the end at Leicester. He has that rare talent to deliver.
Perhaps surprisingly given the quality of Hurtzel’s squad, it is Minte who has the most assists per 90 minutes of any Brighton player this season, with the 20-year-old winger creating the chances more often than Kaoru Mitoma or Joao Pedro.
Yankuba Minte’s expected assists per 90 minutes are the highest of any Brighton player
There are aspects of his game that he still needs to work on, that’s clear. It can be messy at times, things happen so quickly that the required precision, especially in the final third of the pitch where decision making is so important, is not always there. , which is obvious.
It is less surprising, for example, to discover that he loses the ball more often than his team-mates.
Yankuba Minte is fourth in the Premier League for attempted dribbles per 90 minutes
But then, isn’t that to be expected? Minte did not arrive from a Premier League academy, having only signed for Danish club OB in the summer of 2022, having been involved sparingly before impressing at Feyenoord on loan from Newcastle last season.
Brighton paid big money for a player whose potential Eddie Howe claimed he believed in, but had to sell for financial reasons, but it was still likely they would go in. It’s encouraging, but the point is that Minteh is determined to improve :
Even before making his debut, Hurtzeler described him as “such an example” for others in the group as he embraced demands such as counter-pressing. Minteh now ranks in the top 10 for possessions won in the final third in 90 minutes.
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Premier League highlights from Aston Villa vs Brighton
“Yancuba has that real determination,” McKinstry says.
“Sometimes the challenge for a coach with young players breaking into professional football is that it’s easy to get distracted by celebrities, finances. But with young Gambian players, including Yankuba, there is steely determination.
“We always talk about the challenges of the academy system in Europe, where players maybe get what they are given too early, whereas you look at a lot of the young Gambian players, they were still in The Gambia until they were 17 or 18 years old.
“These players were playing in the domestic league, which is basically an amateur league, so they had to fight it with the adults. They’re there at 17, they’re getting kicked, they have to learn how to survive in that football environment.
“The nice thing is that when they arrive at a Premier League club, a Bundesliga club, a Serie A club, they don’t take it for granted. They’ve already experienced the hard edge of football, so in this beautiful, brilliant environment they know they have to work for it for
“Our young players hate it when they lose, they absolutely hate it. There are no smiles and no jokes if they don’t get the result they want, which is refreshing to have that mentality in your young players.”
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Tony Bloom explains the rationale behind Yankuba Minte’s move from Newcastle
And Minte remains a young player until July 21. There are only seven players younger than him who have started as many games in the Premier League this season, and all but two are English. But he is learning.
“You don’t swim in the ocean of sharks that is the Premier League without being demanding of yourself,” McKinstry added.
“He knows he’s only 20 years old and there’s still a lot of work to do to continue this way, just to be in the starting eleven. He’s already an important player, but he wants to learn as much as he can from the people around him so refreshing.”
Expect Minte to take the next step in 2025.
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