George Earthy is a 19 year old attacking midfielder in the West Ham academy ,who has previous been successful with the U-18’s and has continued this season in the Premier League 2 with the U-21’s scoring 6 and assisting 5 in 13 appearances at the time of writing.
The right footed attacker has a small frame, low centre of gravity and strong close control, taking many quick touches in a short space of time, before using his acceleration and agility to shift away from the defender. And is capable of going both ways off either foot to create separation for his next action or win fouls in dangerous areas.
Earthy has a real eye for space, scans well, looks comfortable across the whole final third and has variation in his movement, finding pockets on either channel, dropping into deeper positions and is impressive in how he uses his acceleration and awareness to attack the box. He especially likes to burst in behind the defender on the last line, meaning he can adjust his run out of view. Cleverly stopping the need for a physical engagement where his smaller frame can struggle. Also capable of creating space himself, he’ll scan, make a fake run with his marker into wide positions before using his agility and acceleration to quickly change direction and open space in central areas.
When in a finishing position he shows composure, can take an extra disguised touch to bypass blocking defenders and finish clinically off both feet inside and on the edge of the box. Earthy’s strong technique allows for a very capable first touch, although he’ll want to improve on his concentration levels where it’s obvious sometimes that he’s thinking of his next action before bringing the ball under control.
Earthy looks at his best when moving into central areas, although showing good acceleration he isn’t the type to take on 2/3 defenders on his way to goal, but rather link play by shifting past one, waiting for pressure to come before timing the release of his pass before moving into space ahead. He shows good vision in seeing runners in behind and can weight passes into their path, whilst also possessing the range to play crosses from both sides and although slightly underused can play accurate diagonals to spread the play.
George Earthy has the ability to nit together his technical and physical qualities and uses them effectively, he’s positive on the ball wanting to play forward, find space in the final third where he can act as a finisher or creator and makes consistently strong decisions in when to keep the ball or make that clinical next action, showing early signs of maturity. The biggest need for improvement in his game his how he will deal with more physical defenders with having such a small frame, struggling with duels both in the air and on the ground and how he protects the ball when under physical pressure. Experience on loan, getting games in the EFL will give him the experience and a chance to work on these weaknesses and with the talent he clearly has there should be plenty of possible suitors.
Target Scouting 