He definitely grew into the game and it was a really tough ask of a 19 year old with limiting playing time. He's still learning to read the game of course but the key for him is going to be composure and risk/reward calculation in key moments (the challenge on Sterling, the ball in the air dropping to Aguero).

The question that imo often decides whether a young player meets their potential or not is - how quick of a study and learner are they? There's a reason Calum Chambers still hasn't broken into the 1st team after this long and why Emery has basically said he'll be a holding mid if/when he comes back from Fulham...he still doesn't pick up on indicators that well and tilts way too much towards risk.

The reality is Emery probably needs 3-4 transfer windows to really shape this team to suit the playing style. The lack of investment and dearth of talent in the backline combined with the injuries does us no favors and many of them aren't comfortable with the ball at their feet...you can't be effective in trying to build out of the back and have a dude like Xhaka who can't make more than 2 accurate passes in a row.