Cobham has a knack of producing exciting, well-rounded full backs; James, Livramento, Hall, Sterling, Lamptey among them. Next in line may well be 17 year old Genesis Antwi. The Swedish-born youngster has been with the club since U12 and signed his first professional contract in September 2024. Since then he’s made great strides and made his U21 debut.
People often ask: do you want the good news or the bad news? Well we’re going to start with the bad news. It wasn’t a good start against Brentford.
George and Samuels-Smith failed to close down a cross on their side, which resulted in a volleyed goal from Lisbie. Antwi got caught under the ball and failed to clear, or even seemingly impact Lisbie. You have to be switched on and aware from the first whistle, which didn’t seem to be the case. Ball watching? Not checking his shoulders? It’s tough to tell from the footage, but not close enough to his man regardless.
A similar instance happens in the 28th minute as he gets caught underneath the ball, allowing for a free header, which was thankfully off target.
The only other weakness today also related to more passive elements of defending, such as tracking runners. In the play below he closes the attacker down well, but turns to face Murray-Campbell’s man, while his runs off his back. Other occurrences of this were less dangerous and more related to inside-channel running, where an attacker got between him and the right center-back.
Now we’ve got the bad news out of the way, what’s the good news? Well, firstly he’s 17 playing in a U21 game. The academy coaches clearly value him, trust him and see potential with Hughes likely leaving this summer and Acheampong being promoted to the first team.
His biggest upsides are physicality and 1v1s.
In the 17th minute he pressed high, using the sideline as an additional defender. He gets turned but keeps the man outside, then uses his strength to win it back. This was a common theme, especially in the second half.
This time around he’s the last man back on a corner, left in a foot race. I have to say, this is not someone I would want to be in a foot race with. They get thereat the same time, but Antwi uses his strength to win it and shield, despite the evident shirt pull. He then manages to pass to his closest teammate, allowing them to play out.
Yes, his speed, strength, power, and tenacity are impressive, but using these things as a barometer leads us only to speaking about athletes and calling prospects “raw“. Antwi actually has some really nice fundamentals in his defending.
With the game in the balance he kept his head in difficult circumstances (playing an age group up in horrific weather conditions). Around the 70 minute mark he showed two good defensive moments, one central and one wide.
1) He forces the play inside to a more crowded area. Low center of gravity with knees bent, on his toes and goes for the block with his closest foot (left). Always trying to cover the imaginary line between the ball and goal.
2) In a wider area he initially does well to force the winger outside, before directing Ampah in the 2v2. They succeed in making Brentford go backwards. Here again we see shoulders over knees, knees are bent, on his toes. All good fundamentals. Earlier in this move his footwork was also good to allow movement either forward or back (one foot behind the other).
The only other time he struggled 1v1 was in the first half, again around the halfway line. He tried to show the winger down the line but got caught square as they came inside. It was a good piece of skill which thankfully only resulted in a goalkick. There were three covering defenders and if you’re going to get beat anywhere, at least it was still a good 40 yards away from goal.
The final thing to mention is his on-ball ability. In this particular game it was a mixed bag. The ideas were there but the execution sometimes eluded him. The slick field may not have helped in some instances.
We all love a ball carrying defender these days and there were two moments which stood out to me; one in each half.
1) Antwi firstly showed great endeavor to reach an over-hit cross, then used his physicality to win the ball. In image 2 his arm is out to keep the defender away, while bursting forward, subsequently also breezing past the left sided defender. His pull back reaches McNeilly, but the tame shot is blocked. This first example shows his ability in smaller spaces, with short, sharp bursts and the ability to decelerate at the byline.
2) Antwi receives from the goalkeeper just outside the box (although he could have dropped a little deeper to create a better angle), and then drives midway into the opposition half. The pass to Ampah was over-hit, but the point remains that a full back who can carry 60 yards in only a few seconds is a useful asset. It reminded me of a young Kyle Walker.
There were very limited opportunities for passes between the lines or crosses into the box, so they are things I would look out for in future appearances.
Overall it was a solid performance from a 17 year old in U21 football and I expect he’ll get a couple more opportunities before the season’s end. Physically he’s already there, allowing for good 1v1s and recovery runs, technical aspects seemingly aren’t a problem, but tactically there’s some room for improvement – which is to be expected. There’s a nice buzz around him at Cobham right now and we’re beginning to see why.
The Chelsea Spot 
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