Malcom and David Neres are two of the better Under-21 attacking prospects that you’ll find in European football, which makes it all the more reasonable that numerous big clubs have been linked with the two Brazilians this season. It’s fair to say that neither of those guys are on the same level as Kylian Mbappe was last year, but for most clubs, you would definitely be excited about having either of those players on your team for years to come. Malcom’s rise has been the best thing about Bordeaux’s dysfunctional season, while David Neres has a Non Penalty Goal + Assist per 90 rate of 1.20 in 1278 minutes at Ajax, which is at the level of Lionel Messi (obviously it’s not going to last considering he’s got a conversion rate of 29.6%, but it’s still a noteworthy feat that he’s accomplished so far).

You can make broad comparisons between the two players. Both of them are left footed dominant players playing as inverted wingers on the right side. I think both of them profile as playmakers in their own way. I will very much admit that I am nowhere near as qualified about the Eredivisie as I am with Ligue 1 or even the Premier League, but I have watched over 700 minutes of Neres’ game footage this season so I feel like I have something of a base to work with when it comes to discussing Neres’ game. Also, this is purely an eye test comparison. I’m not going to bring in statistical data when it comes to Malcom vs Neres, this is just observations about what I see with these two guys and how they stack up against each other.

Athleticism

First off, both of these guys pass the eye test when it comes to their broad athletic ability. They are dynamic because of their quickness/shiftiness whether it be with the ball on their feet or trying to beat their marker off the ball. Whereas Malcom is someone who could be classified as a speedster, Neres is much more of the fluid/smooth type of athlete who doesn’t overwhelm the opponent with his jets. I would probably say that Malcom is better in this department. I think he has elite level speed to go with a solid level of coordination, whereas Neres is more coordinated than Malcom because his first touch is quite special, but the gap in quickness + speed is probably too much to make up for the advantage in coordination that Neres possess.

Advantage: Malcom

On-Ball Threat

Again, neither of these guys are slouches in this department. Both Neres and Malcom are talented with the ball on their feet and are credible threats towards the opposition. I think this is where you start to see the difference between these two guys once you get past the broad similarities that they share.

The thing that makes Malcom such a hot commodity to some teams is that he might profile as someone who can’t be marked with one guy even when he makes the jump to a tougher league than Ligue 1. Perhaps his greatest strength is his ability to hit top end speed so quickly once he completes a dribble, particularly if the ball is still on his favored left foot. The moment this happens, he is GONE!

From what I’ve seen, and again it’s only ~700 league minutes, I don’t think Neres has that type of gear. He has good speed but he doesn’t have that elite level that Malcom has. What makes Neres intriguing in his own right is his ability to maneuver in tight spaces higher up the pitch, which is greater than what Malcom has shown in Bordeaux, and it’s arguably his greatest selling point as a player. It allows him to be better in terms of link up play close to the penalty area, which Malcom does decently in that but not at the level of Neres. Neres is also able to bob and weave his way into dangerous areas even though it’s clearly obvious that he’s dominant with his left foot.

Because of the roles that they play, Neres gets to make more off the ball runs into the penalty area than Malcom. With his ability to collect the ball from his feet very quickly, he can receive a pass in the 18 yard box and immediately look for his next option, sometimes it’ll be a cutback pass to one of his teammates.

Very much like Malcom, Neres also has the ability to make high danger passes.

Where Neres falls short versus Malcom is being as big a threat on the counter attack. Neres is okay in this department, but Malcom could very well be special. Malcom can flat out fly when he’s got the opportunity, and he’s already shown the ability to make high level opponents look like absolute fools when he’s used as the outlet to drive the ball towards the opposition end. With his ability to also function as a playmaker in transition, he inspires fear among the defense in a way that Neres can’t really do.

Another advantage for Malcom is that while he’s very much a left footed player, he has shown a little more equity when it comes to hitting crosses with his right foot and taking the occasional shot when given the opportunity. As much value as Neres brings with his magical left foot, he doesn’t bring enough value with his off foot. He’s more predictable than Malcom in this respect. I actually wonder if Neres would be better off moving to a more central position when he does make a move to a tougher league, or at least splitting his minutes a bit between RW and CAM. It would help make him less predictable to mark, take advantage of his incredible ability in tight areas, and he wouldn’t have to deal with the elite athletes that the Premier League has at the fullback position in 1v1 isolated situations.

Advantage: Draw

Decision Making

This is a usage vs efficiency thing, which is very common place in basketball when it comes to evaluating players’ worth on offense and to some extent, it can also be applied in soccer. In basketball, the broad idea is that the more you have to do on offense, the harder it will be for you as a player to maintain high levels of efficiency. It’s not always true because the elite talent in the NBA make the balance work in their favor, but the general consensus is that usage does matter for a player’s ability to optimize his offense.

I say this because that argument could be made about Malcom and Neres. Malcom has to do more in attack because he’s surrounded with lesser talent and a lesser structure, while Neres doesn’t have to expend energy creating solo runs to get the ball from the defensive third -> attacking third. He can dedicate greater energy on getting behind his marker since there isn’t too much of a worry about how the ball will get to his favored spots. If those two switched teams, how would Malcom fair if he wasn’t tasked with always having to do so much on the ball and vice versa? I honestly have no idea. Malcom has also flashed the ability to be a high level playmaker during counter attacks, which should count for something in this argument about decision making.

But even with that, I do think that Malcom has his problems with shot location and it’s fair to ask if it will get better by playing with superior teammates. Neres plays at a team that prioritizes shot location and also possesses a massive talent advantage compared to the competition, so he’s probably been ingrained about what a good shot is. Or maybe Ajax has such a dominance in talent over the rest of the Eredivisie that if Neres goes to a different environment, he won’t have such a clean shot distribution. Idk, this could’ve gone either way, but I’ll submit to the cult of Ajax on this one.

Slight Advantage: Neres

Translatability

On the one hand, I think you can construct a healthy argument about how well Malcom would actually fit in on a top team during possession play. He’s dynamite when the slightest hint of chaos occurs, but during prolonged passages where his team has dominance of the ball, I don’t have a clear feeling about how good he is. David Neres plays on a possession based side in Ajax, and assuming that his next move is to a club where they also have more of the ball (obviously not all possession based sides behave in the same manner so there will be some form of adjusting), he’ll have a better chance of translating his talents in a quicker time span.

On the other hand, I can’t escape the fact that Neres is doing this in the Eredivisie, which isn’t the strongest league around. I think that outright dismissal of the Eredivisie is harsh because there have been enough success stories in recent memory to suggest that it shouldn’t be the case, and there are some talented dudes in Holland, but it’s within reason to have a healthy amount of skepticism. The gap in talent between the likes of Ajax/PSV and the rest of the field is fucking ridiculous, the average age of the league is so low that even 20 year old players like Neres who reach maturity can dominate, and defending as a whole… is not the greatest. Say what you will about Ligue 1, and believe me I’ve made my jokes about it and will continue to do so, but it’s a better quality league than the Eredivisie and it’s not close.

If we assume a world where both of these players' next stop is the Premier League, I would have little worry about Malcom’s ability to get himself acclimated with the higher level of athleticism he would be constantly dealing with, whereas Neres would be a bit more worrying with his good but not great ability to create separation off the dribble in wide areas. This would dissipate if Neres got to play in the central areas, but who knows if that could be a possibility.

Advantage: Malcom

Conclusion

I should again preface this by saying that a lot of European clubs would be happy to have either of these guys on their team for years to come. Both of them aren’t even 21 yet so they have potentially 6–8 awesome years ahead of them. They are really talented playmakers for their age and create value in their own way: Malcom with his ability to leverage his speed to create havoc, David Neres with having the ball on a string despite being pressured from the opponent.

It’s cliche in some ways to say that environment matters when it comes to prospects who aren’t quite A+ material, but it’s very much true in the case of Neres and Malcom. If we take Tottenham as an example, I think Malcom would bring a level of dynamism that if used correctly, could be a dimension that Spurs could really use in their attack. On the other hand, Neres could have some potential staying power through the central areas as a way of helping out the team when Eriksen is out, so that’s something to consider. Arsenal in comparison would’ve probably valued Malcom’s skill set just a tad bit more because of the improvisation that they ask for from their players to solve the problems, and Arsenal could really do with a wide player that has speed to burn to go along with ample amounts of coordination.

If I must choose who the better prospect is, and to be honest I’m still a bit iffy about this even after doing this experiment, I would give the slightest of advantages to Malcom. I think he’s an elite level athlete who should be able to translate his gifts against tougher competition, whereas I’m more iffy about how Neres would fare in the PL if he was an out and out inverted winger. If Neres was doing this against better competition like Ligue 1 or in Portugal, my worries about him would dissipate a bit more, but the Eredivisie just scares me a bit too much in its current form. Neres is a supremely technical player and his ability to control the ball in tight areas is remarkable, but he’s a one footed player who rarely ever uses his right foot to beat opposition markers to the byline in part because of his athletic limitations.

The best thing I can say about David Neres is that even with my worries about his game, I think he passes the bullshit detector and is of the few players in the Eredivisie alongside the likes of Hirving Lozano and Steven Bergwijn, that I’d dedicate real resources to (statistical data/projections, vigorous video scouting). The pluses outweigh the minuses with him and it’s incumbent of teams like Tottenham, who aren’t quite the elite of the elite in terms of finances and can’t get the absolute premier young talents in football, to do their research on players like him because he could very well become an awesome player in a couple of years.