Loan Report: Week 1

As the new season begins, some of City's best youth have jetted off to various locations around the world to aid their development as players. We'll do our best to keep a running series tracking their progress to keep us all informed. Unlike last year, when I tried to make it an every-three-month feature, I'm going to up the ante this year and do my best to put up a roundup post every week, or every other week.

Just like last year, I've pulled data from transfermarkt as well as match stats from WhoScored. A reminder of the disclaimer that stats can only tell part of the story, but unless there's eyeballs on the screen they are the best indicators we've got for now. I know that 'player ratings' are an especially debatable metric, but I'll provide them as a baseline. If anyone has seen any of these players in action so far, feel free to add observations in the comments. It would be much appreciated.

A quick summary of loan movement so far: as most of us already know, Shay Facey and Angelino have been over at NYCFC for a little while now. Facey has been there much longer than Angelino, but Angelino, as we will see, has probably had the greater impact so far. Seko Fofana has moved to SC Bastia in Ligue 1 for the season, Olivier Ntcham is off to Genoa in Serie A, Jack Byrne has been loaned to Cambuur as part of City's continuing partnership with the Eridivisie side, and Thomas Agyepong is at Twente. Summer signing Enes Unal has joined Genk in the Jupiler League, where he figures to play a fair amount as a promising prospect. As the transfer window draws to a close, there will probably be some more loans to keep an eye on.

I'll keep a running table tracking a few areas at the bottom of each of these posts, while outlining the players' recent matches of the preceding week in each post, as well as an upcoming schedule in case anyone wants to try to catch a game or two. Not all of the leagues have detailed stats on WhoScored, so those areas are marked with 'N/A'.

Angelino and Facey both started and played the full 90 this past week in a 2-0 loss to the Red Bulls in the derby, and a 3-1 win against Eastern Conference leading DC United last night. Angelino has already impressed in his few games so far, providing a good attacking element down the left side. NYCFC's team defending as a whole is pretty shambolic so it is tough to gauge how well or badly the pair have been doing on that side of the ball so far, but they are both surefire starters week in and week out and that is key for them at this stage.

Fofana started for Bastia in their Ligue 1 opener this past weekend, playing the entire match and by all accounts looking good. He's got a lot on his plate in the middle of the park as a starter in a competitive league, so Bastia should be a good spot for him. One area he needs to improve on is his touch, however. Last year that was an area of note for him during his loan spell at Fulham, and in this first match with Bastia he was dispossessed a few times and had a couple of bad touches. He will improve, though. As for the rest of the middies: Ntcham and Genoa are yet to begin the season, Agyepong hasn't made the match squad for Twente yet, and Byrne has picked up a minor injury in his early days with Cambuur.

Enes Unal was not involved in his first eligible game for Genk, but came on for the final 19 minutes of a scoreless draw against Zulte Waregem last Friday. More from him to come.

Defenders:

Midfielders:

Forwards:

Legend: Be. (inj) = unused sub appearances (matches missed to injury); Ps = passes per game; Ps% = pass success; ClSh = clean sheets; Int = interceptions per game, Drb = dribbles per game. 
Note: Shots, Tackles, Ps, Ps%, Drb, and Int are per game stats.

Upcoming schedule: 
Angelino + Facey: Columbus Crew v NYCFC, 8/19
Fofana: Lorient v Bastia, 8/16
Ntcham: Palermo v Genoa, 8/23
Byrne: Cambuur v Feyenoord, 8/16
Agyepong: Twente v ADO Den Haag, 8/15
Unal: Genk v KVC Westerlo, 8/15