21 Under 21: Sinclair Armstrong (QPR)

Episode #11 | George Elek and Ali Maxwell list the most outstanding young players in the EFL.

21 Under 21 will be released every weekday at noon in June, with paid subscribers unlocking early access to all video content.

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“Outstanding physical and athletic attributes – the sort of attributes that, for any striker playing in the Premier League, are non-negotiable” – Ali Maxwell

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Sinclair Armstrong

QPR — Championship, 2023/24:

• Born: 22 June 2003

• Position: Striker

• League appearances: 39

• League starts: 19

🤿 Sinc or Swim?

The feeling we get when thinking about Sinclair Armstrong’s career is akin to the feeling we get when he receives the ball. We don’t know what’s going to happen next, and we’re excited to find out.

QPR signed Armstrong as a 17-year-old from Shamrock Rovers in 2020. He’d received a no-messing education from Damien Duff, a Rovers youth coach at the time, who loved a 6.30am pre-breakfast training session and once substituted his young attacker during a 7-0 win because he wasn’t tracking back. Now Armstrong has made his senior Republic of Ireland debut as well as 61 Championship appearances.

Sixty-one Championship appearances… but only three goals. Two-thirds of those appearances were from the bench, and his most recent goal was an instinctive, well-struck finish in a win over high-flying Leicester, but still: not ideal for a striker. Yet Armstrong can scare defenders with his devastating running, as Bournemouth’s Marcos Senesi discovered when the Irishman sent him into another dimension: 

“Since has fantastic pace and is strong physically, and he has the X-factor,” QPR boss Marti Cifuentes has said. “He needs to learn how to use it better.”

📈 At a glance

Pizza charts informed by match data. Each chart rates a chosen player from 0-99 across different metrics (e.g. Dribbles) according to their “percentile rank”. A 75 score shows a player outperforming 75% of other players in the dataset. Each dataset is position-specific. Negative metrics are reversed. [Credit: Riley Roberts.]

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▶️ Watch: Episode 11