Manchester United might have already found their surprise player in pre season
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Manchester United might have already found their surprise player in pre season
There is almost always an academy breakthrough every season at Man United and Erik ten Hag is already curious about the next one.
United walk out against Rosenborg
United walk out against Rosenborg
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Jose Mourinho promised a “surprise behind the door” eight years ago. Erik ten Hag is “so curious: who it is this season, the surprise who can contribute to our team”.
Even during the relative doldrum decade of League Cups, FA Cups and a Europa League, there have been academy breakthroughs that captured the imagination of Manchester United fans.
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Adnan Januzaj, Paddy McNair, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay, Mason Greenwood, Dean Henderson, Anthony Elanga, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo. A season has barely gone by without a local hero making a name for themselves at Old Trafford and Ten Hag’s academy legacies, Garnacho and Mainoo, are among the most successful.
It is not a coincidence another Dutch former Ajax manager championed Lingard and Rashford. Louis van Gaal granted 13 academy players debuts in two years.
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Ten Hag has been more selective with the six he fielded and three have already left. Willy Kambwala was an unfancied centre back until United’s defence was depleted, Ten Hag saw something in Omari Forson that nobody else could and Charlie McNeill had the surreal distinction of making his debut in a solemn atmosphere after the Queen had passed away.
When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked as manager in November 2021, United were so positive about him in their debrief we had to check if he had been sacked. The number of academy debuts was cited.
There were 16, with the Europa League dead-rubber against Astana a convenient stats-padder. The current United regime has stressed Ten Hag is of the opinion that debuts have to be earned.
Rhys Bennett, Joe Hugill, Toby Collyer, Habeeb Ogunneye, Harry Amass and Louis Jackson were all unused substitutes last season. Ten Hag eschewed some easy PR wins as he did not deem them to be ready. Striker Wheatley tallied 14 goals in 27 games for the junior teams last term and got minutes with no alternative striker to support Rasmus Hojlund during his dry run of one goal in ten games.
Wheatley was one of a handful of respectable performers in the lethargic defeat to Rosenborg on Monday. Of the first-half starters, he was the only one who had a shot on target. His portrait now graces the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year award plaque at Carrington and he has had first-team exposure through six matchday squad inclusions, including the FA Cup semi-final against Coventry at Wembley.
Amass was beside him that day but not in the starting XI in Trondheim. United’s defensive absences were always greater than widely reported during the run-in last season as two players were ineligible for selection due to loans: Sam Murray and Rhys Bennett.
Left back Murray may now rue his work experience loan with Rochdale. Although he trained with the National League team, he never played for them as he was needed by his parent club, devoid of a specialist left back in the final three months of the campaign.
Sams Mather and Murray during the 2022 Youth Cup final
Sams Mather and Murray during the 2022 Youth Cup final
So Murray, 19, trained diligently at Carrington during the week with no prospect of making the squad at the weekend. It is why the younger Amass, who only turned 17 in March, was named on the bench seven times.
The “surprise” in Mourinho’s first season was none other than Phil Jones. He resurfaced for his first appearance in ten months for the 3-1 win at Swansea, started 16 of the next 20 games and United lost only one – the second leg of their League Cup semi-final against Hull that they still came through on aggregate.
Garnacho nor Mainoo were necessarily surprises. They were the standout talents in the triumphant FA Youth Cup team in 2022 yet their rises have been so stratospheric they were United’s FA Cup final scorers and now the poster boys of the new United.
Their academy teammate Murray was one of the starters in Norway. He impressed during United’s victorious Youth Cup run and now there are no registration technicalities, he could be a breakthrough on the pre-season tour.
Manchester born, Murray has stood in the singing section at Old Trafford in recent years. “You’ve got to fight until the end, haven’t you?” he said after the Youth Cup final. “These lads, you grow up with them and we’ve got each other’s backs.
Tyrell Malacia sported a support band on his left knee as he took baby steps in training earlier this week and Luke Shaw will not be in the United States after his European Championship excursions. Murray might be the surprise.
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