He obviously hasn’t been reading any Socrates or Plato of late because, in his latest public utterances, Ashley Young has gone against the ‘I know that I know nothing‘ philosophy by stating:
‘I’m intelligent…’
He continues:
‘..and have a good football brain and can read the game, so whatever the manager wants me to do I will do.’
It’s an interesting way of selling yourself and that is exactly what Young is trying to do in order to get the new contract which he so desires.
In a piece in The Guardian he is also quoted as saying:
‘I think a lot of people thought I had it done [a new deal] but I haven’t. It’s in the club’s hands now so I will have to see how it goes.”
Good Season for Young
We are never usually the first to admit we are wrong. And, in truth, we still wouldn’t have Ashley Young anywhere near our Manchester United dream team.
But we simply have to doff our caps to the lad for the performances that he gave last season. Manchester United bought the England international in 2011 but it wasn’t until 2015 that we saw the player at his optimum level.
He still wasn’t prolific in terms of his stats – he scored 2 goals and made several assists in the last campaign – but he did improve immeasurably.
The thing that used to annoy us most about Young at Manchester United was his defensive nature. Manchester United thought they had bought a winger but Young far too frequently played it safe – a simple ball back to Patrice Evra was par for the course for the first few years.
But last season he began to attack his full backs far more often. He showed good close control and kept the ball well. His crossing also improved markedly.
Louis van Gaal was obviously the perfect coach for the lad.
We still aren’t getting carried away. At 30 years of age, Young is a decent squad player for Manchester United, who can fill in at left back, left wing back or on the wing.
But let’s remember that the potentially departing Angel di Maria made four times as many assists and scored twice the amount of goals, despite sitting on the bench for half of the season.
Hats off to Young for his application, but we still wouldn’t be in a hurry to give him a new contract.
Manchester United fans: is he really a top left winger?
Spanish Red
Jul 23, 2015 at 10:15 pm
He’s on a par with Di Maria. In fact I saw a lot of similariities last season. They both fell over a lot. When they fell over they both rolled around a lot. They both gave the ball away a lot and they both made mazy runs without knowing entirely where they were going and with no end product. Come to think of it, can we not do a BOGOF deal with PSG? It’s fantastic news that Dumbo Di Maria may be going, wouldn’t it be great if footballs answer to Stephen Hawkings went with him?
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