Smashley Young

He was no worse than nani, Rooney, welbeck in the first half. He got 2 goals and an assist in a game we had few chances in, if nani had done that I don't think ppl would feel the need to criticise.

Youngs has contributed in the majority of his games, his injury absence has negatively effected his perceived form imo.
 
He was very good. As soon as he got the ball from Evra you knew he'd R1 + O it into the far corner. His finish for the second goal was superb too, only place he could put it.
 
Great performance from Young. He was clinical yesterday when we needed it most. Great time for him to come into form with the run of fixtures we have coming up. Hopefully Nani can get back to soaring heights too and with Tony V coming back, I'd say we looking really good on the flanks.
 
I knew he'd be a good signing. He's not world class but an effective team player - like Valencia.

For the team this can make him as good as a world class player. Remember some so-called world class players don't gel the team together. Or the team can be less effective if he is not in the right team, or right manager etc.

I think Young is now match-fit again and gaining confidence. With full confidence I see his role roaming from the left to the centre and sometimes over to the right, with Rooney, Welbeck and Nani also roaming.

Valencia tends to stay over to the right and is very effective there.

Young will prove to be a great signing as SAF knows that once players get a Manchester United education wherever they are they tend to improve here.
 
Nobody from utd really had a good first half apart from the defence + DDG, but we sorted that out after 60 minutes and we got back into the game well.

Ashley young did brilliant with limiting walker but also trying to carry a counter attacking threat.

Wasnt a great overall team performance but when given the chance he sure took it, and thats all you can ask.

2 very difficult shots and 2 excellent finishes.
 
Sean_RedDevil said:
He has played sometimes for Watford and Aston Villa in that position.
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And I think he got every one of his 5 goals and 6 assists for England (in just 7 starts, or a goal and assist every 70 minutes) over the past 18 months playing in that position. It's hardly an outrageous idea.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I thought he did a really good job defensively in the first half. Kept Walker pinned back and Lennon got so little joy he ended up switching flanks.
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Yep, pinned Walker back, and picked the right moments to double up on Lennon too. From a defensive stand point he was very good in the first half.

Couple of people have mentioned that he wasn't good offensively in the first half, but who was?? Ultimately he put in a fantastic corner for our first goal, so at least he did something in terms of effecting the scoreline.
 
It wasn't Young's fault that every single time one of our players received the ball he was crowded out, surrounded by three white shirts. Spurs simply worked a lot harder for the ball than we did and as always, the simple tactic of pressing and harassing unsettled us to a great degree.

Young did all the right things when he had the chance to actually influence the play.
 
I've been critical of him in the past (though I hope in a constructive way as opposed to just being negative, albeit in the match day thread I got carried away, as we do), and I was critical again after that first half, but credit where it's due, 2 top class goals that won us the match.

Let's hope he keeps it up. With Valencia absent & Nani out of sorts, we need him to.

Madness to suggest he should be playing behind Rooney, by the way.
 
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mjs020294 said:
Please tell me you're joking? His crossing was instrumental in the last two wins. Injury time winner last week and the key opening goal against Spurs both came from exceptional crosses from Young.
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Sorry. Forgot the white text. :(
 
Definitely some work to be done on the Evra and Young partnership though. A lot of the time they are on completely different wavelengths
 
He was pretty bad for England (except for his finish) so I was surprised to see him start for us. Played pretty well and took both goals excellently. He was never man of the match though. Ferdinand and/or Evans should have got that in my opinion, they kept us in the game.
 
What difference would his performance for England make? SAF makes his decisions based on what he sees players do in a United shirt and what he sees in training. As if he gives a monkeys about what happens in an England friendly.
 
Simon Adebesi said:
What difference would his performance for England make? SAF makes his decisions based on what he sees players do in a United shirt and what he sees in training. As if he gives a monkeys about what happens in an England friendly.
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Well, I thought it would indicate his form. I was surprised he'd subsequently looked good enough to earn a start between then and now.
 
I agree with him being noticeably less involved in the play than the other forwards (who were all just as poor) up until the goal. Maybe it's a classic case of reading too much into it but I think maybe it is a mental thing, taking some time to adjust to the step up. While nowhere near as good as Young, Downing had a decent start at Liverpool before his form dropped and he stopped taking anyone on or trying any incisive forward passes. Playing with much better players with greater importance placed on each match, maybe it takes the confidence a goal gives for Young to fully back his abilities on the ball and get involved in more of the play. I'm not sure if he would have taken on that second before scoring the first.

He has a lot of good qualities - as pointed out he was defensively sound yesterday, his delivery should always be a plus to what we have - that he should be an important player for us. Always nice to have more options.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I thought he did a really good job defensively in the first half. Kept Walker pinned back and Lennon got so little joy he ended up switching flanks.
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Yea I thought similar, I was quite surprised at the flack he was getting from some people at HT.
 
His contribution so far this season has been decent. His stats are looking good (6 goals, 9 assists from 22 games), but he needs to do it on a more consistent basis. He basically contributed his four league goals and eight assists in five games, while four goals and four assists came in two games (Arsenal home, Spurs away).
There are clearly signs he's still settling in though and he had an injury which disrupted his season as well. Over the last few games since coming back from injury there has been gradual improvement in every aspect of his game, and he scored against Ajax away, created the winner at Carrow Road, scored for England and won us the game at White Hart Lane yesterday. If he can build on that we should be fine in the run-in, with Nani still finding his form and Valencia being back as early as next week.

Overall I think we can be quite pleased with our wingers scoring tally this season:

Nani: 8 goals, 13 assists
Valencia: 4 goals, 12 assists
Young: 6 goals, 9 assists

Can't really ask for much more tbh.
 
If you extrapolate his stats based on the same minutes/games that Nani and Tony V have, he's actually having a better year than either. I can see him knocking in another 6 -8 goals this season.
 
Raoul said:
If you extrapolate his stats based on the same minutes/games that Nani and Tony V have, he's actually having a better year than either. I can see him knocking in another 6 -8 goals this season.
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Not to take anything away from him, but three of his assists have been for Rooney free kicks where his job was to put his foot on the ball and stop it. I'm sure they have swayed the assist stats in his favour if nothing else.
 
His assists and goals are also less consistent than the other 2, Valencia especially. Generally quite a few of them are in single games.

Still, not bad stats at all.
 
2 of his assists were rolling the ball 2 yards into Rooney from the FK in the Arsenal game :lol:
 
Makki said:
Not to take anything away from him, but three of his assists have been for Rooney free kicks where his job was to put his foot on the ball and stop it. I'm sure they have swayed the assist stats in his favour if nothing else.
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Still not a bad overall contribution, particularly after his lengthy injury.
 


Kaiizo comes through again. This guy makes some top compilations.
 
Anyone else think that Young was decent today? And his 2 goals last weekend.

Very good signing.
 
The good thing is that he's really upping his game and finding his best at the right time of the season. He couldn't have timed his return to form better.
 
Plan M said:
Anyone else think that Young was decent today? And his 2 goals last weekend.

Very good signing.
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Decent?
He was very good today, I thought. Gave their left back(Tamas?) a torrid time throughout the first half and did well to win the penalty. Been very good for the last three-four matches, very good to see.
 
KM said:
Decent?
He was very good today, I thought. Gave their left back(Tamas?) a torrid time throughout the first half and did well to win the penalty. Been very good for the last three-four matches, very good to see.
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Wasn't that good. I guess it frustrates me when I see him give away the ball attempting the simplest of passes or just knowing that he can't use his left for anything but to stand on it.

He was good. Wasn't great, I thought.
 
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