Adnan Januzaj | 2013/14 Performances

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With Rooney and RVP still out, he's amazingly one of our best players. It'd be madness to leave him out against Chelsea IMO.
 
Shark22 said:
With Rooney and RVP still out, he's amazingly one of our best players. It'd be madness to leave him out against Chelsea IMO.
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He will start 100% I'm sure of it, he deserves it. I'd imagine Moyes will go DDG Rafael Vidic Ferdinand Evra Carrick ? Valencia Welbeck AJ ? He'll probably go with Fletch and Cleverly if Rooney is not fit.
 
Great talent.

I think Januzaj and Gnabry are going to become two of the premium players in the league within the next two seasons. You really don't see players play with such composure and maturity at their age... Fabregas comes to mind in this respect.
 
Lawman said:
He will start 100% I'm sure of it, he deserves it. I'd imagine Moyes will go DDG Rafael Vidic Ferdinand Evra Carrick ? Valencia Welbeck AJ ? He'll probably go with Fletch and Cleverly if Rooney if not fit.
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No way Moyes goes to Ferdinand. He has used him so little that I doubt he trusts him not to make a mistake.
 
He's the main positive of the season so far. Before it started few people expected him to play 20+ games in a season and as things stand he's likely to start far more than that let alone feature in. Excellent player, hope we're going to have him here for years.
 
If we don't make the top four then the big guns will be swooping. I can see somebody like Madrid making a massive bid for him, he's that good.
 
adamwest said:
If we don't make the top four then the big guns will be swooping. I can see somebody like Madrid making a massive bid for him, he's that good.
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Sell him for £80m. Eke that out over 3 or 4 years with a number of promising teenagers for around £15-£20m each and a few million quid each pocket money for the Glazers. Job done.

Youve got to love our transfer strategy.
 
cesc's_mullet said:
Great talent.

I think Januzaj and Gnabry are going to become two of the premium players in the league within the next two seasons. You really don't see players play with such composure and maturity at their age... Fabregas comes to mind in this respect.
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You mean Januzaj and Sterling.
 
Snipers Breath said:
He is if you have watched him this season. Different type of players though, i appreciate both of them.
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He really isnt. They are like chalk and cheese in many respects.

Sterling was awful for long periods in the last 12 months. I think he was nearly sent out on loan at one point.

Rodgers has done v well with him. Obviously worked on his professionalism. His form is excellent at the moment tbf.
 
Decotron said:
He really isnt. They are like chalk and cheese in many respects.

Sterling was awful for long periods in the last 12 months. I think he was nearly sent out on loan at one point.

Rodgers has done v well with him. Obviously worked on his professionalism. His form is excellent at the moment tbf.
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He really isn't for what reason?

Because Januzaj is a silky number 10, while he is a pacy wide forward?

And he was never nearly sent out on loan, also the period of 12 months you describe him a being awful for is a major exaggeration, even so though he was only 17. Worth remembering he is only 2 months older than Januzaj still.
 
Snipers Breath said:
He really isn't for what reason?

Because Januzaj is a silky number 10, while he is a pacy wide forward?

And he was never nearly sent out on loan, also the period of 12 months you describe him a being awful for is a major exaggeration, even so though he was only 17. Worth remembering he is only 2 months older than Januzaj still.
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Your own manager is known to have taken him to task for his unprofessionalism.

Put it like this, theres nothing Adnan cant do the Sterling can. Turn it the other way round and the gap is obvious. Even without blinding pace he can still beat a name easily.

I actually rate Sterling highly, potentially better than the likes of SWP and Lennon. Plays with his head up which is one of his strong points actually and a good sign for his age.
 
Shock horror Liverpool have their own talented young player every bit as good as our young star. Sound familiar anyone?
 
Irwinwastheking said:
Shock horror Liverpool have their own talented young player every bit as good as our young star. Sound familiar anyone?
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Decotron said:
Your own manager is known to have taken him to task for his unprofessionalism.

Put it like this, theres nothing Adnan cant do the Sterling can. Turn it the other way round and the gap is obvious. Even without blinding pace he can still beat a name easily.

I actually rate Sterling highly, potentially better than the likes of SWP and Lennon. Plays with his head up which is one of his strong points actually and a good sign for his age.
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I don't think Januzaj makes the runs in behind defences that Sterling does. But then again he is a number 10 as opposed to a wide forward, Sterlings main attributes are relative to that position. Right now i think where Januzaj excels over him is his finishing, and he is a more technical dribbler and of course can make more incisive passes. Sterling though makes the most intelligent runs you will see from a player of that age, his dribbling is less technical than januzaj's but just as effective, and he can pass the ball long and short too, i think both are very good talents, and i would say Sterling has been a shining light against the likes of City Spurs and even Chelsea, i don't think there has been much between them this season or in general.

Different players though as you say, and since this is a Januzaj thread lets just agree he is a fantastic talent.
 
I would be stunned if Sterling goes on to be a better player than Januzaj. I don't see any young English player on the same level as Adnan. We just don't produce players of that complete skill set with the confidence to express it at the moment.
 
Sixpence said:
Sterling isn't fit to lace Januzaj's boots. Ridiculous comparison.
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Januzaj hasn't been better than him this season, assists, goals, key passes etc, they're pretty much at a similar level, and maybe you underestimate Sterling because has been Liverpools second best player after Suarez for the last month, including good performances against Spurs City and Chelsea. Its a ridiculous comparison yet Januzaj hasn't blown him away performance wise, if you had a Suarez in your team to take away plaudits from him from a outside perspective he might look like a lesser talent, just like you perceive Sterling a lesser talent.
 
Jimy_Hills_Chin said:
I would be stunned if Sterling goes on to be a better player than Januzaj. I don't see any young English player on the same level as Adnan. We just don't produce players of that complete skill set with the confidence to express it at the moment.
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Untrue, Barkley skillset is at that level, before he got injured he was the standout young player in this league. Morrison is another player with that type of talent, and i think Sterling is too, because he is the same age as Januzaj with 1 good season behind him before this season and now playing at a level where he is undroppable in a team that is doing well in the league. Given the type of player Januzaj is i think he does draw more attention that Sterling, but Sterling has a skill set more suited for wider positions while i can see Januzaj moving more central, saying that despite the huge difference in talent you make it seem as there is Januzaj is not outperforming him and i'm yet to see him have a performance against a top 6 team like Sterling against Spurs, if you don't consider Sterling anywhere near him then i feel you're underrating him.
 
Manchester United's star winger Adnan Januzaj took five minutes to show he is the club's future


The one positive in David Moyes’s first season in charge at Manchester United, the one unequivocal success in a term of challenge and frustration, came about by chance.
Adnan Januzaj was expecting to spend this year in United’s second string. Although his raw, exciting dribbling ability had earned him the reserve team player of the year title for 2012-13, although his was a name whispered in the new manager’s ear when he first arrived for duty last summer, promotion to the first team did not appear to be imminent.

With Moyes only just appointed, the teenager was anticipating not much more than a couple of appearances on the bench, plus maybe a loan spell to help further his development and strengthen his resolve.
So he arrived at Carrington for pre-season duties in July ready to train with the reserves. Then, on only his third day of lung-bursting shuttle runs and squat thrusts, he was beckoned over to where the big boys were doing some drills. A first-teamer had just dropped out with injury and they needed someone to make up the numbers.

“Within five minutes of doing a little seven v three possession routine, you could see the vision of him playing for Man United’s first team,” Phil Neville, the United coach, explains.
“At the end of the session, all of the coaches got together. We were unanimous in our thoughts on what he’d done. He played like a Man United player. He’d wanted the ball, he was brave, he went into a tackle and smashed someone. Straight away, the manager came up to me and said: ‘He will be a Man United first-team player’.”

Six months later, the young Belgian is not only a first-team regular at Old Trafford. In the absence of Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney, he has become the side’s creative fulcrum, the guy who, with his quick feet and ambitious passing, makes it all happen.

As the chant to the tune of the old Gilbert O’Sullivan hit Ooh-Wakka-Do which will echo around the visitors’ stand at Stamford Bridge tomorrow puts it: “I wanna tell you, I might as well do, about a boy who can do anything, He comes from Belgium, his name is Adnan, Januzaj, Januzaj, Januzaj.”

Neville for one is not remotely surprised that the prodigy has thrived in his sudden elevation. “Some kids are in awe when they are promoted to the first team, they pussyfoot about. Adnan looked like a Man United player. He was like ‘Come on, I want more of this, I should have been in here yesterday, not today’,” he says in an interview to be published in the next edition of the fanzine United We Stand.

Quinton Fortune, too, has watched the player’s progress with a mix of delight and anticipation, though not astonishment. The former United midfielder spent last season working with the reserve team as part of his studies for his coaching badges, and witnessed the player’s qualities at first hand.

“From the very first time I trained with him, I could see the ability was there,” he recalls. “He reminded me so much of the young Ronaldo, when he first came here. Not so much in the way he plays, but in his attitude. He’s never afraid to take people on. He has such self-belief, it is almost scary. Now he’s a first-team regular, you almost feel like he’s been visualising and imagining this moment.”

The speed of Januzaj’s career path has almost matched the pace of one of his runs down the wing. Three years ago, he was in Anderlecht’s academy, those in charge of his development barely able to keep count of the number of goals he totted up. One of his coaches recalls a match in which he scored 16 in a 22-0 rout. Or maybe it was 17.

United were made aware of his eye-catching ability through Patrice Evra, whose contacts told him of a superstar emerging from the Belgian youth system.
The £250,000 fee the club paid to bring the then 16-year-old to United’s academy may well turn out to be the best bit of business in a generation. Though in terms of pounds per pound, the club did not get much for their outlay.

“If you think he looks frail now, you should have seen him when he arrived,” Fortune says. “Obviously he is still not yet physically fully developed, but back then he was really slight. He had to do a lot of weights, a lot of work on being able to impose himself. But the talent was always there. However small he was, he could always get away from people. He knew that when he went for the ball he could escape, so he showed no fear.”

Tony Park, who has been watching United’s youth teams for the past 30 years, says that the Januzaj was so good in his early days at the club, he sometimes drifted through games.
“In terms of technique and ability, he was streets ahead of everyone else,” Park says. “So much so, I’m not sure if the other players were on his wavelength. He could get frustrated. He was ready for the challenge of playing at a much higher level.”

Sir Alex Ferguson gave him that chance, promoting him to the under-21s before his 18th birthday last Feb 5, to see if he had the mental toughness to go with the shining skill set.
“The moment he stepped out with older players he was electric,” Park recalls. “Opponents simply could not cope with his unpredictability. It was the same when he progressed to the first team. It was almost as if he’d found the level he’d been waiting for.

"If you look back at all the young players who have gone straight into the first team, it’s like that. George Best, Norman Whiteside, Ryan Giggs: they all seized their chance.”
On Oct 5 at Sunderland, Januzaj made his first start for the club, continuing a tradition which has seen at least one academy-reared player line up in every single one of United’s 3,675 games stretching back to October 1937. “You have to credit David Moyes for taking the risk,” Fortune says. “He thought he was ready and he was proved right.”

A debut, though, is not the end of it. As Michael Laudrup pointed out last week after his team had been at the wrong end of Januzaj’s abilities, the history of football is littered with names – from David Bentley to Michael Ricketts – who have not fulfilled blistering youthful promise.
“Sometimes unfortunately, you can see players who play 10 or 15 games at the top level and everyone tells them they’re so great and they believe it and think they’re already in the top three in the world,” Laudrup says. “It’s important to keep your feet on the ground but it depends on the people around you.”
United are convinced Januzaj has the support to ensure he fulfils his potential. His disciplinarian father Abedin, who followed him from Brussels to Bowdon, is always there, casting a critical eye over his every performance.

Plus in the first-team dressing room he is surrounded by senior players who continue to demonstrate that for talent properly to blossom it needs to be accompanied by unceasing effort. Insiders suggest Darren Fletcher’s influence in instilling a work ethic in the young player has been particularly influential.
“Believe me,” Fortune says. “This is but the start.”
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telegraph
 
cesc's_mullet said:
Great talent.

I think Januzaj and Gnabry are going to become two of the premium players in the league within the next two seasons. You really don't see players play with such composure and maturity at their age... Fabregas comes to mind in this respect.
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There's some great prospects in the premier league right now. Especially in terms of attacking talent.

Barkley, Lukaku, Sterling, Oscar, Hazard too.

I guess the Chelski players a bit older but still fantastic. Sterling for sure is up there with Gnabry and Januzaj in terms of composure for age.
 
The best two young talents for me as Januzaj and the Barcelona kid, in that order.
 
"United were made aware of his eye-catching ability through Patrice Evra, whose contacts told him of a superstar emerging from the Belgian youth system."

This is true ? Evra is a legend :lol:
 
kouroux said:
What ? That would be a waste for him and the club.
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Why would it be a waste?

Right now i don't think he would do any worse than Cleverley and Fellani. May be a bit of a concern about his weight but hes got enough technical ability for that not to be much of a worry, he will get on to the ball more as well, and hes already shown the propensity to dictate play but also be a creative spark, areas in which United are lacking.

Could see him being a similar revelation there to Wilshere a couple seasons ago, especially in a midfield three.
 
Snipers Breath said:
Why would it be a waste?

Right now i don't think he would do any worse than Cleverley and Fellani. May be a bit of a concern about his weight but hes got enough technical ability for that not to be much of a worry, he will get on to the ball more as well, and hes already shown the propensity to dictate play but also be a creative spark, areas in which United are lacking.

Could see him being a similar revelation there to Wilshere a couple seasons ago, especially in a midfield three.
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It would be a waste of his dribbling ability and will to take on players. We don't have enough players who have the courage and skill to dribble past defenders and at the same time make a threatening pass, Januzay in midfield would have to be a lot more disciplined and a lot more controlled. It would limit his natural therefore it would a huge waste. Central midfield requires a lot more experience and less tolerance to making misplaced passed than on the wing.
 
Gnabry and sterling are very good prospects but I think januzaj is a level above them, he just has that special something that makes him stand out a lot more, the confidence to be the main man right away, and the talent to match it. Sterling and gnabry aren't as intelligent on the ball IMO, and aren't as talented on it (both are still good mind you). Put it this way, sterling and gnabry can become up there with the best in the league, but januzaj I think can be one of the best in the world.
 
I don't understand why its such a bad thing we have to rely on him when our best are out, isn't it the United way to look to the kids for inspiration? The Busby Babes and Class of 92 were all 18-23 year olds we relied on heavily.
 
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