This is the road most young players go down. None of this is surprising for me. Players like Beckham and Scholes didn’t establish themselves as first team regulars in their preferred positions until they were 22-24. Andres Iniesta was starting 12 games a season for Barca at Marcus’ age
This is not to compare his talent to theirs, this is to give perspective. People expect far too much too soon. Players who are exceptional at his age are exceedingly rare. Three or four a generation. He needs time to grow, develop, learn his trade amongst men. Now defenders have figured out his weaknesses, it’s about how he reacts.
For the slightly older amongst us, we’ve been down this road before. I remember well the vehement abuse Darren Fletcher used to get in his early 20s. People saying Beckham was shite before he made his big breakthrough. The accusations of Ronaldo being a show pony with no end product persisted until he was 21 or 22. And he was a prodigy at 17.
The list goes on. But the point is that the fan base is just too knee jerk and short termist with young players. You won’t win them all, certainly. But you also won’t win any, if you expect a 20 year old to be consistent and the finished article. The frothing at the mouth every time Rashford has a bad game, or Martial is left out, is frankly hilarious.
I even look at players like Lingard, who goes from flavour to scapegoat of the month faster than anyone in our squad. And I ask why? He’s a good player. Not a world class player but a superb squad option. One of our own, good technical ability, great work rate. To win trophies you need squad options, and he’s as good as that gets in my opinion. Reminds me of a young Ji Sung Park.
People just need to calm down and prepare to let young players develop. They are rarely as good as the hype suggests, and rarely as bad as the performance knee jerkers would have you believe. This mentality has to even extend to big signings like Pogba. He’s still not entered his prime. I thought he was superb yesterday, but people expect the Love child of Maradona and Keane. Forget the fee, just enjoy watching a top talent develop at our club.
