Smashley Young

Yeah, credit must go to Young, I was really impressed. At times his crossing was iffy, but he was better today than Valencia and Nani have been this season. Even held the ball up well at times. If he was like this regularly I'd have no problem with him being a United player.
 
on a good run of form... keep it up, and less people on here will be moaning about him
 
Was excellent last week and this, very dramatic change in confidence and style of play. Hopefully the same happens with valencia and kagawa comes back in good shape.
 
I've always thought he's had the technical skills to do well, just lacked the confidence/mental strength. Winning games and playing well at grounds like the Etihad should go a long way in helping that.
 
Played very well today and also the last game as well. I think he must have known it was last chance saloon in terms of cementing a place in the first team for the future or Fergie would have definitely bought another left winger. Need these performances every other game though and not every other month.
 
Did reasonably well in an attacking sense but he left an awful lot of space behind him on a number of occassions.
 
kietotheworld said:
Did reasonably well in an attacking sense but he left an awful lot of space behind him on a number of occassions.
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He's work rate was also very good, esp. for an attacking player. Compare that to Silva or Hazard. If he keeps improving as he did, he will be a great asset
 
He played very well today. Not the hugest fan of him and Valencia as a consistent pairing due to the lack of unpredictability from either, but on current form, he's certainly the one I'd choose. He links very well with his team mates when he is on top of his game.
 
I thought he still looked well short of confidence. He's back to something like decent when he doesn't have time to think, but when he does he's still so bloody tentative. Like with that break in the last 10 mins or so, when Rooney made a great run and he waited too long and then played it short.

Still, he's on the way back, thank feck. A few more like that will do him the world of good.
 
So much better today. That touch of his after RVP chested it into his path represented everything that he hasn't been able to do so far this season.

I think perhaps possession football doesn't suit him. When we have lots of the ball he seems terrified of losing it. He's never able to be the player who takes that possession and turns it, with a bit of a gamble, into an attack. Which is a winger's main job. Today, on the other hand, we were willing to let City have more of the possession, and tried to attack hard and fast whenever we had the ball. It almost seemed to take the pressure off him, and he wasn't afraid to go for it. SAF needs to get him playing like that in games which we dominate.
 
Very sharp, confident looking today, first half particularly. Paddy seems to enjoy having Young in front of him. Always works hard defensively but genuine threat going forward today. Reminded me of why we got him.
 
Classic case of 'when your tail is up'. You could see from the whistle he was up for this game. He released the shackles a little bit. I mean he wasn't perfect and he did his fair share of defensive work and got forward.

But you could actively see he was playing in the moment, letting it all unfold for him rather than trying to do it all as a perfectionist would. A couple of times he took two touches in his stride and then cut without even thinking perfectly away from Zabaletta who had to attempt to foul him because he knew he'd been beaten. He got at him from the start and THAT I think is a little bit of what he has been missing. The ability to move the ball in the moment and pull off some of the instinctive ball movement.
 
ghaliboy said:
But you could actively see he was playing in the moment, letting it all unfold for him rather than trying to do it all as a perfectionist would. A couple of times he took two touches in his stride and then cut without even thinking perfectly away from Zabaletta who had to attempt to foul him because he knew he'd been beaten. He got at him from the start and THAT I think is a little bit of what he has been missing. The ability to move the ball in the moment and pull off some of the instinctive ball movement.
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That's the point. And it rings true with how I play when my confidence is low (these days, that's whenever I play).

When he has time to think, you can see the cogs turning and the tentativeness come back. Valencia's got a bit of this at the moment too.

To be fair to Young, he always makes himself available, even when you suspect he doesn't actually want the ball.
 
Thought he played very well today. Made some very nice runs down the side, the one for the first goal in particular. He gave City's defenders plenty of problems and did fairly well defensively as well most of the time.

Had to laugh quite a few times, he had quite a few unconvincing looking awkward dribbles, but I think only lost the ball once as a result. Hopefully he builds on this performance and starts really running down the wing more often now.
 
He was superb I thought. Worked really hard, ran at his fullback, got an assist, and had a very good game all round. Here's hoping he continues playing like that instead of the crap he was giving recently.
 
Set up Van Persie well, but his final ball has been largely awful for me.
 
Tailed off towards the end but so did our tempo in general. Still had a good game.
 
He's been ok without being as good as last week but he's not the same player at all in comparison to the start of the season.There is a lot more confidence in his game, very unlucky not to be awarded a penalty
 
MDFC Manager said:
When its on his right peg, he's been OK but clearly his left isnt all that great. Still, he's getting into some good form now.
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Still much, much better than a few weeks ago. Just poor decision making a few times when he has had it in space.
 
Playing with confidence now and it shows, much better performances recently.
 
He was good for the first 30 minutes today and even when he became less effective he was still showing plenty of energy and movement.
 
He's stepped up.

All those cnuts who said he was never and will never be good enough to wear a United shirt, kindly do the world a favour and cease your existence.
 
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