Smashley Young

His appearances against Tottenham and Arsenal already proved, he is capable of spectacular things.

Moyes and staff need to figure out how to keep him, healthy and we should be okay on wings, even without summer window addition.
 
"Young might be the best crosser of the ball, but he doesn't use it enough which is backed up by Valencia completing more crosses"

Do you not think that stat is skewed heavily in Valencia's favour due to the fact he plays on the right and has the option of whipping the ball in first time on his stronger foot? Put Young on the right and Valencia on the left and that particular stat would probably be skewed in Young's favour instead.
 
Young has at times been a solid contributor on the pitch -- and he went above the call of duty with that insane match against Arsenal -- perfectly adequate as a squad man for United and as a starter for most other clubs, but he's never going to make Bayern or Barcelona defenders shit their pants. That may be okay, since as a club we're nowhere close to being able to make Bayern or Barcelona shit their pants anyway. But if we're ever going to disturb the bowels of those two clubs we absolutely need to have wingers who do some serious damage.

Adraino and Shaqueri won't make us shot our pants either.
 
One of the better backup wingers around. We can't have world class players in every feckin position. Some of you should support those oil rich teams who can buy anyone.
 
Hugely. I can't see the obsession in measuring a player only by statistics. Yes, it's nice if a player is productive, but a player's general contribution and threat outside of that is what impacts the dynamic of the team going forward, our ability to keep possession, our general level of threat, etc... For a player who isn't a Ronaldo or a Messi that is constantly hammering in goals, or players like Ozil or Fabregas at their best who notch up assists and chances at an absurd rate, the quality of a player's performance in general is paramount.

People wonder why it is our team can look a bit choppy and broken going forward sometimes, and the reason is because we've often got Young/Valencia out wide with an off form Rooney in the centre looking awkward or a bit bland in possession at times. When you play too many players like that, the team loses its threat and composure. I don't think Ashley Young is poor by any means, but everyone knew what we were getting when we signed him - an above average winger who would look fairly mediocre for the most part for a top level team. Our whole left side dies sometimes when he's playing there; there is no confidence that he'll look to get the ball and cause a threat or keep the ball in tight situations. He has reached a good level at times, but has had far more underwhelming performances than good ones.

The difference between someone like Nani and Young in terms of general quality and threat is vast. Wth Nani, you're like to have more variation, better composure in possession, better touch, better link up, a more nervous opposing full back, etc... He becomes someone that a team must keep an eye on, as opposed to someone you'd expect to just step inwards a bit and whip a cross in. This sort of impact on a team is something seen with your eyes and not measured with numbers. Ask any team and its full backs on the planet who they'd want to deal with out of a Nani and a Young and it'd be Nani without any hesitation whatsoever. Young is still a fair bit off the level that Park reached here, and has not had a single performance like one of Park's best (back end of 10/11) in my opinion.

That all being said, he is clearly a good option to have as a squad player. I just think people get so bound up in stats that they lose all sight of actual performance - something that only a completely absurd amount of statistics could hope to come close to measuring.


This. People can keep convincing themselves he's a quality winger by using stats - it's very entertaining and highlights their agenda perfectly.
 
You don't really though, to be honest. Young's link up play is extremely mediocre, and his consistency is found more in the sense of playing it safe and passing it to Evra, or continuously putting cross after cross in the box. A player like that is bound to have reasonable assist stats, but at what cost? How beneficial is it really to have a player with such consistently little invention to his game on the wing when we already lack adventure through the centre?

It's interesting to consider Valencia at his best by comparison - a player that many would say is limited and predictable. The difference though is that, say, Valencia of 11/12, would consistently destroy his full back, consistently drive in threatening crosses, run great distances with the ball down the right hand touchline with no hesitation, etc... His predictability was a good thing, and that 'you know what you get with him' factor was a compliment and a testament that you couldn't do much about him even if he was predictable. You could expect him to put in a top class performance basically, where as with Young the Arsenal-type performances come as more of a pleasant surprise. Games like that one from two years ago are rarities and not ones that come as part of a big string of very good/excellent performances.

You're falling into the same trap as many others by judging Ashley Young based on two seasons of repeated serious injury. You simply cannot justify judging his ability as a player in this way.

Your final sentence above sums up perfectly where you're missing the point:

Games like that one from two years ago are rarities and not ones that come as part of a big string of very good/excellent performances.

Because he's been repeatedly injured!

When Young has managed periods of full fitness for United he's been excellent for us, creating and scoring goals at a rate that would easily put him amongst the top wingers in the league. Unfortunately he's only enjoyed three such periods of full fitness since his transfer from Aston Villa (August 2011 - September 2011, February 2012 - May 2012 and December 2012).

During those three periods of full fitness Young has shown just how good he can be, and during those three periods he's been very good; his end product when fully fit is undeniable. Anything outside those three periods has been a complete mishmash of knee and ankle injuries with sporadic performances of partial recovery dotted in between; it's during these times in which Young's mediocre performances have come, so how you and so many others feel comfortable judging him by these performances is beyond me.

By all means question Ashley Young's ability to achieve and maintain the required level of fitness for a United first team player, but to question his ability as a footballer when fully fit based upon two seasons of ruinous injury is ridiculous; especially so when the few times he has managed to achieve full fitness he's performed to a very high standard.

Fortunately the manager and staff at Manchester United won't take your prejudicial viewpoint when assessing Ashley Young's suitability as a player; they've become so good at their jobs as to hold such lofty positions exactly by superseding the nature of ignorance you're displaying in your unjustified estimation of a player who's suffered an unfortunate and sustained string of injuries over a period of two years.
 
I said when we were buying him that I didn't think he was good enough for United. His injury record wasn't as bad as it is now, but I just didn't think he was the player we needed long term. I used Yorke as an example as to how Young would turn out, one good season and then slowly fade away on the back of the reputation built up. Throughout his career, Young has had spells of consistency, but as with others they have never been sustained, as you get from the world class players.

Were it up to me, I'd let him go tomorrow, and try and get some decent money back from him, but we haven't got plenty of wingers to replace him with, but if he's to stay he should be a squad player at the most rather than a regular starter, he's just not good enough.
 
You're falling into the same trap as many others by judging Ashley Young based on two seasons of repeated serious injury. You simply cannot justify judging his ability as a player in this way.

Your final sentence above sums up perfectly where you're missing the point:



Because he's been repeatedly injured!

When Young has managed periods of full fitness for United he's been excellent for us, creating and scoring goals at a rate that would easily put him amongst the top wingers in the league. Unfortunately he's only enjoyed three such periods of full fitness since his transfer from Aston Villa (August 2011 - September 2011, February 2012 - May 2012 and December 2012).

During those three periods of full fitness Young has shown just how good he can be, and during those three periods he's been very good; his end product when fully fit is undeniable. Anything outside those three periods has been a complete mishmash of knee and ankle injuries with sporadic performances of partial recovery dotted in between; it's during these times in which Young's mediocre performances have come, so how you and so many others feel comfortable judging him by these performances is beyond me.

By all means question Ashley Young's ability to achieve and maintain the required level of fitness for a United first team player, but to question his ability as a footballer when fully fit based upon two seasons of ruinous injury is ridiculous; especially so when the few times he has managed to achieve full fitness he's performed to a very high standard.

Fortunately the manager and staff at Manchester United won't take your prejudicial viewpoint when assessing Ashley Young's suitability as a player; they've become so good at their jobs as to hold such lofty positions exactly by superseding the nature of ignorance you're displaying in your unjustified estimation of a player who's suffered an unfortunate and sustained string of injuries over a period of two years.



Young has been available for long enough periods for us to judge him - not only for us, but also for Aston Villa. When he has been fit he has not been excellent. Excellent is Nani 10/11, Valencia 11/12, etc. They were excellent in their own way and amongst the very top performers in the team. Both of them were absolutely integral to the way we lined up and losing any of them to injury/suspension would've been a severe loss regardless of assists/goals statistics. Young's excellent has not been on that level (not just because injuries haven't allowed that sort of importance but also because he's not reached the same heights) - he's had a couple of good/very good performances during these injury free periods, some decent and a few meh. After that it has descended into full on mediocrity or injury (injury for us at least). It is somewhat like the Anderson situation over a smaller period without him ever having reached the level he has done, with another difference being that the top drawer player in Anderson is more obvious.

You're making the mistake of slurring statistics with actual performance, where as the reality is that a performance for an attacking player is judged not solely by what they create, but also by how they link up with others whilst providing composure and fluidity. Stats are an indicator of a player's contribution, but what they don't indicate is the cost that their performance has come at and how it has effected the team. There have been times on the left for example whereby Young doesn't actually look to want the ball, and he certainly doesn't look to really control play or drive the team forward. This may brighten up a ball retention statistic, but it's obviously detrimental to the team as a whole to have a player like that. Stats won't show this though; people will see an assist coming off the back of one of the 10 crosses or so and little else. Fast forward a year and you have that assist taken from the wave of mediocrity that was the actual performance and used to argue how he has performed excellently.

That's the obsession of football at the moment in that many will seem to use statistics as an absolutely infallible cornerstone of an argument, and it's presumably one of the reasons why the media have been in such a rush to push Gareth Bale towards the Ronaldo/Messi bracket. No-one actually seems to look at the actual performance that's been put in, and an assist or goal in a game seems to wipe out everything else that happened around it. If I play football and play shite all game despite coming up with an assist, I feel like I've let the team down and would've been better off not playing. A person would be right to think that as well - another player could've come in, scored/directly created no goals at all, yet played well enough for the team to score 3 more as a whole.

That last line is unnecessary and a bit cliche. Young may come good and reach a level he has not reached yet, in doing so becoming a proper first team player. Perhaps this is what the United staff see in him, although the United staff themselves are not and never will be infallible. In retrospect, we have made many mistakes with players even if they have been absolutely dwarfed by the success of others. As fans, we can judge at this point simply by what we see and not what might happen out of the blue - what we have seen up to this point, whilst not coming in ideal conditions due to injury, has been largely average and not excellent. A lot of people predicted this would happen based on his Villa career, as anyone who watched Villa in their last season will tell you that he was no better than Stewart Downing. This was also a view that has been backed up by uninspiring England performances since he was introduced to the fold (as is the case with everyone, in fairness). I have a mate who is a Villa fan and he was repeatedly questioning back then why we were even after him.

He may step up another level and I'd like that to happen, but it would need to be a substantial step given the context of his career. If he were to maintain a run of form consisting of and improving upon those good performances, I think we'd have either a fantastic squad player or someone who could do a Park job in the team. Someone basically that would help to facilitate stronger areas of the team whilst not being a stand out weak link himself. Maybe this will happen but it's unclear whether he has it in him. A significant improvement would need to be made from his Villa time when he was playing consistently, and I think it's also imperative that either central midfield is strengthened or a more established system is implemented for this to happen. This is not only why Park worked so well for us, but also Pedro for Barcelona. They did the exact job that was required from them relative to the system they were part of, and their comparably lesser ability and attacking influence was not felt due to the strength of the team elsewhere. Young for me though has not reached the individual performance level of Park for us or at Villa, and that step up itself from anomalous good/very good performances to the consistently fantastic ones that Park used to put in is a big one.
 
I thought he played well today for a player who just had his first game after three months, couple of excellent passes and few chances created, nice interchange with other players, and as always, solid defensively.
 
I said when we were buying him that I didn't think he was good enough for United. His injury record wasn't as bad as it is now, but I just didn't think he was the player we needed long term. I used Yorke as an example as to how Young would turn out, one good season and then slowly fade away on the back of the reputation built up. Throughout his career, Young has had spells of consistency, but as with others they have never been sustained, as you get from the world class players.

Were it up to me, I'd let him go tomorrow, and try and get some decent money back from him, but we haven't got plenty of wingers to replace him with, but if he's to stay he should be a squad player at the most rather than a regular starter, he's just not good enough.

He is a squad player you gimp.
 
Young is not going to be a top class winger, he's not going to be a player to help carry the team like Nani can on his day, but he's good enough to play for United and in the right set up I think we can see very good things from him. He hasn't shown more than a glimpse than what he's capable of and what he's shown at Villa. It's all about getting the balance right. Problem is when there's nothing coming from the other wing (and no matter who played on the other wing last season, not a lot came out of there) and the midfield has issues, there's a lot more pressure on him to produce something, not mental but in pure football terms. And like I said, he's not in that Nani calibre.

Still a capable player for United. If he can stay fit and reproduce his Villa form.
 
Do you not think that stat is skewed heavily in Valencia's favour due to the fact he plays on the right and has the option of whipping the ball in first time on his stronger foot? Put Young on the right and Valencia on the left and that particular stat would probably be skewed in Young's favour instead.

Yeah probably, but that doesn't change the argument.

My point was in response to the comment that what Young brings to the team is consistent crossing ability. The point I was making is that he doesn't actual complete that many crosses, so that can't be used as an influential argument for keeping him in the team.

If he was on the right maybe he would cross more but it doesn't change anything. He's a left winger and if crossing is his big stength over our other wingers, but he doesn't actually do it that much, then that isn't a good thing.
 
Young is not going to be a top class winger, he's not going to be a player to help carry the team like Nani can on his day, but he's good enough to play for United and in the right set up I think we can see very good things from him. He hasn't shown more than a glimpse than what he's capable of and what he's shown at Villa. It's all about getting the balance right. Problem is when there's nothing coming from the other wing (and no matter who played on the other wing last season, not a lot came out of there) and the midfield has issues, there's a lot more pressure on him to produce something, not mental but in pure football terms. And like I said, he's not in that Nani calibre.

Still a capable player for United. If he can stay fit and reproduce his Villa form.

Agreed. He is indeed a good team player and I too do not rate him better than Nani.
 
I don't see the problem, frankly. You might say we could've used the millions he cost at the time to buy someone else, but that's hardly relevant now. He is a squad player, as others have rightly pointed out. Can anyone honestly say he isn't good enough to be a squad player for United? No? So, why make an issue of it? We need depth - having a top squad was always part and parcel of Fergie's success, especially in the league. Young is a very good player on his day, a player with match winning qualities, even. That's more than enough.
 
He is a squad player yes, but for some reason bought at a luxury signing price when he had a year on his contract. Last season he did the very basics of playing on the left well, ie passed the ball around decently and combined with Evra. Every now and then he scores a really nice goal, but it seems to be getting rarer and rarer that he hits the back of the net
 
We're still not bothering to acknowledge that he was injured for more or less the entire 12/13 season then?

You're still failing to acknowledge that Young started 17 games in the Premier League last season. In the season before that, he started 19 games. Your excuses are laughable.
 
You're still failing to acknowledge that Young started 17 games in the Premier League last season. In the season before that, he started 19 games. Your excuses are laughable.

He started seventeen games, so what? All season he suffered from reccurring knee and ankle injuries (particularly his ankle which he's suffered with for two years now) which meant that he was rarely, if ever, playing at a decent level of fitness. Can you explain how that represents a laughable excuse for poor form? Can you tell me since when it became laughable to highlight the obvious ongoing injury issues of a player as being the direct cause of a drop in performance?

On the few occasions since joining United during which he's managed to maintain a run of good fitness then he's performed very well and been directly involved in much of our good play, scoring goals and creating chances with impressive regularity; he's a very effective winger when fit. Unfortunately those periods of good fitness have been interrupted by regular periods of sidelining through ankle or knee injury; the result being that his United career has thus far been highlighted most prominently by periods of injury, recovery and the resulting stuttering form; something which has regrettably resulted in many of our more inexact and debasing fans labelling him as being shit a shit player.

If Young can make a decent recovery from his ankle issues then he'll be good for a ~30 G+A season with United. If he cannot recover then perhaps we'd be best moving him on and giving another player his position. We'll see how he gets on under Moyes.
 
Because you take away facts. I see you have manipulate his injury to suit your argument, but no one has said anything different. It's a laughable excuse - take a look at this. In fact, I urge every member to take a look at that link. It shows how many minutes Young played. I'd like you to look at the dates - he was a regular starter for us in the first half of the season, which wasn't disrupted by injury, yet he only managed three assists. Using his injury is a viable excuse for why he wasn't involved a lot in the second half of the season, but please don't try to fool people and promote this false agenda because the facts are below. For you to, also, say "We're still not bothering to acknowledge that he was injured for more or less the entire 12/13 season then?" is ridiculous, it really is...

I like Young. For me, he is first team. He adds a lot of balance to the left side and does a lot of defensive work. As I previously stated, the Reading performance (away) was easily his best. He was involved in a lot of our attacks, linked up well with Evra, and provided cover for him too. This notion, however, that Young is a quality winger is false. Again, he has done nothing to prove that at Manchester United. IMO, he's a good winger, but "excellent winger" and "quality winger" definitely do not describe him well at all - it's a false perception.

Young will always end up with good numbers at the end of the season, he's that type of player. He possesses a great strike and decent delivery, but what he has to improve on is his consistency (shock) and he needs to to be more competent at causing trouble to full backs - it's as though this part of his game has degraded. In fact, in 11/12, he started off very well, but soon was average (standard, not poor) for the rest of the season. The Caf exploded after his poor performance vs. Newcastle (draw at home). He continued to score crucial goals and assist his team-mates (see Tottenham and Blackburn, both away games). But, he can still improve. I've always liked him and have nothing against him, but this hyperbole is fast becoming a joke...
 
It really shouldn't but spending that amount of money on him on the last year of his contract really annoys me every now and then. I think I might actually like him if we'd have gotten him for £10m or something. Stupid but there you go. He's also clearly a bit of a wimp. Hard-working, keeps possession well, makes clever runs, supports his fullback...he does pretty much everything Park did and offers more on top but I don't like him anywhere near as much. I just think he gives off this vibe of being a bit of a fanny. He's more talented than he's generally given credit for but he just rarely plays with the confidence to go along with it.
 
Because you take away facts. I see you have manipulate his injury to suit your argument, but no one has said anything different. It's a laughable excuse - take a look at this. In fact, I urge every member to take a look at that link. It shows how many minutes Young played. I'd like you to look at the dates - he was a regular starter for us in the first half of the season, which wasn't disrupted by injury, yet he only managed three assists. Using his injury is a viable excuse for why he wasn't involved a lot in the second half of the season, but please don't try to fool people and promote this false agenda because the facts are below. For you to, also, say "We're still not bothering to acknowledge that he was injured for more or less the entire 12/13 season then?" is ridiculous, it really is...

I like Young. For me, he is first team. He adds a lot of balance to the left side and does a lot of defensive work. As I previously stated, the Reading performance (away) was easily his best. He was involved in a lot of our attacks, linked up well with Evra, and provided cover for him too. This notion, however, that Young is a quality winger is false. Again, he has done nothing to prove that at Manchester United. IMO, he's a good winger, but "excellent winger" and "quality winger" definitely do not describe him well at all - it's a false perception.

Young will always end up with good numbers at the end of the season, he's that type of player. He possesses a great striker and decent delivery, but what he has to improve on is his consistency (shock) and he needs to to be more competent at causing trouble to full backs - it's as though this part of his game has degraded. In fact, in 11/12, he started off very well, but soon was average (standard, not poor) for the rest of the season. The Caf exploded after his poor performance vs. Newcastle (draw at home). He continued to score crucial goals and assist his team-mates (see Tottenham and Blackburn, both away games). But, he can still improve. I've always liked him and have nothing against him, but this hyperbole is fast becoming a joke...


Good post, though I prefer 'decent' to 'good'. Really hope Nani stays because this guy is not good enough for a first team role. If not and Valencia's form doesn't return our wings look extremely poor and possibly relying on a 20 year old prem debutant.
 
It really shouldn't but spending that amount of money on him on the last year of his contract really annoys me every now and then. I think I might actually like him if we'd have gotten him for £10m or something. Stupid but there you go. He's also clearly a bit of a wimp. Hard-working, keeps possession well, makes clever runs, supports his fullback...he does pretty much everything Park did and offers more on top but I don't like him anywhere near as much. I just think he gives off this vibe of being a bit of a fanny.

I'd say this is a very accurate assessment of how around 80% of the Caf feel about Young. It's hard to let his cost and wages go considering what he is. And yeah, he comes across as a total bitch.
 
What's worse is he was on the last year of his contract. Up there as one of Fergie's worst signings IMO.
 
Yeah, Young missing large parts of the season doesn't excuse any poor performances.

I'm sure, for example, if we looked at the Nani thread we wouldn't find anyone using the time he missed last season as an excuse behind a dip in his form. Oh no, not a bit of it. No posts along the lines of "he was missing for half the season, you can't fairly judge him". Quite 100% positive they definitely don't exist.
 
Erm, it's pretty much widely accepted on here he was shite last season, so stop talking bollocks.
 
I'd say this is a very accurate assessment of how around 80% of the Caf feel about Young. It's hard to let his cost and wages go considering what he is. And yeah, he comes across as a total bitch.


So we now admit to disliking Young for completely stupid reasons? The club had money to spend and used them. You might have thought at the time they could be used better, but they weren't. How is that a reason to dislike Young now, two years later?
We have him at the club and people seem to agree that he's a good back-up for whoever our first choice winger is next season but still want to sell him? Why don't we want back-up for our first choice? That's always been part of our consistent success. Jesus.

And this:

What's worse is he was on the last year of his contract. Up there as one of Fergie's worst signings IMO.

Dear lord...

I think he's just fine. He showed very good delivery today and created some chances but that's not good enough it seems.
Anyway, I won't get dragged further into this seeing as ciderman is doing a pretty good job of arguing how I feel about him.
 
Because you take away facts. I see you have manipulate his injury to suit your argument, but no one has said anything different. It's a laughable excuse - take a look at this. In fact, I urge every member to take a look at that link. It shows how many minutes Young played. I'd like you to look at the dates - he was a regular starter for us in the first half of the season, which wasn't disrupted by injury, yet he only managed three assists. Using his injury is a viable excuse for why he wasn't involved a lot in the second half of the season, but please don't try to fool people and promote this false agenda because the facts are below.

I don't know where you're getting your information from but Ashley Young suffered a major knee injury against Fulham in the second game of the season last year which kept him out until November. The link you've so animatedly posted shows just this so to be honest you're making very little sense.

After regaining fitness he had a great run of form through December 2012 before the knee went again which coupled with the return of his old ankle injury more of less put him out for the remainder of the season.

Nice blustery post and that, mate, but your facts are completely wrong.
 
Nobody is dragging you into anything, chill out there.

I never said I "disliked" him by the way, merely that the cost of his transfer has always been a factor in how I rate him.
 
It's weird that nobody bothers remembering the circumstance at which we brought him. Nani was our only option on the left and both Valencia and Nani spentportions of the season injured. We actually needed a back up winger. It's just unfortunate that Nani has turned out to be abit of an arse, otherwise we wouldn't even be having this discussion.
 
It really shouldn't but spending that amount of money on him on the last year of his contract really annoys me every now and then. I think I might actually like him if we'd have gotten him for £10m or something. Stupid but there you go. He's also clearly a bit of a wimp. Hard-working, keeps possession well, makes clever runs, supports his fullback...he does pretty much everything Park did and offers more on top but I don't like him anywhere near as much. I just think he gives off this vibe of being a bit of a fanny. He's more talented than he's generally given credit for but he just rarely plays with the confidence to go along with it.

This is a fair assessment of how I feel as well.

On the keeping possession well part - I agree he does, but it's still irritating because he does so when he really shouldn't be. He's a winger not a deep lying midfielder, attack your fullback for feck sake. All the time it just seems the default option for him to turn back and play it Carrick or Evra.
 
Yeah, Young missing large parts of the season doesn't excuse any poor performances.

I'm sure, for example, if we looked at the Nani thread we wouldn't find anyone using the time he missed last season as an excuse behind a dip in his form. Oh no, not a bit of it. No posts along the lines of "he was missing for half the season, you can't fairly judge him". Quite 100% positive they definitely don't exist.

I'm still trying not to laugh at you comparing stats between Young and Nani - and formulating such an amazing opinion that there's little between them. Amazing. Seriously though, Nani was in and out of the team. He picked up injuries in the first and second half of the season. Nice try though.
 
Nobody is dragging you into anything, chill out there.

I never said I "disliked" him by the way, merely that the cost of his transfer has always been a factor in how I rate him.

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. How can that be a factor in how you rate a player?
If we had got him on a free he would have been the best in the world, or how does this way of rating players work?
 
I don't know where you're getting your information from but Ashley Young suffered a major knee injury against Fulham in the second game of the season last year which kept him out until November.

After regaining fitness he had a great run of form through December 2012 before the knee went again which coupled with the return of his old ankle injury more of less put him out for the remainder of the season.

Nice blustery post and that, mate, but your facts are completely wrong.


I said look at the dates - he was a regular starter, when fit - does that help you understand it better? Young played something like 12 games in a row when he returned from injury against Chelsea. Keep trying though.
 
I said look at the dates - he was a regular starter, when fit - does that help you understand it better? Young played something like 12 games in a row when he returned from injury against Chelsea. Keep trying though.

Here's what you said:

I'd like you to look at the dates - he was a regular starter for us in the first half of the season, which wasn't disrupted by injury.

So Young's first half of the season wasn't disrupted by injury, right?

Yes it was actually. He suffered a major knee injury during the first half of the season which sidelined him for two months.

By December he'd fully recovered and went on a great run of form before a recurrence of the same injury followed by another recurrence of his ankle injury more of less wrote off his 2013.

Ignore all that though, yeah?

He wasn't injured at all. Shit player.
 
Here's what you said:



So Young's first half of the season wasn't disrupted by injury, right?

Yes it was actually. He suffered a major knee injury during the first half of the season which sidelined him for two months.


I actually don't know why I included that bit in my post, my bad, but it doesn't detract from my main point, which is that he was a first team player when fit. He played nearly all our games from late October to December. He also played half our games in January and February. So, it takes a player a few months to find his "mojo". Excellent.
 
That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. How can that be a factor in how you rate a player?
If we had got him on a free he would have been the best in the world, or how does this way of rating players work?

Not "rate" as a footballer, I meant it towards judging his overall contribution here vs what he cost us. I think that's pretty standard when it comes to footballers, isn't it?
 
In a season sustaining multiple occurrences of knee and ankle injuries, yes it does.

Finally you're getting it.

:lol: No, it doesn't - especially if this winger you speak about is "quality" and "excellent". You're pushing your perception further, but it's already been exposed by the fact he's played more than you alluded to. He did well last season, but it was nothing special and he need to improve certain aspects of his skill set to make more fans praise him.