Smashley Young

You could probably squeeze all 9 of his passes yesterday into one single gif. I find it amusing a performance could be summed up like that.
 
Siorac said:
I was happy when we got him, too. I thought he'd be decent. At this point however he doesn't even do a job against the lower half of the table.

He might be slightly useful if we played a high-tempo, counter-attacking football. But we don't. Not anymore.
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he was ok in parts against palace but its been a poor start this year for sure

agrre about his style, Young is at his best when he's direct. when he was playing up top with agbonlahor at villa they'd both spend the whole game running off one another and causing havoc in behind, he did it to us when they won 1-0 at OT we couldn't handle him that day. wheres that guy now?
perhaps he's not suited to our play but he just looks totally bereft of any confidence right now and has become passive to the point of irrelavence
 
Im going to go the whole hog here - he should never play for us again. He simply isnt up to it.
 
Young and Valencia's downfall, Nani's injuries and inconsistency+problems with SAF/United ---> going from the best set of wingers in world football (also much proclaimed on here, people were dead set against buying anyone in that position) 2 years ago, to having useless wasters who are unproductive and suck the joy out of a game of football.

Sad.
 
He is suffering from the fact our team as a whole are statues. In our early 11/12 play, he played his best stuff for us, and is more suited to a contemporary style than Valencia.

He has no strength and not enough speed to consistently beat his man and cross it in if that is what we ask of him.
 
It would be great if someone could make a vid of Young's 'display'. Really could do with a laugh.
 
Brophs said:
He's far from our best player but he's much better than he's been showing. It's too harsh to judge a player on his worst run of form.
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He's better than yesterday, but overall he has been a very poor signing. Last season he didn't score once. He rarely takes on a man and when he does he loses the ball 90% of the time. He's not good enough atm.
 
Can't gloss over it anymore with this lad and how people have been saying he's played well thus far is beyond me (excluding yesterday). I am honestly dumbfounded why Moyes seems to rate him over other players we have. We not only have Nani and Adnan, who would be a massive improvement, but we also have other players that can play out of position that can do a much better job for me, i.e. Kagawa, Rooney and Welbeck.
 
He's an embarrassment to our team. Stick Nani or Kagawa on that left wing every game and never look back. I just want to forget Ashley fecking Young ever existed.
 
There's no excuse for his display yesterday. He was utter shite, and that's that. But, seriously, some of the comments...You'd think he had murdered a class of school children.

And then there's Moyes. To me it seems as though he simply hasn't regarded either Nani or Kagawa as match fit enough thus far. We may disagree with his assessment - perhaps, as someone suggested in another thread, he is too focused on fitness, perhaps he has been unduly cautious to field certain players, it's hard to tell exactly what he thinks regarding this. But I don't believe he holds Young to be our best option on the left when everyone is fit and ready. And that is surely the main thing here - the season has just begun, after all.

Selecting Young yesterday isn't quite the insane decision some make it out to be. Firstly, he reckoned - right or wrong - that Nani and Kagawa were too rusty/unfit. Secondly, he couldn't foresee such a spectacularly poor display. Thirdly, the RVP situation: If RVP had been available he might have opted for Welbeck on the left, that is not unthinkable. And lastly, bringing up Januzaj and Zaha is just silly. We can't expect him to gamble to such an extent away against City - that's nowhere near being realistic.
 
I honestly would not give a feck if I never saw him in a United shirt again. It was embarrassing watching him yesterday, I could not believe this was the managers first pick in a position of such significance for this club. Compare his contribution to that of Samir Nasri and the difference is shocking.
 
FAO: Everyone whining about United not signing "a midfielder" over the last few years, I think Young is a good reference for what happens when you buy any old player for a squad position rather than "The right player".

This squad needs 3 or 4 dead wood sold and 3 or 4 quality acqusitions if we are going to continue being successful. Fergie isn't here any more and we've lost the United coaching staff that brought players on so far.
 
The thing is, it would have been so easy for Moyes to drop Cleverley into the middle and play Welbeck on the left instead to make us a bit more solid. We could have played Fellaini further up at any time as another way out because City were just good on the day. But he seems to go for Young in the big games right now and I've yet to see a reason why this is the case (even taking into account the injury to van Persie and apparent lack of fitness for Nani and Kagawa).

Young is not Manchester United quality, I've said it for a long time. It wasn't just today's game, if you watch highlights of just him against Liverpool, I am almost completely sure that he didn't complete a single forward pass all game, which is utterly appalling for an attacking player. The sooner he doesn't get chosen, the better. He's also an embarrassment when he dives, I'd love for us to rid of him in January.

Some people might think my opinion and what I want is an overreaction, but I really don't think it is. An absolute waste of £18m~ when you can count the number of good performances he's had on one hand.
 
Comsmit said:
I honestly would not give a feck if I never saw him in a United shirt again. It was embarrassing watching him yesterday, I could not believe this was the managers first pick in a position of such significance for this club. Compare his contribution to that of Samir Nasri and the difference is shocking.
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Compare their respective contributions in the same game last year and the reverse is true. Just one of those things.
 
Commadus said:
Young plays better for England as he has more confidence.. At United he plays the simple safe pass, always with his back to. Goal. I think he still believes United is a step too far for him so rather than play expansive he is playing safe but that's not helping United or himself.

Not so much a limited player but a player limiting himself.
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Nonsense. He plays as good/bad for us as he does for England just that he plays more games for us which skews perception. He's an extremely inconsistent and limited as well as easy to read player - runs towards the byline and cuts inside but either passes it short or tries to grab a penalty.

These disappointing performances aren't doing Moyes or the team any favours so I hope Moyes benches him for now.
 
Siorac said:
Why? Did he spend the game at Anfield sitting on the bench with his eyes closed?
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What I mean is that nobody can foresee a complete stinker of a display like that. Some of you act as though Young is a pub footballer and that Moyes must be insane not to see this. It's exaggerated. He isn't great, we can all agree on that. But it's not unreasonable to expect a competent performance from him. He wasn't terrible when he came on against Leverkusen.
 
Young really is an appalling player. I just hope yesterday's spanking by City will lead to Moyes finally calling time on playing Young...at all. Of course it's not nice to criticise your own player but Young gives United nothing.
 
Chesterlestreet said:
What I mean is that nobody can foresee a complete stinker of a display like that. Some of you act as though Young is a pub footballer and that Moyes must be insane not to see this. It's exaggerated. He isn't great, we can all agree on that. But it's not unreasonable to expect a competent performance from him. He wasn't terrible when he came on against Leverkusen.
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But there is a clear pattern which you can see from both Valencia and Young which has been building from last season and continued to this season which is that neither are putting in crosses regularly enough that are actually picking people out, they are just putting a ball in and hoping it falls the right way, but more importantly both are refusing to take anyone on unless they are given clear space to run into, either on the counter or from a rare occasions they've caught their fullback one on one.

Those are clear patterns that have been happening for ages now and something you could easily see in Moyes's short reign. Fair enough him not wanting to field nani/kagawa as they haven't played much although I would still say he's been over cautious there, but not acknowledging that we could have a considerable problem in attack with RVP out and using two players who aren't doing enough against well set teams, and bringing in Welbeck as well, who again isn't the type to really create or pose a big goal threat but instead slots in to a well set attack is a fault imo.

In fairness what he wouldn't have been expected to foresee would be the poor defensive display both players put in. I mean it wasn't a team that couldn't have won the game had players performed as they could but it was a team that could really struggle if the players didn't perform and we knew going in to it that Young and Valencia weren't showing a whole lot.
 
I sometimes wish that Liverpool did get him in the end.

I've always said that Ashley Young can be a useful squad player, but when you see him start games like City away, when players like Nani and Kagawa are sitting on the bench, then it changes everything. He's not anywhere near good enough to be starting for United.
 
Ash_G said:
But there is a clear pattern which you can see from both Valencia and Young which has been building from last season and continued to this season which is that neither are putting in crosses regularly enough that are actually picking people out, they are just putting a ball in and hoping it falls the right way, but more importantly both are refusing to take anyone on unless they are given clear space to run into, either on the counter or from a rare occasions they've caught their fullback one on one.

Those are clear patterns that have been happening for ages now and something you could easily see in Moyes's short reign. Fair enough him not wanting to field nani/kagawa as they haven't played much although I would still say he's been over cautious there, but not acknowledging that we could have a considerable problem in attack with RVP out and using two players who aren't doing enough against well set teams, and bringing in Welbeck as well, who again isn't the type to really create or pose a big goal threat but instead slots in to a well set attack is a fault imo.

In fairness what he wouldn't have been expected to foresee would be the poor defensive display both players put in. I mean it wasn't a team that couldn't have won the game had players performed as they could but it was a team that could really struggle if the players didn't perform and we knew going in to it that Young and Valencia weren't showing a whole lot.
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He set up defensively, cautiously, negatively - call it what you will. And it didn't pay off. It wasn't a great match for anyone, neither Moyes nor the team. My only point is that there are reasons behind his selection. Going for a draw away at City after losing RVP hours before kick-off isn't to some people's liking. But it is understandable. It is not insane.

Much of the criticism directed at Moyes with regard to Young seems to be that he blatantly ignores Nani and Kagawa, believing Young to be a superior alternative. I find this misplaced. Whether he's right or not he does seem to think the pair of them are lacking in match fitness.
 
Shark22 said:
I sometimes wish that Liverpool did get him in the end.

I've always said that Ashley Young can be a useful squad player, but when you see him start games like City away, when players like Nani and Kagawa are sitting on the bench, then it changes everything. He's not anywhere near good enough to be starting for United.
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I think its also the impact of playing Young, Valencia and Welbeck, particularly with Valencia not playing as he used to a few seasons ago. Those two are both now quite timid players looking for their fullback to provide a lot of the attacking outlet on their flanks, Valencia of course won't drift inside and Young rarely does so, certainly not very threateningly. Welbeck is one of those players who can come in and play well within a good attack but if half the attack isn't doing much and is very one dimensional in their approach and he's needed to do more himself than so far he's lacking in that department.

If it was one of them, poor performance aside and the other attackers were playing well and offering different dimensions to the attack than at least you could say someone like Young provides good work ethic and sensible if uninspiring use of the ball. But playing 2-3 of them especially atm just leads to an extremely flat attack.

And that's where the midfield comes in to it. If you want to use Valencia/Young that you need a midfielder who can get them the ball high up the pitch and one on one with their man. They don't have the ability to play from deep and create from there but we don't have anyone bar Carrick who's not at the level Scholes was who can do that pass unless we put Rooney deeper.
 
Chesterlestreet said:
He set up defensively, cautiously, negatively - call it what you will. And it didn't pay off. It wasn't a great match for anyone, neither Moyes nor the team. My only point is that there are reasons behind his selection. Going for a draw away at City after losing RVP hours before kick-off isn't to some people's liking. But it is understandable. It is not insane.

Much of the criticism directed at Moyes with regard to Young seems to be that he blatantly ignores Nani and Kagawa, believing Young to be a superior alternative. I find this misplaced. Whether he's right or not he does seem to think the pair of them are lacking in match fitness.
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That's fair enough he went defensive but then he also pushed Welbeck and Rooney quite high up the pitch. Neither was really helping the midfield in the way we've seen before. And as I said you know that Young and Valencia aren't going to give you enough in general play. For me the team wasn't set up to be defensive enough to play that game. He should have got Welbeck/Rooney to sit deeper if he was going to do that. Or he should have gone with 3 midfielders and pushed Welbeck to a wide attacking role that he's played for England well.

I personally don't think it be that unorthodox to play one of nani or kagawa, we've seen it plenty of times before where a player makes a recovery for a big game even if they've not played for a bit. It doesn't always work, it can be a risk but personally I would say the options available were playing poorly enough to warrant that risk. Plus there was also Clev and Hernandez as options.

Oh well, it is speculation but personally I thought the attack lacked threat and the set up with welbeck/rooney quite high didn't seem to me to allow for a compact team. Can only hope going forward he changes it.
 
Ash_G said:
That's fair enough he went defensive but then he also pushed Welbeck and Rooney quite high up the pitch. Neither was really helping the midfield in the way we've seen before. And as I said you know that Young and Valencia aren't going to give you enough in general play. For me the team wasn't set up to be defensive enough to play that game. He should have got Welbeck/Rooney to sit deeper if he was going to do that. Or he should have gone with 3 midfielders and pushed Welbeck to a wide attacking role that he's played for England well.

I personally don't think it be that unorthodox to play one of nani or kagawa, we've seen it plenty of times before where a player makes a recovery for a big game even if they've not played for a bit. It doesn't always work, it can be a risk but personally I would say the options available were playing poorly enough to warrant that risk. Plus there was also Clev and Hernandez as options.

Oh well, it is speculation but personally I thought the attack lacked threat and the set up with welbeck/rooney quite high didn't seem to me to allow for a compact team. Can only hope going forward he changes it.
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I don't disagree, mate: It wasn't an ideal set-up at all. If I were Moyes and wanted to park the bus a bit, I would have opted for a midfield three just as you suggest. I'm only trying to add a bit of perspective here. It was the wrong call but it wasn't an utterly hopeless one. City used their flanks very effectively. If our flanks had defended better on the night we would've avoided at least a couple of the goals we conceded. There's this feeling at the moment that everything is just a complete shambles: Moyes is hopelessly inept, Young shouldn't be playing professional football, Fellaini is the worst signing in history - people are going overboard, in short.
 
Chesterlestreet said:
I don't disagree, mate: It wasn't an ideal set-up at all. If I were Moyes and wanted to park the bus a bit, I would have opted for a midfield three just as you suggest. I'm only trying to add a bit of perspective here. It was the wrong call but it wasn't an utterly hopeless one. City used their flanks very effectively. If our flanks had defended better on the night we would've avoided at least a couple of the goals we conceded. There's this feeling at the moment that everything is just a complete shambles: Moyes is hopelessly inept, Young shouldn't be playing professional football, Fellaini is the worst signing in history - people are going overboard, in short.
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Oh yeah I agree you can't call for his head or anything, I don't really think this wasn't anything we haven't seen under Fergie in recent years. We've seen how teams have caught us out for lack of intensity etc.

But I though there were genuine mistakes here when he did have other players available if not massively fit and that's one thing Fergie never shirked from which was playing someone even if they hadn't had a lot of game time or none after a decent length injury. It didn't always work but it was a call that he would make. Hopefully Moyes will develop that from these experiences.

It wasn't a hopeless one at all, as I said those players, playing as they can, could have got at least a draw, but playing in the way they have over the past season and a bit I thought it was asking for trouble particularly as I said where he didn't seem to look to be that compact.
 
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