Where do you rank Mason Greenwood as a talent?

If he keeps this up, he will be one of the most prodigious talents I've seen emerge in 45 years of supporting Utd. His ruthless knack of knowing when to strike, the power in his shots with a minimum of effort, all seem to come to him so naturally. Nor is he just a selfish goal-getter, he contributes to the team as well.
A bit worried that some people are using his success to talk down Marcus Rashford, as though they're looking for a reason to knock him down. Greenwood is clearly a more natural goal scorer than Rashford, but let's be thankful we've got two such talents, and both home grown from within the club. We want them both to be successful.
 
I think one could make the case he's not quite as good as Rooney or Giggs were at 18, but he's so close it's not even worth debating.
 
I don’t follow football outside of PL.

who is is peer group under 20 in Europe and are they at this level right now?
 
Watched most of Mbappe's goal in his breakthrough season at age of 18, it seems he needs players to put him on goal though, against GK as well as a rebound off and tap ins, there were very few goals of him scoring out from nothing.

Greenwood has scored 9 goals and is 5 aways from equalling Mbappe's breakthrough season in league goals and they were both 18 despite Greenwood is scoring in a tougher league.

Unlike Mbappe, Greenwood has scored many goals due to his finishing rather than getting a chance on plate closer to the goal line, Greenwood scored 4 goals outside the box.

By attributes, I think Greenwood's finishing, passing, close control, and decision making are a mile better than Mbappe. Mbappe is much faster and much better dribbling, a better poacher in the box than Greenwood. I think if Greenwood can poach more goals in box such as tap in, (that'll come with experience), being two footedness and play for United in England and keeping scoring then he'll edge Mbappe out to be a much better player otherwise Mbappe need to move to other top leagues like La Liga or English league and prove himself that he could replicate stats as in Ligue 1

the only two things will stop Greenwood if he becomes injury-prone or he was found out as one-season wonder. The sky is limit for Greenwood.
 
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I think he's probably the best youngster in Europe at least right now. That said I'm a little bit scared - I remember the days people said Ravel Morrison was going to be the next Cristiano. We just have to wait and don't pressure the lad.
 
Top Tier bracket.

Can't wait for him to play CL so the whole world is going to see what talent he is and stop being reluctant to believe he is that talented, definitely the most talented youngster in the world currently. people have the right to know that Greenwood's talent is a step above the likes of Haaland and it'll be clear to everyone soon enough, not just some United fans.
 
shamans said:
To be honest I think all this hype of him being a Messi is nonesense. To me his level is basically R9.
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R9 could have been just as good as Messi if not for massive injuries and early physical decline.
Also, R9 was the best teenager the world has ever seen, people here are saying how crazy Rooney was at 18, well, R9 was even more jaw dropping than him or Mbappe or anyone else you can think of. Messi included.
I'm as excited about Greenwood as you all, but there's no comparison to what he is now and what R9 was at the same age, it's not even close. Should Greenwood be anything close to him, I'll be heavily surprised.
R9 is in the pantheon of all time greats, it's way, way too early for any comparison like that.
 
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RedRonaldo said:
He is only 18 so its really hard to tell.
But judging from his talent and development as a 18 year old, I think he is behind L.Ronaldo, Mbappe, Messi, Rooney and Ronaldo, but probably same level as Halaand, or maybe just behind Sancho. Last time I've seen such a young natural finisher in England, is probably Fowler or Owen.
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I concur. Owen at 18 was far immense. Nothing about Greenwood i seen so far suggested otherwise. But i would say he is in front of Rashford and Welbeck
 
Le Red said:
R9 could have been just as good as Messi if not for massive injuries and early physical decline.
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Some people have no idea just how ridiculously talented R9 was. The dude was scoring north of 50 goals at 20. 47 goals in 49 appearances for Barcelona at 20 years old. R9 was probably the most talented footballer ever. Injuries impeded him from maximizing his potential.

He had such awful injuries, the sort that end players careers yet despite that he became an all time great. That's how ridiculous his talent was. Dude lost speed and explosiveness due to major injuries yet was still the best player in the world in some years. Madness.

Young R9 was the combination of everything. Ridiculous speed, explosiveness, power, skills, technique and ridiculous finishing. He wrecked the Italian league(back then the most defensive league. All the best defenders were in Italy) as a child for Heaven sake.
 
VanGaalEra said:
The obvious comparison is RVP, but there’s something about him that also reminds me of Fowler.
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Fowler is a better comparison IMO, just scarily good at 18/19.

Van Persie developed into a great finisher. Mason was born one.
 
I don't think there's a single player he reminds me of. Maybe Benzema when he broke through at Lyon combined with Harry Kane when he broke through at Spurs.
 
rpg said:
I concur. Owen at 18 was far immense. Nothing about Greenwood i seen so far suggested otherwise. But i would say he is in front of Rashford and Welbeck
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Owen at 18 was giving an impression of being far immense mostly for his great WC performance. In his first full season, he also scored 23 goals in 44 games, which is really great too. In comparison Greenwood has 16 goals in 42 games, but don’t forget Greenwood has many sub appearance too, so their actual goals per minute stats should be more comparable.
 
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Le Red said:
R9 could have been just as good as Messi if not for massive injuries and early physical decline.
Also, R9 was the best teenager the world has ever seen, people here are saying how crazy Rooney was at 18, well, R9 was even more jaw dropping than him or Mbappe or anyone else you can think of. Messi included.
I'm as excited about Greenwood as you all, but there's no comparison to what he is now and what R9 was at the same age, it's not even close. Should Greenwood be anything close to him, I'll be heavily surprised.
R9 is in the pantheon of all time greats, it's way, way too early for any comparison like that.
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R9 was fully physically developed into a man’a body at 18 Greenwood is not. Technically Greenwood is as good as R9 physically, explosiveness no. Greenwood is as good if not better than both Rooney and CR7 at 18 but CR9 was something else. I have never seen a better teenager in my soccer life.
 
RedRonaldo said:
Owen at 18 was giving an impression of being far immense mostly for his great WC performance. In his first full season, he also scored 23 goals in 44 games, which is really great too. In comparison Greenwood has 16 goals in 42 games, but don’t forget Greenwood has many sub appearance too, so their actual goals per minute stats should be more comparable.
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Would love to see that actually.
 
Le Red said:
R9 could have been just as good as Messi if not for massive injuries and early physical decline.
Also, R9 was the best teenager the world has ever seen, people here are saying how crazy Rooney was at 18, well, R9 was even more jaw dropping than him or Mbappe or anyone else you can think of. Messi included.
I'm as excited about Greenwood as you all, but there's no comparison to what he is now and what R9 was at the same age, it's not even close. Should Greenwood be anything close to him, I'll be heavily surprised.
R9 is in the pantheon of all time greats, it's way, way too early for any comparison like that.
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Maybe, but maybe he could also go to similar path to Ronaldinho, peak high and short too. Let’s not underestimate how extremely rare and difficult for a player to maintain his peak level for many years. I would say in past 40 to 50 years, only Messi and Ronaldo could maintain such level of consistency and peak form for so long.
 
MaxiPaxi said:
Would love to see that actually.
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I have just find those data.

Owen at 18 scored 23 goals in 3677 minutes, which is equivalent to 41 games.

Greenwood scored 16 goals in 2217 minutes of game play so far this season, which is equivalent to around 25 games.

So in short, at 18, Owen scored 23 goals in 41 full games, whereas Greenwood scored 16 goals in 25 full games equivalent.
 
Greenwood can but doesn’t need to beat a man to score - either foot.
he is just gathering pace.
his potential is limitless because he does not rely on pace. He has skill and accuracy in abundance plus he can keep the ball in tight situations and knows when to pass...

he is up there
 
RedRonaldo said:
No idea if we have any detail breakdown record of Owen stats back in the old days. But for Greenwood, he has scored 16 goals in 2217 minutes of game play so far this season, which is equivalent to around 25 games. So that’s 16 goals in 25 full games for him.
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Owen in his breakout season scored a goal every 160 min in all competitions.

Greenwood has scored every 139 min in all comps.

In the 97/98 PL season Owen scored 23 goals as a teenager which is a record but he hit the net every 167 min.

This season Mason Greenwood has scored 9 goals in the PL but he has hit the net every 111 mins.

If Greenwood were to play the same amount of minutes, playing as he’s playing now he’d end up scoring 27 goals in the same amount of minutes that Owen did in 97/98.
 
What our fellow fairweather people think about him over at RAWK? would be a reasonably measured respond i reckon. Excited to find out who is their le tallec for our mason now?
 
What I love about Mason is that as a player he just is so understated, if that's the right word.

People comparing him to Giggsy and Rooney, and I get why, but the two of them were very visible players (maybe not towards end for Giggs).

Reminds me of Keane moreso than others. Keane for me was a guy who had this forward passes that were nice and simple and important in our attacks but often went unnoticed due to wonder passes etc by Scholes or Beck's or Giggs.

Obviously different parts of the field and role than Keane but hope you see what I mean.

Silent assassin trained by baby faced assassin
 
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MaxiPaxi said:
Owen in his breakout season scored a goal every 160 min in all competitions.

Greenwood has scored every 139 min in all comps.

In the 97/98 PL season Owen scored 23 goals as a teenager which is a record but he hit the net every 167 min.

This season Mason Greenwood has scored 9 goals in the PL but he has hit the net every 111 mins.

If Greenwood were to play the same amount of minutes, playing as he’s playing now he’d end up scoring 27 goals in the same amount of minutes that Owen did in 97/98.
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To be fair, Greenwood has a few goals in some easier games (Europa). On the other hand, Owen was playing in the center, while Mason is playing in the right.
 
At the beginning of the season I was still more excited about Angel Gomes. Greenwood started the season getting games on the right and didnt look ready to me, still very raw. But then particularly in the Europa League he came on leaps and bounds, scoring 5 goals and becoming one of the most dangerous players in the competition from range. He's now translated that into the premier league since the restart.

How good is he? Good enough that we don't need to spend £50 million+ on a right winger. I'm not saying we cant do that, as it would be competition to keep him firing but we certainly dont have to when hes playing like this.

He's become a more versatile version of the player I thought James Wilson might become, but he's also done it at just 18 years old which is crazy.
 
He has scored the most goals by any player from outside the box this season in the PL. He's 18. Generational.
 
Revan said:
To be fair, Greenwood has a few goals in some easier games (Europa). On the other hand, Owen was playing in the center, while Mason is playing in the right.
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Owen was playing in the UEFA Cup that season as well.

Though he did score against Celtic who were of course much stronger back then. As was the whole competition. Still they’re very comparable and we’re splitting hairs at this point.
 
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If Pogba or in injuries or suspend situations. 442 can be a option :

Sancho - McTom - Pogba/Bruno - Rashford + Greenwood - Martial

United treble season formation with 2 CFs.

There are room for all of Sancho, Greenwood, Bruno, Rashford and Martial in the line up. Special with teams that will park the bus and play tight. Then you need all if those 5, beside one who are good to break down counter attack in McTom.

So yeah. I can see Martial/Rashford as LCF and Greenwood as RCF.

So if Pogba stay. United don’t need a new creative and offensive nr.8

But like i have said. I see Greenwood as a natural finisher. So hopefully he will develop, specialist and become one of the best CF in the world. Then we don’t need to buy a new Lewandoski or Kane.

Greenwood, Rashford, Martial, one upcoming CF talent and a CF that accept as a back up like Ighalo would be good enough. I don’t think United need to buy a 80-100 mill £ CF. I am satisfy with United CF options, right now.
 
Santoryo said:
Some people have no idea just how ridiculously talented R9 was. The dude was scoring north of 50 goals at 20. 47 goals in 49 appearances for Barcelona at 20 years old. R9 was probably the most talented footballer ever. Injuries impeded him from maximizing his potential.

He had such awful injuries, the sort that end players careers yet despite that he became an all time great. That's how ridiculous his talent was. Dude lost speed and explosiveness due to major injuries yet was still the best player in the world in some years. Madness.

Young R9 was the combination of everything. Ridiculous speed, explosiveness, power, skills, technique and ridiculous finishing. He wrecked the Italian league(back then the most defensive league. All the best defenders were in Italy) as a child for Heaven sake.
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Greenwood will eclipse Ronaldo's accomplishments by the age of 26. He's already better than Ronnie at 18.
 
Mr PG said:
T

R9 was fully physically developed into a man’a body at 18 Greenwood is not. Technically Greenwood is as good as R9 physically, explosiveness no. Greenwood is as good if not better than both Rooney and CR7 at 18 but CR9 was something else. I have never seen a better teenager in my soccer life.
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Please leave R9 out of these conversations, you never watched him if you think any footballer not named Messi was technically as good.
 
Strelok said:
No white text :wenger: ?
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I wrote Luis Ronaldo and got criticized.
I wrote Welbeck and got criticized.
What is the correct answer then!!

On a serious note, I think He'll turn out to be a striker in the mold of van Persie. Maybe higher in the terms of talent compared to the young RvP.
 
I know he's a Red and a young prospect but I don't think we are overrating him. His finishing is of a 28 year old striker super star and he is a joy to watch. Hopefully he will be lucky with injuries in his career
 
Random Task said:
Greenwood will eclipse Ronaldo's accomplishments by the age of 26. He's already better than Ronnie at 18.
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Dude take it easy :lol:

R9 was a multiple ballon d'or winner, Word cup winner and World cup record goal scorer as well as many things.

Let's see what he does first in the next 2-3 years before making such ridiculous claims.

Righteous Steps said:
Please leave R9 out of these conversations, you never watched him if you think any footballer not named Messi was technically as good.
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The ignorance about R9 in this thread is baffling and hilarious at the same time :lol:
 
Other teams will now start to make plans to deal with Greenwood. And so he will need to continue to improve to counter that.

But he really is a very special talent. Over the last few games, you can clearly see that he is now more confident playing at this level. His head is no longer looking down and he is looking for the ball far more.

The two best things.
He is a United and English youngster who can go all the way.
 
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