The future looks bright says Matic
NEMANJA Matic believes United are assured of a ‘good future’ with Angel Gomes and Tahith Chong developing in the academy.
Gomes, 17, became the club’s youngest player since Duncan Edwards against Crystal Palace last season and has been named on the bench in their last two FA Cup ties. Chong, 18, has recovered brilliantly from a 10-month injury lay-off and impressed for the Under-18s and U23s in recent months.
The Dutch teenager has already scored twice at Old Trafford in the FA Youth Cup and for the U23s and United manager Jose Mourinho recently revealed Chong has trained with the first-team.
United U18s are top of the Premier League North and Matic, whose seven-year-old son Filip is in the United academy, is encouraged by Gomes and Chong’s development.
“They are good players,” Matic “OOOOOOOOOH!”
Old Trafford was on its feet. Romelu Lukaku’s moment of genius had not been rewarded with a second goal but it produced a minitremor that surely registered on the Richter scale as United went in search of a winner against Chelsea.
The 24-year-old was playing with remarkable swagger against his former club. Was it any wonder he went for the jugular after Alexis Sanchez, off balance, picked him out with a peach of a cross midway through the second-half? There were seven blue shirts in there, but Sanchez still found his team-mate; Lukaku’s majestic scissors kick was heading for the roof of the net before compatriot Thibaut Courtois tipped it over the bar.
After linking up a week previously, when Sanchez played his strike partner through for the first time against Huddersfield, it was another reminder that this partnership has so much potential.
When things are not going quite to plan, encouragingly, the pair are not afraid to have a quiet word in Spanish or English. At the John Smith’s Stadium, for example, Lukaku and Sanchez had a constructive exchange during a break in play as they attempted to get on the same wavelength midway through the first-half.
That eventually happened when Sanchez’s sumptuous through ball set Lukaku free to book United’s place in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Lukaku immediately thrust a grateful finger in the Chilean’s direction as he jogged over from the halfway line to celebrate with his team-mates.
Veteran Ashley Young was among those who was impressed.
“You can see the combinations between them. Alexis comes inside and Rom’s seen him and picked him up as well and they’re picking each other out and they have worked well together so far,” he said after the 2-0 win.
So could it be the start of something special?
Sanchez may have two man of the match awards, two assists and a goal to his name so far as a United player, but the Chilean is taking his time to find his feet at Old Trafford. You can’t fault his work-rate or his adventure but there have been issues with the overall balance of United’s attack since he joined the club last month. Anthony Martial, for one, has suffered. The Frenchman was United’s form player of 2018, directly involved in five goals in his first four games this year, but his performances have tailed off as United look to accommodate Sanchez in his favoured role on the left. Against Chelsea, Jose Mourinho attempted to rectify this. In the pre-match shooting drills, as expected, Sanchez again lined up on the left of a front three but come kick-off he was out on the right. A position he has not started in for some time. Throughout the game, Sanchez and Martial were encouraged to swap flanks but, arguably, it was only until Jesse Lingard’s introduction that United’s attack really burst into life. So are there grounds to shift the Chilean into a more central role to allow Martial to move out to the left Ashley Young