KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT BUT IS IT TOO MUCH TOO SOON?
Solskjaer’s starlets are struggling to turn promise into points
YES
Earlier this year, Channel 4 put out a show called When I Grow Up. The premise of the programme was to take a bunch of kids and throw them into adult working environments.
One week, they might work for Hello! magazine. The next, they’d be chocolatiers or estate agents.
Watching Manchester United trying to beat 10-man Southampton at St Mary’s Stadium, you wondered whether Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side were starring in the second series.
Solskjaer put faith in his striplings on Saturday. Marcus rashford, 21, led the line. Daniel James, also 21, scored. The man who assisted that goal was Scott McTominay, 22.
also pivotal in the build-up to United’s opener were aaron Wan-Bissaka, 21, and andreas Pereira, 23. at 1-1 and chasing the win, Solskjaer turned to 17-year-old Mason Greenwood.
Other options on the bench included academy products Tahith Chong and axel Tuanzebe. Juan Mata, the 31-yearold midfielder used at No 10, must have felt like a dinosaur.
in December, United will make it 4,000 consecutive games in which they will have named a graduate in their squad — a record dating back to October 1937. it is an admirable feat, but also an unavoidable one nowadays.
in the absence of senior players, Solskjaer has no choice but to turn to his kids. Whether they are capable of competing in the Premier league is another matter. United’s form is certainly concerning.
Saturday’s draw with Southampton, who were a man shy for 21 minutes, means United have now won one of their last 10 matches.
They have kept only one clean sheet in 19 outings, while their last away win was against Paris SaintGermain in March. Their last in this country was in February.
You felt the United of old would have found a way to win this match. The youngsters could not force a victory, however, and this is becoming a worrying trend for Solskjaer.
alan Hansen notoriously said you cannot win anything with kids in 1995 and he was proved wrong. Spectacularly so. Yet
can you win a Champions league place in 2019? early evidence suggests that will be a big ask for this group. The average age of the Sir alex Ferguson side which made Hansen eat his words by becoming champions and Fa Cup winners in 1995-96 was 26 years and 137 days. Solskjaer’s line-ups this season have averaged 24 years and 312 days — the youngest in the Premier league. He realises they need to learn how to grind out wins, and fast. ‘We’ve deserved to win the last three games,’ said Solskjaer, referring to their 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace at Old Trafford and 1-1 draws at Wolverhampton and Southampton. ‘That doesn’t give us any comfort in the table, but it does give us comfort to know we’re doing the right things. We need to learn to win games like this and the boys want to learn how. ‘We create chances. it’s about those scrappy goals. We have young players and they’ve got to learn to score those nasty little tap-ins that i did. They count just as much.’ romelu lukaku may have failed to live up to the hype but as the ball flew through Southampton’s six-yard box over and over and again, you wondered whether he would have been there waiting. Solskjaer intends to teach rashford how to score those ugly goals that he himself loved to bag. One concern for United is a lack of experience in the changing room. lukaku and alexis Sanchez left and were not replaced, while Chris Smalling, Marouane Fellaini, ander Herrera and antonio Valencia have also been shipped out on Solskjaer’s watch. Those six alone had played more than 1,000 Premier league games between them.
Now, the kids are taking their seats at the big boys’ table.
So far, United have secured one win from four games in a division where the very best do not drop points.
‘There’s a few words being said in the dressing room — as there should be,’ added Solskjaer. ‘But you can’t control results. You can only control the effort. We’re all pulling in the same direction.’
Harry Maguire, their new £80million defender, shares a similar view to his boss. He felt Jannik Vestergaard’s equaliser (below) robbed United of a win but also admitted they should have done more to dominate this match, especially after Kevin Danso’s red card.
‘We’ve dropped two points,’ said Maguire. ‘We were too sloppy. We need to improve on that and show arrogance on the ball. Be confident. We’re Manchester United. We want to control games.’
The Busby Babes and Fergie’s Fledglings were special. Ole Gunnar’s Young Guns — Solskjaer’s Starlets, if you prefer — may not achieve the legendary status of their predecessors.
if United are to make it into the Premier league’s top four, this group must grow up fast.