Eight United youth players make league debut under LvG

After Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverley were sold by Louis van Gaal, there were claims that Van Gaal was selling United out, and forgetting about the ingrained priority to bring through youth players.

This was a bizarre claim, considering Van Gaal is the manager who has given debuts to the likes of Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Thomas Muller, Carles Puyol, Victor Valdes, Edgar Davids, Patrick Kluivert and Clarence Seedorf, amongst others.

“They have probably lost the way of Manchester United a little bit,” Mike Phelan said. “Now, rather than produce, it may be the case where they are buying in. Someone like a Danny Welbeck has been part of United’s identity and that has been broken. What will happen in the future now, nobody knows but that thread has been broken now.”

In the 12 months of playing time Manchester United have seen under Van Gaal, eight players from our academy have made their debuts for the club.

Jesse Lingard, Tyler Blackett, Reece James, Saidy Janko, Andreas Pereira, Paddy McNair, Tom Thorpe and, on Saturday against West Brom, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson, are the academy players Van Gaal has given a chance in the first team to, while 17-year-old Axel Tuanzebe was named on the bench for our Premier League game against Crystal Palace.

Lingard scored his first goal for United on Saturday, while Pereira scored his first goal for the club in September.

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3 Comments

m09538061 November 9, 2015

Good to see chelski arse and shity have the same policy haha

Ranjeet_Kang_Ojeda November 9, 2015

The truth is only a few of this players are playing on regular bases. Jesse is doing good but whenever Depay comes back and finds his level he'll be relegated to the bench and will make eventual appearances a as a substitute.

Nemesis November 10, 2015

LVG on the small squad size and promoting youth –
“It is the way I lead this club. I don’t want a big selection because when you have a big selection it doesn’t give any chance to the young players,” the Dutchman said.

“That is why I have sold a lot of players and have a lot out on loan. It means we only have a squad of 21 outfield players and three goalkeepers. So when there are injuries and illnesses, I have to look at the youth allocation with my youth coaches Warren Joyce and Paul McGuinness.”

Notice he said “the way I lead THIS club”
Does anyone here know if under LVG, Bayern and Barca also had such small squads?
I get his rationale behind it and love the fact that youngsters are getting chances they might otherwise have not got, but I’m not too sure that’s the way to go about it with Manchester United in a gruelling English Premier League.

Also I hate to bring up Fergie’s methods from the past, but in this case it doesn’t matter who is the manager, proper squad rotation is a must if a team wants to be still challenging for honours in multiple competitions come April/May.
Given our current policy I can already see the likes of Mata, Smalling, Martial getting burnt out by the Christmas break.

Wonder what LVG has up his sleeve on this one.

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