Ashley Young has answered several questions for the official site on what training is like for Manchester United players. 

Which part of training do you enjoy the most?

The small-sided games because there is a fun element to them and there’s also the competitive angle where you want to impress and get in the team.

Who has scored the best goal you have ever seen in training – can you describe it?
There has been that many that it’s difficult to pick one, but probably one from Scholesy.

Talk us through the best goal you’ve scored in training…
There have definitely been too many of those! [Laughs] There was one I scored on tour actually when I cut inside from the wing and whipped it into the top corner. It would be nice to repeat that in a game.

Who’s the most competitive in training?

Wazza.

How seriously do you take training matches or challenges?
Everything we do in training when it has a competitive element makes it feel like game day. Everyone wants to win and people get upset when they don’t! If you have that in training then you take it out onto the pitch on matchday.

What sort of areas of your game do you spend time working on in training or does that change each week?
I try to work on my heading but I’m not sure it’s got any better! You try to work on any weak points you might have, but on the other hand you also want to work on the stronger points of your game as well to make them even better.

How do you use the technology and expertise on offer at the Aon Training Complex to improve your game?
The set-up is brilliant and it’s fantastic for us as a club to have the technology we have, like the GPS system the coaches use and the data we get from that. It’s good to sit down and go through the breakdown of it with the coaches and look at things you can work on.

What kind of work do you do in the gym?
The gym work is vitally important for every player. We all have different programmes for the gym – there are injury-prevention things we do, upper-body work, leg-strengthening exercises… there are all sorts of things we do in there. As a player you know what you need to do and work on during different days and on different weeks and, of course, the coaches are there to help you as well.

Who is your unsung hero at the training ground – the staff member who regularly makes your day?
Jackie Kay. She’s just brilliant. She’s like the mum to everyone. If there are any problems or there is anything we need sorting out it’s a case of ‘Jackie can you do this’, ‘Jackie can you help with this’! I’m sure there are times when she looks at her phone when it’s ringing and she must think ‘no, I’m not answering’! But she’s always there for you.

And finally, which four colleagues would you pick to join you on a five-a-side team if you were about to start a training match now?
I need a defender in there… I’ll put Daley back there. It’s tough, can I do a bench as well?! OK, I’d also include Carras, Wazza and Juan.