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EPL attacking midfielder Jesse Lingard lavished high praise on his young teammate Mason Greenwood. The 18-year-old has broken through into the Red Devils' first-team this season as a backup attacker. Yet, despite his deputy role, he has greatly impressed both fans as well as his teammates.
Greenwood has added a different dimension to Manchester United's young attack this season. He has come off the bench to rescue a few EPL results for his side with his lethal finishing ability. Fellow academy product Lingard has been one of the players to have helped Greenwood feel at home in the first-team.
Speaking to Sky Sports about his English teammate, Lingard began by saying he's still unsure on Greenwood's preferred foot. He said,
"You know, he (Mason Greenwood) knows the game of football. Shoots with his left foot and right foot and takes corners with both feet. Still to this day I don’t know what foot he is!"
The EPL midfielder believes that age isn't much of a compelling factor when players perform well on any given day. He continued,
"When he’s been given the opportunity, he’s shown what he can do. It doesn’t matter about age, as long as you can perform and do a job for the team he will get more opportunities."
However, Lingard does acknowledge that the EPL prodigy has much to learn as he is still a youngster who is improving at a superb rate.
"He’s still young and there’s a lot to learn but I think he’s learning at a rapid rate at the moment."
This isn't the first and understandably won't be the last time Greenwood has received high praise after an impressive season.
'Greenwood set for great EPL career'
His manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in particular, is sold on Greenwood's remarkable ability. The Norwegian has even clarified that the EPL side are being extra cautious with Greenwood's development. More so, the EPL manager is confident that Greenwood is set to have a devastating impact and a great career at United.
Speaking on Greenwood back in November 2019, Solskjaer commented on Greenwood,
"He (Greenwood) is going to have a very big career but it has been a difficult period. To put all the weight on his shoulder wasn’t right. He’s gone from the U18s last year to training with the first team every day and you can’t just turn that switch on and off."
The EPL progidy also scored in United's landmark game against United back in December 2019. They fixture against Everton was the 4,000th consecutive game wherein they had an academy player in their matchday squad. Solskjaer was more than impressed by him, and said,
“Mason Greenwood is different class in and around the box. You’re not surprised when he scores goals. It’s fitting that it should be an academy player that scores in the 4,000th match and it makes it hard for me to leave him out."
Meanwhile, Lingard is seemingly on his way out of Manchester United after reports emerged of him being interested in a move to Italy. The Englishman could be set to join several former United players in the Serie A such as Chris Smalling, Romelu Lukaku, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Alexis Sanchez and Ashley Young.
