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Fans of Manchester United and Chelsea would perhaps have considered themselves in similar boats heading into the 2019/20 season. After odd and somewhat disappointing 2018/19 campaigns for both sides – despite Chelsea’s Europa League victory – with a myriad of ups and downs along the way, both sets of fans had reason for both doubt and optimism this summer.
For United fans, the cause for concern was their diabolical ending to 2018/19 – a run of just 1 win in 7 games since the beginning of April with the final insult being a final day loss to relegated Cardiff – and the feeling that new boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who was appointed permanent manager on March 28th, might not be up to the job.
Chelsea fans of course were more concerned with the fact that they were not only losing their best player – Eden Hazard – to Real Madrid, but that they would be under a transfer ban, meaning they’d be unable to bring in any replacements. But similarly to United fans – once boss Maurizio Sarri was packed off to Juventus and replaced by club legend Frank Lampard – Blues fans still had reasons to be optimistic.
Those reasons? Essentially, both Solskjaer and Lampard promised to put their faith in their club’s youth products this season, and with both teams having some outstanding homegrown youngsters, the ultimate hope for fans of both teams must’ve been a repeat of what Sir Alex Ferguson famously achieved with his ‘Class of 1992’, when the likes of David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville helped to inspire the Red Devils to their 1995/96 Premier League title win.
Naturally, things haven’t been that plain sailing for either side after their first four games of the new season. Both United and Chelsea have picked up 5 points, with a win, a loss and two draws to their name. United even defeated Chelsea 4-0 on the opening weekend of the season. But interestingly enough, the amount of points gained is where the similarities end.
While Lampard has lived up to his word and has deployed Chelsea youngsters like Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori to largely great effect, the same can’t be said for Solskjaer at Old Trafford.
That isn’t to say that United have an ageing team – that’s far from the truth. In their match against Crystal Palace on August 24th, the Red Devils fielded a starting XI with an average age of just 22, with younger players like Aaron Wan-Bissaka (21) and Marcus Rashford (21) ensuring a youthful feel throughout the side. But to say that Solskjaer has been a purveyor of United’s homegrown youngsters just isn’t true, for now at least.
That Palace game saw United field just three players from their own academy – Rashford, plus midfielders Scott McTominay and Jesse Lingard. That number rises to four if you include Paul Pogba, but of course, both Pogba and Lingard are hardly recent graduates; they’re both 26 years old and have been around for years now. And all four men were brought to the forefront by previous United bosses.
More damningly, when Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial – who started the game against Palace – were ruled out of United’s match last weekend with Southampton, Solskjaer turned to veterans Ashley Young and Juan Mata to replace them.
And so while Lingard was also replaced by the younger Andreas Pereira, the average age of the Red Devils’ side rose to 25, and adding in Nemanja Matic, who appeared as a substitute, it also featured 3 players over the age of 30.
So what of United’s most recent academy graduates, those who Solskjaer was speaking so highly of as late as the summer? Striker Mason Greenwood – who was rumoured to be in consideration for a starting spot against Chelsea on the opening day – has been given just 47 minutes thus far, all from the bench.
It’s highly confusing given Solskjaer recently described Greenwood as “the most natural finisher” he has in his squad, and has – according to recent reports – become “irritated” with the struggles of Rashford and Martial to finish what have been described as “poacher’s chances”.
Moving away from Greenwood for a second, fellow youngsters Axel Tuanzebe and Tahith Chong have appeared on the bench for United this season – Tuanzebe in every game thus far – but neither has actually been given game time, while midfielders James Garner and Angel Gomes have yet to even be named in one of Solskjaer’s squads.
Could any of these players have replaced Luke Shaw against Southampton? Well, obviously not, given that none of them are capable of playing as a left-back. But then Diogo Dalot – just 20 years old – has played at left-back before, and while he isn’t an academy graduate, surely he’d be a better bet than the 34-year-old Young, whose best days are now clearly behind him.
Solskjaer himself even suggested Dalot could play at left-back in a pre-season interview after signing Aaron Wan-Bissaka, who plays in Dalot’s preferred right-back position. And yet the Portuguese starlet hasn’t even made a single appearance in 2019/20 thus far.
Would using these academy graduates be a risk for Solskjaer? Admittedly, the answer is yes. But the truth is that his side currently sits in a disappointing 8th position and the players he’s currently using aren’t pulling up any trees right now. In fact, some of them have been in simply terrible form.
Jesse Lingard, for instance, hasn’t scored a goal or made an assist for his club in 2019. That doesn’t make him a bad player, of course, but surely it bodes the question of whether a younger star like Gomes would do any worse?
The England U17 World Cup winner enjoyed an excellent pre-season, scoring a clever goal to help United defeat Tottenham 2-1 in a friendly, and he’s also started the season well for United’s under-23 side, recently scoring an incredible goal against West Ham’s youngsters.
Sure, there are question marks about his physicality being suited for the Premier League – he stands at just 5’3” tall – but lack of size never held back the likes of Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta. So why hasn’t Solskjaer given Gomes a chance in the first team? It’s downright baffling.
Over at Stamford Bridge meanwhile, both Mount and Abraham have been outstanding – the latter after some teething problems in his first couple of games – and that’s a testament to the faith of their boss Frank Lampard. Who’s to say Greenwood, Gomes and Chong couldn’t do the same if Solskjaer placed the same faith in them?
When he was Chelsea manager in 2014, former United boss Jose Mourinho famously told fans that if then-Blues youngsters Dominic Solanke, Izzy Brown and Lewis Baker didn’t become full England internationals, he’d be the one to blame. Well, Mourinho didn’t show faith in any of them, and while Solanke has picked up a single England cap in the years that have followed, Baker and Brown now feel like massive wasted potential (although they could still come good).
Will the same end up being said for Mason Greenwood, Angel Gomes and James Garner? Hopefully not – but unless Solskjaer changes his tack and lives up to his promise to put his faith in youth, as his mentor Ferguson did 15 years ago, it could well be the outcome.
And if it is, then it’d be hard to consider Solskjaer as anything better than the notoriously cynical Mourinho when it comes to being a purveyor of academy graduates.
