Smashley Young

FlawlessThaw

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Redcafe in revisionism shocker.

Ashley Young had a good season this season, there are no if's or but's about it.
Most have said he had a good season, just not a "fantastic" or a "brilliant" one. The hyperbole might be a bit much.
 

Vibhas

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He's a good player. Very good to have as back up.
Probably one of the best, if not the best back up winger in any team.
But with the injuries that each of our wingers get, he's playing far too often.

Saw lots of people here think that he should be playing when he's on form. Personally, I believe it has to be red hot form to displace either of our better wingers (when all 3 are fit).

He's very good for back up, and he's versatile. But we completely overpaid with the 15-16 million odd quid for a player with 1 season left. The price of being English, no doubt.

However, I am not displeased with his signing. Just we need a CM and fast. In a perfect (not totally unrealistic) world we'd flog him off in a cash + player deal to Tottenham for Modric or something!

But good back up. Fergie's obviously has been worrying about how Nani / Valencia keep getting injuried for reasonably long periods of time. Would've preferred the backup to be younger though. 3 wingers all aged 25-26, means we need thorough investment in that area in 3~ years time. This is the stage Bayern are at. 2 of the best wingers (very selfish, though) in Robben and Ribery, but they are 28 and 29 respectively and they will now look to buy wingers that are youngish.
 

Starkie_1

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Well that's a pretty ridiculous assessment given his season with United. I can't see any evidence at all of him being poor in the bigger games, especially given that superb performances vs both Arsenal and Spurs spring to mind.
Im not doubting he's a decent player, but I've never seen anything in his game that comes close to Nani or Valencia's ability. He was an expensive buy, one that didn't make sense at the time and still doesn't now.
 

manutddjw

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One of the keys to our recent success has been strength in depth, and signing Ashley Young was a significant upgrade from our other 3rd choice wingers at the time like Park, Giggs (not really a winger anymore), Obertan and Bebe.

Overall, Ashley Young has been good for us. Also, keep in mind that when he was at Aston Villa he took their penalties and free kicks and started every game that he was fit. That won't happen at United, so his stats will not look as impressive as they were at Aston Villa.
 

Starkie_1

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One of the keys to our recent success has been strength in depth, and signing Ashley Young was a significant upgrade from our other 3rd choice wingers at the time like Park, Giggs (not really a winger anymore), Obertan and Bebe.

Overall, Ashley Young has been good for us. Also, keep in mind that when he was at Aston Villa he took their penalties and free kicks and started every game that he was fit. That won't happen at United, so his stats will not look as impressive as they were at Aston Villa.
I'm not arsed by stats at all. I didn't need stats to tell me that England were absolutely shite against Italy, just as I don't need stats for player performances.

He was average, with the odd very good performance. Swansea at home for me was his best, as he stood up to the task and tried to take the game to them. That's an extremely valuable quality to have in a player, but he showed it in a game when the title had pretty much been lost already. For £17-20 million pounds, you'd expect more than a player to be 'better than Park & Bebe'.
 

Carl

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He was alright. You wonder why we bought him really.
Really? It's an obvious buy IMO. It gives us 3 quality wingers. We play with 2 on a reg basis so having 1 to rotate with makes sense surely.
 

Cina

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From "average" to "ace".

Is there no middle ground with you lot?

He was "good"!
 

EB100

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How is Young part of the value policy? We completely overpaid.
You see that's the irony about it... I'm sure Young was part of our value policy in that I think the rationale was that we'd be getting a good player without paying what we'd have to pay for a Hazard, for example, but then it could later turn out that even the relatively small money we paid is too much if Young proves to be distinctly average, which I think he is. So, ironically, we can still not get value for our money even if we don't drop the big bucks.

I don't think our value policy is so much about insisting on paying money that's consistent with the talent as it is about just not paying big money and big wages no matter how good the player is because we don't have the money. Look at Bebe: do you think we paid 7 m for him because we watched him and evaluated him and thought he was worth that and determined he'd represent value at 7 million? No. I think it was because talent was identified in him and, in a bid to avoid his price rising with his development and increased competition for his services, we decided to take the plunge early and it later turned out we overpaid.
 

Amar__

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I always expected him to be a player who will score 10-15 goals per season, and that's pretty much it. He relies on his end product, nice crosses, his allround play was always nothing special to rely for, so thank God we have Nani and Valencia as our first choices on the wings.
 

RedDevilCanuck

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Very good season. He scores, he assists very well.

feck what he did with England, doesn't mean shit. Onwards and upwards Young.
 

Nick 0208 Ldn

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Very good season. He scores, he assists very well.
He dives? :smirk:

Never mind.

What i really came in here to talk about was the last episode of the Football Weekly podcast, anybody here hear it?

Jacob Steinberg described Young as a "coward" and accused him of "hiding in big games".

A rush to judgement internationally speaking, but i couldn't recall his involvement one way or the other in the pivotal matches for United last season, my memory can be like s sieve on occasion when it coems to football. :o
 

zain

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He dives? :smirk:

Never mind.

What i really came in here to talk about was the last episode of the Football Weekly podcast, anybody here hear it?

Jacob Steinberg described Young as a "coward" and accused him of "hiding in big games".

A rush to judgement internationally speaking, but i couldn't recall his involvement one way or the other in the pivotal matches for United last season, my memory can be like s sieve on occasion when it coems to football. :o

He was immense against Arsenal when we romped them 8-2..

And he scored 2 amazing goals at WHL during a crunch period of the season if I recall correctly..
 

Nick 0208 Ldn

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He was immense against Arsenal when we romped them 8-2..

And he scored 2 amazing goals at WHL during a crunch period of the season if I recall correctly..
Ah yes i should have remembered the Arsenal match. They were a shambled that day though.

For all he did i still couldn't help but find him irritating as the season progressed, still a bit raw as a player in some ways despite his age.


It was a team failure with certain positions' (particularly the flanks) inneffectiveness exacerbated by the overall shitness.
In which ways was Young and Milner's general ineptitude exacerbated by the "overall shitness"?

A lack of courage on the part of the manager or squad selection harmed the flanks granted, but those two individually were noticeable liabilities all by themselves. Cole had a decent enough tournament although the assistance from and link up play with Young left a lot to be desired.
 

acnumber9

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He dives? :smirk:

Never mind.

What i really came in here to talk about was the last episode of the Football Weekly podcast, anybody here hear it?

Jacob Steinberg described Young as a "coward" and accused him of "hiding in big games".

A rush to judgement internationally speaking, but i couldn't recall his involvement one way or the other in the pivotal matches for United last season, my memory can be like s sieve on occasion when it coems to football. :o
He wasn't exactly hiding when it came round to the task of taking a penalty. In short he was talking shit.
 

KingMinger22

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I like how KingMinger decides to denigrate the Young signing as a "value signing" when if I remember rightly last year he was one of the big supporters for signing him. Ridiculous.
Why? He definitely was signed for value more than need or pure quality. It was opportunistic: decent age, English, decent player, LAST year on contract.

I still think he is/was a decent signing but mostly because of the restrictions we evidently have in buying players above his calibre.
 

FlawlessThaw

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Why? He definitely was signed for value more than need or pure quality. It was opportunistic: decent age, English, decent player, LAST year on contract.

I still think he is/was a decent signing but mostly because of the restrictions we evidently have in buying players above his calibre.
Definitely not a value signing given how much we paid for him and his wages. He was signed to be an instant hit and he's not really THAT good of a player. He cost more than Nani and Valencia and is on higher wages than them when he signed.

I just remember you were one of those who really overrated him but now given he's played poorly for England you don't as much. Strange.
 

Phil

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Alright player, has never really been consistently good enough for us but haven't got a problem with him as a back up player.
 

GE

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He was bloody frustrating to watch at the Euros.

Why was he never been given the "bulking up" treatment at Villa? like Fletcher did that one summer and gained loads of strength.

He weighs 9 stone and has been the most fouled player in the PL for a couple years running now. It's about time he hit the iron in the gym. I'm sick of him hitting the sack whenever he's tackled.
 

Revan

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I always said that we over-payed for him, and I wasn't that much excited when we bought him. Also his wages (if rumors are to believe) are very high, much higher than Nani's or Valencia's wages, and both of them are much better than him.

And he's one of the biggest divers in the league.
 

Siorac

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I know he's one of the biggest divers. I never used his weight as an excuse, I just stated that he's underweight & needs to hit the gym.
There's a reason the best wingers are usually slim and "nimble". Not everyone's a freak like Ronaldo whose body seems to be able to do just about anything.

If Young loses any pace from "bulking up" that would be disastrous. He's not a Walcott but pace is important for his game and he's not a Giggs who has the means to compensate for its absence.
 

Cina

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An arsenal fan moaning about divers is the irony of ironies!
Young is a massive diver, it's a legitimate thing to say regardless of who you support.

Does that mean we're not allowed point out if Arsenal players dive?
 

MUFCgal

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:lol: He's the biggest diver in the league, it's what he does best.
Young is one of the biggest divers in the league, and I wish he'd cut it it out. The fact that Sir Alex spoke out against it is a sign, when did Wenger last publicly criticise one of his own players for diving?

To say Young is the biggest diver, I'm not so sure.

As long as Luis Suarez is in this league, you can look no further than him IMO.
 

GE

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There's a reason the best wingers are usually slim and "nimble". Not everyone's a freak like Ronaldo whose body seems to be able to do just about anything.

If Young loses any pace from "bulking up" that would be disastrous. He's not a Walcott but pace is important for his game and he's not a Giggs who has the means to compensate for its absence.
Young is underweight. There aren't many players as fragile as he is, especially "the best wingers".

I'm not saying he should put on 3 stone, but adding some lean muscle would do his strength the world of good, and shouldn't hinder his speed.

Look at Nani for example, they're the same height, he probably doesn't weigh much more than Young, but his muscle mass and strength are absolute miles ahead.
 

Amar__

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He was bloody frustrating to watch at the Euros.

Why was he never been given the "bulking up" treatment at Villa? like Fletcher did that one summer and gained loads of strength.

He weighs 9 stone and has been the most fouled player in the PL for a couple years running now. It's about time he hit the iron in the gym. I'm sick of him hitting the sack whenever he's tackled.
I believe I almost got banned for saying this few months ago, 90% of posters slamed me because I said he is skinny and that he needs to bulk up. The guy is wearing long sleeves(undertop) in the middle of fecking summer, I believe even he is shy of his weight.