[Heardy]

Mbappe, Sancho, Haaland, Greenwood

4 of the brightest young talents in the world. Mbappe we won't get but we need to absolutely make sure we have the middle two to go with Mason at this club

Chances of us getting one of them are slim based on current experience. Two? We've got no chance.

 

[MadDogg]

Soon as he picked the ball up before his goal I knew he'd score, especially when you give him that much space

He had that situation twice in the short time he was on. With most players you'd be hoping that they score one of them, with Mason you're disappointed he didn't score both. It's insane really.

 

[TsuWave]

Re: the supposed '100m under-13 Great Britain sprint race' where he 'broke the Great Britian record'. As an even bigger fan of athletics than I am of football, it always makes me laugh when I see hyperbole like this pop up.

to be fair the quote starts with “I think”. The guy was going off of recollection, and I think they just wanted to convey that Greenwood isn’t slow. Him being clocked at the third fastest in the league last season seems to corroborate that as well.

 

[DWelbz19]

The edge two-footedness gives an attacking player can't really be overstated. I couldn't count the number of times in the game last night I saw players miss the opportunity for an easy forward pass or to exploit a gap because they didn't feel confident on their weaker foot. We lose momentum so often because of players checking back onto their strong foot. We should be drilling two-footedness into all our academy players.

It sounds simple but it’s obviously an extremely difficult skill to teach. I’d barely be able to name more than a handful of players over the past 10 years playing at the highest level who were as good on either foot as Greenwood is.

 

[Jaykespeare88]

I love the top spin bounce he manages to get on it, almost deliberate, gives the keeper alot more to do.

 

[Dozer]

to be fair the quote starts with “I think”. The guy was going off of recollection, and I think they just wanted to convey that Greenwood isn’t slow. Him being clocked at the third fastest in the league last season seems to corroborate that as well.

Yep, I get that. It’s just that publicising it perpetuates the myth, so I just wanted to provide some evidence to the contrary.

He’s quick for a footballer but not in the context of top class sprinters. “This is fact” as Rafa would say

 

[jeff_goldblum]

It sounds simple but it’s obviously an extremely difficult skill to teach. I’d barely be able to name more than a handful of players over the past 10 years playing at the highest level who were as good on either foot as Greenwood is.

I honestly don't think it's that difficult, I think it's a failure of coaching and/or a product of how competitive academies are and how results-driven the game is at all levels.

I think there's three main things. Firstly that people (and especially kids) enjoy doing things they're good at. The second is that in a high-pressure environment people (and especially kids) are more likely to rely on the skills they know they have instead of building new ones. The third is that competition for academy spaces and opportunities to prove yourself are fierce, and you're more likely to get noticed by showing what you're good at.

Put it this way, imagine there are two young Antonio Valencia-s out there, both clearly very talented whilst being utterly reliant on their right-foot. One keeps doing what he's good at, get scouted and eventually become a first-team player with a huge limitation which basically caps his ceiling. The other takes the initiative to improve his weak foot and to use it more often in game situations. Eventually, given the same opportunities, that second kid will be a better footballer, but chances are he won't get that far because his spot was given to the first kid who made a bigger impression in the short run by playing to his strengths.

Point being, it's coachable, it's just a case of coaches giving kids incentives and encouragement to work on their weaknesses and youth scouts doing more homework than just looking at which kid scored the most goals. To be fair, I do think that is changing already, it just didn't come early enough for the crop of 25-30 year olds who are currently at or reaching their prime.

 

[TrustInJanuzaj]

I honestly don't think it's that difficult, I think it's a failure of coaching and/or a product of how competitive academies are and how results-driven the game is at all levels.

I think there's three main things. Firstly that people (and especially kids) enjoy doing things they're good at. The second is that in a high-pressure environment people (and especially kids) are more likely to rely on the skills they know they have instead of building new ones. The third is that competition for academy spaces and opportunities to prove yourself are fierce, and you're more likely to get noticed by showing what you're good at.

Put it this way, imagine there are two young Antonio Valencia-s out there, both clearly very talented whilst being utterly reliant on their right-foot. One keeps doing what he's good at, get scouted and eventually become a first-team player with a huge limitation which basically caps his ceiling. The other takes the initiative to improve his weak foot and to use it more often in game situations. Eventually, given the same opportunities, that second kid will be a better footballer, but chances are he won't get that far because his spot was given to the first kid who made a bigger impression in the short run by playing to his strengths.

Point being, it's coachable, it's just a case of coaches giving kids incentives and encouragement to work on their weaknesses and youth scouts doing more homework than just looking at which kid scored the most goals. To be fair, I do think that is changing already, it just didn't come early enough for the crop of 25-30 year olds who are currently at or reaching their prime.

Couldn’t disagree more. You can coach a player to be better with their weaker foot to some degree, but ultimately you still need a massive amount of talent to be able to manipulate and strike a ball as well as Greenwood does on his weaker side. If you could coach it then we would have seen far more players being two footed but I can honestly say I can’t think of many at all who had equal ability on either foot. Even players like Messi are not as good on either foot.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Every time the two-footed discussion comes up people forget that even notoriously one footed players like Valencia have trained their weaker foot from a young age. As a result, he could probably strike a ball more cleanly with his weaker foot than a top amateur player could with his stronger foot. It’s just that there’s still a big difference between the two, despite all that training. To have a player who is as comfortable with both feet as Greenwood takes more than training. He’s obviously genetically prone to be ambidextrous.

 

[MDFC Manager]

He´s been doing fantastic in the position he´s playing, so why is it obvious that he should be playing somewhere else? It´s like saying "this is the best cake I´ve ever had, I wish there was something else in it".

No. The right analogy would be this: its your birthday, sure you could cut a Christmas turkey while everyone sings, and the turkey sure tastes well. But the appropriate dish is a birthday cake.

 

[eltigreFalcao]

I saw him scoring yesterday and couldn't help the thought: Will he ever want to play for a better team than what we currently are? Are we going to be able to keep up his progress getting better ourselves as a team?

World class player in the making, no doubts about it

 

[Sylar]

Im guessing he didnt start vs Palace due to all the stuff with England / punishment for the gas inhalation.
Ill be surprised if he doesnt start every League game going forward (barring injury). Out of all our players he looks the most comfortable there (cos he can cut in which the rest cant do at all)

 

[jeff_goldblum]

Every time the two-footed discussion comes up people forget that even notoriously one footed players like Valencia have trained their weaker foot from a young age. As a result, he could probably strike a ball more cleanly with his weaker foot than a top amateur player could with his stronger foot. It’s just that there’s still a big difference between the two, despite all that training. To have a player who is as comfortable with both feet as Greenwood takes more than training. He’s obviously genetically prone to be ambidextrous.

I actually think there's a few things at play with two-footedness. Whether you can physically do it, whether you're confident doing it and whether it's instinctual or not. Most professional players probably have one out of those three when they could/should have two. It's certainly very rare to see players like Greenwood who have the lot.

The ability to manipulate the ball well with either foot is a skill like any other and it's certainly coachable to an extent. At this club we've seen Charlton and Ronaldo hammer a high level of it into themselves in their late-teens through sheer graft. Hell, training twice a week at the bottom of the football pyramid around age 17 I coached myself to be pretty two-footed despite being utterly left-footed as a kid. Similarly, confidence with using any learned skill comes with practice and experience. There's no reason why a professional footballer should feel the need to check back onto their strong foot when there's a perfectly easy weak-foot pass on. Hitting that very low bar would be a drastic improvement for most of our players and it's very achievable, which is what I meant in my initial post.

What sets Greenwood apart is that he's naturally two-footed in the sense that in a high-pressure situation where you or I would hesitate to use our weak foot, or perhaps instinctively lead with our strong foot regardless of whether it was the best choice at the time, he wouldn't have that split-second mental block. That's clearly not coachable, which I probably should have made clear from the start. It's also made it a lot easier for him to gain the ability and confidence others need to work harder to attain.

@TrustInJanuzaj - tagging you here because I hope this clarifies what I mean.

 

[youmeletsfly]

I saw him scoring yesterday and couldn't help the thought: Will he ever want to play for a better team than what we currently are? Are we going to be able to keep up his progress getting better ourselves as a team?

World class player in the making, no doubts about it

I think that's the biggest threat to our club.

Surely players like him, Martial, Pogba and Bruno would want to step up at some point.

 

[Adam-Utd]

I saw him scoring yesterday and couldn't help the thought: Will he ever want to play for a better team than what we currently are? Are we going to be able to keep up his progress getting better ourselves as a team?

World class player in the making, no doubts about it

He's been a kid in our academy from a very young age.

Unless Man Utd become a permanent 6th placed team or lose our ability to pay top wages then i'm sure he would stay a long time.

We see players like Harry Kane happy to stay at Tottenham when they have a chance to move.

 

[Craig Ward]

Made a massive difference, he's so direct and clinical.

He replaced Mata, who was probably our best player on the night but Greenwood instantly looked more threatening.

He gets the ball and dribbles forward as a first thought. Seems simple - but literally none of our other players do this. Mata/Lingard always look to go back or sideways - only looking to dribble forward if they are in acres of space. Greenwood wants to be on the front foot, he wants the opening, he wants to shoot at every chance.

He's such a talent - I hope he remains level headed and continues to listen to Ole and become the best player he can be. We have a real gem on our hands

 

[Rolaholic]

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Pretty much

 

[Jordan_mufc]

Every time the two-footed discussion comes up people forget that even notoriously one footed players like Valencia have trained their weaker foot from a young age. As a result, he could probably strike a ball more cleanly with his weaker foot than a top amateur player could with his stronger foot. It’s just that there’s still a big difference between the two, despite all that training. To have a player who is as comfortable with both feet as Greenwood takes more than training. He’s obviously genetically prone to be ambidextrous.

You should read "Bounce" by Matthew Syed. He put a lot of research into what makes a top level athlete and describes 'talent' as a myth.

To take your example, Valencia may have trained his weak foot as a youngster, but it's very likely that he didn't put as many hours into it as Greenwood did. I don't agree with the genetic angle of your argument. It's more likely that Greenwood was trained to be comfortable with both feet from a very young age and continued to perform high volumes of "both feet" drills in order to become the product that he is today.

 

[DFreshKing]

You should read "Bounce" by Matthew Syed. He put a lot of research into what makes a top level athlete and describes 'talent' as a myth.

To take your example, Valencia may have trained his weak foot as a youngster, but it's very likely that he didn't put as many hours into it as Greenwood did. I don't agree with the genetic angle of your argument. It's more likely that Greenwood was trained to be comfortable with both feet from a very young age and continued to perform high volumes of "both feet" drills in order to become the product that he is today.

Yeah there is a huge element of training especially at an early age. I thank my grandad for making me Almost two footed because he made me train it. Same goes for my brother who trained it and my lad is exactly the same and he could not kick with his left on day one.

 

[Dve]

I actually think there's a few things at play with two-footedness. Whether you can physically do it, whether you're confident doing it and whether it's instinctual or not. Most professional players probably have one out of those three when they could/should have two. It's certainly very rare to see players like Greenwood who have the lot.

The ability to manipulate the ball well with either foot is a skill like any other and it's certainly coachable to an extent. At this club we've seen Charlton and Ronaldo hammer a high level of it into themselves in their late-teens through sheer graft. Hell, training twice a week at the bottom of the football pyramid around age 17 I coached myself to be pretty two-footed despite being utterly left-footed as a kid. Similarly, confidence with using any learned skill comes with practice and experience. There's no reason why a professional footballer should feel the need to check back onto their strong foot when there's a perfectly easy weak-foot pass on. Hitting that very low bar would be a drastic improvement for most of our players and it's very achievable, which is what I meant in my initial post.

What sets Greenwood apart is that he's naturally two-footed in the sense that in a high-pressure situation where you or I would hesitate to use our weak foot, or perhaps instinctively lead with our strong foot regardless of whether it was the best choice at the time, he wouldn't have that split-second mental block. That's clearly not coachable, which I probably should have made clear from the start. It's also made it a lot easier for him to gain the ability and confidence others need to work harder to attain.

@TrustInJanuzaj - tagging you here because I hope this clarifies what I mean.

Yes, I see no reason why using your "wrong" foot cannot be trained. E.g. in the past (and in some countries, still), left handed kids were forced to write with their right hand. My wife, e.g, is Japanese, and as a child she was forced both to write and to eat with her right hand. She does this with ease, while for me, it feels nearly impossible to write with my wrong hand. On my piano, however, my left hand is almost as effective as my right hand. I don´t see why this should be so much different using your feet.

 

[Dve]

No. The right analogy would be this: its your birthday, sure you could cut a Christmas turkey while everyone sings, and the turkey sure tastes well. But the appropriate dish is a birthday cake.

Sorry mate, but I think I´ll stick with my analogy. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Mason cutting in from the right scoring those goals. It wouldn´t feel more right if he did it in a different manner.

 

[sammsky1]

You should read "Bounce" by Matthew Syed. He put a lot of research into what makes a top level athlete and describes 'talent' as a myth.

To take your example, Valencia may have trained his weak foot as a youngster, but it's very likely that he didn't put as many hours into it as Greenwood did. I don't agree with the genetic angle of your argument. It's more likely that Greenwood was trained to be comfortable with both feet from a very young age and continued to perform high volumes of "both feet" drills in order to become the product that he is today.

I agree. In my mid 30s, I used to do training drills as part of my general fitness exercise, I trained my weaker left foot for control and passing, and after an hour, thrice a week for 9 months, my left was 80% as good as my natural right foot for ball control and 25 yard passes.

So if a child did that from age 8, they will be virtually dual footed by age 10 and who knows what by age 18!

 

[yfoFC]

Mbappe, Sancho, Haaland, Greenwood

4 of the brightest young talents in the world. Mbappe we won't get but we need to absolutely make sure we have the middle two to go with Mason at this club

Jesus, just how rich and attractive do you think we are?

 

[SATA]

Jesus, just how rich and attractive do you think we are?

Sancho this transfer window. Haaland in two years time. You need to show some ambition

 

[yfoFC]

He has been managed extremely well by Ole but along with Bruno he should be one of the first names on the team sheet, he is ready, he has shown it multiple times now and i feel only more game time will really help propel this guy into stardom, top scorer this season for us ?

That would be quite a feat from him especially as he's gonna be operating majorly from the wings.

I won't begrudge him if he does make it but I doubt that and feel Martial will take it again, let's wait and see..

 

[yfoFC]

Sancho this transfer window. Haaland in two years time. You need to show some ambition

That's why I added attractive, those would be like 3 of the best young names in the world and I don't see other big clubs allowing us stockpile all three of them all willy-nilly.

Would be pleasantly surprised to be proved wrong though..

 

[SATA]

That's why I added attractive, those would be like 3 of the best young names in the world and I don't see other big clubs allowing us stockpile all three of them all willy-nilly.

Would be pleasantly surprised to be proved wrong though..

Just the two mate. We already have Mason Greenwood

 

[yfoFC]

Just the two mate. We already have Mason Greenwood

I tap into your optimism bro..

 

[Jordan_mufc]

I agree. In my mid 30s, I used to do training drills as part of my general fitness exercise, I trained my weaker left foot for control and passing, and after an hour, thrice a week for 9 months, my left was 80% as good as my natural right foot for ball control and 25 yard passes.

So if a child did that from age 8, they will be virtually dual footed by age 10 and who knows what by age 18!

Exactly that. I worked on my left foot throughout lockdown and I'm reaping the benefits today.

The only real question is, why aren't more players as two footed as Greenwood? Perhaps it takes a lot more dedication and practice than we think.

 

[Jordan_mufc]

Yeah there is a huge element of training especially at an early age. I thank my grandad for making me Almost two footed because he made me train it. Same goes for my brother who trained it and my lad is exactly the same and he could not kick with his left on day one.

Yeah for sure. In my opinion, if you're told that you don't have a strong foot from a young age, you're almost certain to be two footed by the time you're a teen. Literally just a case of drilling it over and over again.

 

[thegregster]

Is it time to let him take free kicks in and around the box?

 

[yfoFC]

Is it time to let him take free kicks in and around the box?

Being a good striker of the ball doesn't necessarily mean you will end up being a Freekick specialist, just take a look at Scholes!

Don't think he ever scored a freekick for us if I'm not mistaken..

 

[DatGuy1993]

Being a good striker of the ball doesn't necessarily mean you will end up being a Freekick specialist, just take a look at Scholes!

Don't think he ever scored a freekick for us if I'm not mistaken..

Not sure he's ever taken one for the first team, but he has scored some beauties with the youth. Including 2 against Liverpool using different feet if I'm remembering right.

 

[Dve]

Martial can’t head either. Rashford ain’t great either. Get them all in heading school

It would do no harm inviting Maguire to those sessions at well. We almost never score from headers. Last season, I recall Rashford scoring one on a ball from Mata, Martial one assisted by Bissaka, and Maguire from a corner. Did I miss any?

 

[NM]

Being a good striker of the ball doesn't necessarily mean you will end up being a Freekick specialist, just take a look at Scholes!

Don't think he ever scored a freekick for us if I'm not mistaken..

Greenwood was our specialist in the youth teams

 

[simmee]

Being a good striker of the ball doesn't necessarily mean you will end up being a Freekick specialist, just take a look at Scholes!

Don't think he ever scored a freekick for us if I'm not mistaken..

He scored quite a few in the youth teams.

 

[Gordon S]

Being a good striker of the ball doesn't necessarily mean you will end up being a Freekick specialist, just take a look at Scholes!

Don't think he ever scored a freekick for us if I'm not mistaken..

He scored quite a few freekicks in the reserves, similar to this one last year.
https://www.manutd.com/en/videos/detail/mason-greenwood-free-kick-at-newcastle

 

[cyberman]

I agree. In my mid 30s, I used to do training drills as part of my general fitness exercise, I trained my weaker left foot for control and passing, and after an hour, thrice a week for 9 months, my left was 80% as good as my natural right foot for ball control and 25 yard passes.

So if a child did that from age 8, they will be virtually dual footed by age 10 and who knows what by age 18!

But at the highest level you need power and precision. Few pros have it at the highest level never mind have it on their weaker foot.
My nephews love watching the F2. Against amateur keepers they are hitting it left foot, right foot, every shot in the book. They look amazing.
Theres vids against David James, Courtois and Gomes where they suddenly look average. Anything in the keepers range is saved. The shots have to be struck fierce and accurate when the keepers are set for it to stand a chance. It takes a lot of effort for them to even challenge the keepers.
Thats a low level example because they arent even pros but you have to be a freak of nature to have that in both feet to consistently beat top level keepers.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Being a good striker of the ball doesn't necessarily mean you will end up being a Freekick specialist, just take a look at Scholes!

Don't think he ever scored a freekick for us if I'm not mistaken..

My friend do some research on Greenwoods free kicks...

He once scored 2 freekicks against Liverpool in the same game.

 

[AltiUn]

My friend do some research on Greenwoods free kicks...

He once scored 2 freekicks against Liverpool in the same game. One with the left foot, one with the right