The deadwood and the backups

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

Lingard has managed 10 Premier League assists at United in the league in 7,445mins. James has managed 6 in 2,291mins. James is still young and will continue to improve. Lingard is in his prime and is regressing. He's a little bit more of a goal threat than James, with 18 goals compared to James 3.

Neither are good enough ultimately but at least James is still fairly young.

Neither are close to being good enough, but at least Lingard is actually fairly decent at football & has the ability of a lower PL level player. James would be an amateur without his pace. He has astonishingly bad technical ability.

 

[Andycoleno9]

I guess i have different opinion what backup player is in a big club which chase trophies. Many United fans think that player who is not good for first 11 is good for backup. I disagree.
You can't have 20 world class players of course but club like United can and should have 20 players who are good enough for first 11.
Season has 60 games. You will rotate a lot and you need quality. What is use of an average player who is just a body on the pitch and with who performances of the team drop significantly. So imo, players like James, Lingard, McTominay, Jones, Rojo, Pereira....are not good enough for backups. Fred, Matic, Bailly, Romero are good backups.