Due to the impact of the epidemic, Manchester United have postponed the league for two consecutive rounds. On days without games, Manchester United manager Lonnick also took the time to give an interview to the club's official website. In this interview, Lonnick talked a lot about young players. When talking about how to cultivate young players, his words were deeply recognized by Manchester United fans, and even issued an exclamation: "Manchester United executives have finally found the right person this time!" "Let's hear what Lonnick had to say first.
"I think it's been part of the club's DNA since Sir Busby started, and it's been that way throughout Sir Ferguson's 27 years. We already have 4 or 5 players like that, and it's important for me to develop young players. However, it is not young enough, but also the talent of the players and the right character and mentality, if these factors are available, I would certainly want as many young players as possible to play. ”
After Lonnick became the manager of Manchester United, fans not only expected him to bring more substantive and positive changes to Manchester United at the tactical level, but also expected even higher expectations in the discovery and development of young players. When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over the Manchester United coaching whip that year, he set a young reconstruction strategy. But Lonnick's requirements for young players are clearly more specific, detailed and more in line with United's heritage.
From the famous Busby baby to the famous Manchester United "Class 92" during the Ferguson era, Manchester United's glory is inseparable from the emergence of generations of youth talent. In addition, in addition to the outstanding talent of these players, they also have pure Red Devil DNA flowing in their bones, and their spiritual quality has moved countless Manchester United fans.
"It's not young enough to have the right character and mentality." This sentence speaks to the essence of Sir Alex Ferguson's cultivation of young players and is also recognized by Manchester United fans.
It is true that any player has a young age, and youth is at best a temporary asset. If you can't have the right character and establish a good attitude, you will only let yourself take more detours on and off the field, and even waste your talent, and eventually disappear into the crowd. There are many such examples of Manchester United, and we can even say that this is the key reason why Manchester United has not been able to really recover in recent years. United's revival will certainly count on youngsters, but these years have been mispaid.
In the summer window of 2015, United paid a transfer fee of 60 million euros for the 19-year-old Martial. At the beginning of the franchise, his performance made everyone shine, and he scored a Henry-esque goal in his debut against Liverpool, but this was basically his highest moment at Manchester United. Since then, Martial's progress has been very limited. After 6 years, he is also on the verge of leaving the team. He certainly has talent, but he does not establish the right attitude on the field, "too lazy", which directly restricts his progress.
Pogba was only 23 years old when he returned to Manchester United, but he has not played the performance expected by the outside world in all these years, and his attitude to the game is also the focus of criticism from fans.
In the 2019-20 season, the 18-year-old Greenwood turned out to be a success, and one wonderful goal after another made the fans shout and be highly expected by countless people. However, last summer was involved in various off-field storms, and this season, because of the addition of C Ronaldo, it failed to correct its mentality, and even made a fuss, which affected its performance and was labeled as "independent".
Louis van Gaal promoted Rashford to the first team, and the latter's repeated dangers as saviors became a good story. But after so many years, his deepest impression on the outside world was that he was charity and was awarded the British Medal. In his own work, Rashford's development is far from meeting expectations.
Solskjaer is right to reuse young players, but he can't have clear requirements like Ferguson. He rarely criticized the performance of his players, instead placating them with nice words. He will do his best to persuade Pogba, who wants to leave the team, to stay, and still swallow his anger despite the fact that Raiola has openly fired at Manchester United again and again. He would still let Greenwood start with obvious emotions; Martial has been under him for more than 2 years and is still inert.
And all of this is unlikely to be on Lonnick's team. He would not persuade Pogba to stay, Greenwood could not correct the attitude of the game, so he had to come on the bench; Martial could not find a place in his team, he had to leave. He is looking forward to the return of Hannibal Mebri, as this is a young player with strong mental attributes and great talent. More and more of these young players will be reused during Lonnick's tenure, and United are expected to usher in a real renaissance.