I think the comparison with RVP is to do with his technique, particularly the way he strikes the ball with his left foot, and he’s particular reminiscent of the younger RVP that would come in off the right and was a bit weaker and more dynamic than the older version. Like RVP he’ll eventually become a number nine. That’s the plan. I think he’s pretty unique in his play style anyway because he’s so two footed.
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 1 minute ago
I think the comparison with RVP is to do with his technique, particularly the way he strikes the ball with his left foot, and he’s particular reminiscent of the younger RVP that would come in off the right and was a bit weaker and more dynamic than the older version. Like RVP he’ll eventually become a number nine. That’s the plan. I think he’s pretty unique in his play style anyway because he’s so two footed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Agreed. For me it is the way that he quickly switches the ball from one foot to the other and gets his shot off. Also, his body shape when he is striking the ball and how clinical he is.
Elvis
That ability to shift the ball from one foot to the other, as well as the step overs, must make it so hard for defenders and keepers. They don’t know what foot he’s gonna shoot with and when he does shoot he gets his shots off so early anyway that they haven’t set themselves properly, you can see this with the keepers when he does this.
Getting those shots off early is such an important skill that usually separates the top forwards from the rest.
This is one of the problems with Rashford and Martial, by comparison they take an age to set themselves before shooting, a lot of their shots get blocked as a result.
comment by lfc_smithy (U22402)
posted 8 hours, 23 minutes ago
I get the Suarez comparisons. He makes everyone around him better.
Your best signing since fergie retired by a country mile.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Believe it or not, he’s been at the club that long that when he joined, Ole was still playing for us
Joined when he was six years old.
comment by rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by lfc_smithy (U22402)
posted 8 hours, 23 minutes ago
I get the Suarez comparisons. He makes everyone around him better.
Your best signing since fergie retired by a country mile.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Believe it or not, he’s been at the club that long that when he joined, Ole was still playing for us
Joined when he was six years old.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who?
I think he commented on the wrong article.
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 18 minutes ago
Elvis
That ability to shift the ball from one foot to the other, as well as the step overs, must make it so hard for defenders and keepers. They don’t know what foot he’s gonna shoot with and when he does shoot he gets his shots off so early anyway that they haven’t set themselves properly, you can see this with the keepers when he does this.
Getting those shots off early is such an important skill that usually separates the top forwards from the rest.
This is one of the problems with Rashford and Martial, by comparison they take an age to set themselves before shooting, a lot of their shots get blocked as a result.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yep, getting that shot off quickly makes a huge difference. There was a prime example of Martial failing to do this in the last few games (Spurs?) where Fernandes pinged the ball in to his feet about 7 yards out and he had the chance to get a shot off, but took to long and the defender (Dier?) block his shot. Greenwood would probably have got that shot away.
My mate's son played for a few different academies over the years and played against Greenwood many times. My mate said that he stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the players very time he watched him play. He reckoned he barely ever missed the target and you could see that he was on a different level to the rest of the kids.
comment by Elvis: King of Cult (U7425)
posted 18 minutes ago
comment by rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by lfc_smithy (U22402)
posted 8 hours, 23 minutes ago
I get the Suarez comparisons. He makes everyone around him better.
Your best signing since fergie retired by a country mile.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Believe it or not, he’s been at the club that long that when he joined, Ole was still playing for us
Joined when he was six years old.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Greenwood.
Yeah that one against Spurs springs to mind. It was a great block, in fairness, but it’s a weakness in Martial’s game that allowed it to happen in the first place. It’s one of the things that frustrates me the most about Martial, as he is a clinical finisher when he has time and space to finish.
You hear some grate stories about Greenwood from the academy. Though what I find interesting is that despite him obviously being very highly rated he’s not played that much in the England youth sides.
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 2 minutes ago
Yeah that one against Spurs springs to mind. It was a great block, in fairness, but it’s a weakness in Martial’s game that allowed it to happen in the first place. It’s one of the things that frustrates me the most about Martial, as he is a clinical finisher when he has time and space to finish.
You hear some grate stories about Greenwood from the academy. Though what I find interesting is that despite him obviously being very highly rated he’s not played that much in the England youth sides.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s United doing their job properly
In seriousness, he’s been promoted through the England setup ahead of his age as well. Joined the U21 group when he was still 16 I think, which is why he didn’t play.
He’s had the benefit of training with the U21s in any case.
comment by rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 2 minutes ago
Yeah that one against Spurs springs to mind. It was a great block, in fairness, but it’s a weakness in Martial’s game that allowed it to happen in the first place. It’s one of the things that frustrates me the most about Martial, as he is a clinical finisher when he has time and space to finish.
You hear some grate stories about Greenwood from the academy. Though what I find interesting is that despite him obviously being very highly rated he’s not played that much in the England youth sides.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s United doing their job properly
In seriousness, he’s been promoted through the England setup ahead of his age as well. Joined the U21 group when he was still 16 I think, which is why he didn’t play.
He’s had the benefit of training with the U21s in any case.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeh, I think that is probably it. He has been in the higher age groups, so probably not been getting in the staring line-ups as much as if he was in his own age group. But it won't have done him any harm training with the older lads.
Are you sure about that? He only got called up for the u21’s last year. He never played for the u16’s and didn’t play that many games for the other age groups.
Obviously it’s not the be all and end all, but for a player so highly rated in the academy at United you’d have thought he’d have played more.
Though I do think the England youth set up don’t view the United academy as highly as they once did. Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Everton and Spurs have often been filling the youth sides with more players than we have, especially Chelsea and City.
I think coming out of the United academy holds more weight with professional clubs, due the the education and preparation they’re given to enter professional football, than it has with the England youth and the quality of the players in most of the age groups.
My bad; he joined the U23s at 17, not 16. Still, that’s only given him one season at that level, and he was injured and recovering for a good part of it before lockdown then arrived.
Southgate has talked about him already, so I wouldn’t expect he’ll be with the U21s for long, if at all going forward.
I thought you were talking about the England u21’s. Gomes was always ahead of his years and played a lot more than Greenwood. It doesn’t matter anyway, just found it surprising.
Yeah I imagine he’ll get a call up soon. CHO did for England despite not really doing much a club level, but he’s been highly rated by the England set up since a youth. Foden similarly made jumps to the u21’s despite not playing at all for City.
England have an exciting collection of young attackers, and they all look very technically gifted as well.
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 47 minutes ago
I thought you were talking about the England u21’s. Gomes was always ahead of his years and played a lot more than Greenwood. It doesn’t matter anyway, just found it surprising.
Yeah I imagine he’ll get a call up soon. CHO did for England despite not really doing much a club level, but he’s been highly rated by the England set up since a youth. Foden similarly made jumps to the u21’s despite not playing at all for City.
England have an exciting collection of young attackers, and they all look very technically gifted as well.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry; I was talking about England U21s, which he joined at 17, not our U23s.
I’m too busy to post, but am still posting, which is (largely) why I’m writing nonsense. (Not sure what my usual excuse is...)
1. Is there a better 18 year old in world football at the moment? I don't see enough football to have an opinion on that.
-----------
Martinelli, Saka, Ihattaren
Don’t know the latter, but Greenwood is better than the two Arsenal lads.
Martinelli is 19 already. Ihattaren we need to see playing against PL-standard sides.
Ah ye, didn’t mean to say they’re better than Greenwood just the other 18 year olds that are comparable to him
That *could be compared to him
Ah fair enough. No CHO?
I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by him given a lot the hype from Chelsea fans. But he does look like he has a lot of tools to become a very good winger.
I think CHO is also 19 now. I think CHO for a lot of reasons was hyped by basically all Chelsea fans too much (including me) to the point the expectations were on for him to be a generational talent type level eg. Matching levels of Haaland, Sancho, Mbappe did in their late teens.
The spectrum of CHO is now a bit more varied, for me I think it’s clear that he is of course not at that level of talent - (and very few teenagers are). To me he is just a good young winger for now and then his performances so far kind of match that. The guy doesn’t have to be the next Sancho (as we all wanted to think and some still think).
As an example of where I think a realistic potential is for him, he could well be a good/great winger. Wilf Zaha level, just maybe not a world class mercurial talent. (And of course if he does reach Zaha level that’s still a great level to reach)
Fans in general do overhype their youth players. Some Chelsea fans probably did go a bit over the top, Sancho level was a bit optimistic, but there did seem to be a general feeling that he would be able to match Pulisic. The American is more experienced, in fairness, so it’s not surprising he’s shown more in a Chelsea.
19 is so bloody young for a footballer, he’ll have years to progress. Look at Rashford, he’s only this season really start to impact matches consistently, and he’s still not there yet.
Hopefully CHO can break into the Chelsea team on a consistent basis. One thing that did stand out was his crossing, he seems to have very good technique.
Greenwood's goal the other night was clever. I think he'd decided on the finish before he started the stepovers etc and just wanted to get the defender's body in the right place. Obviously great awareness and cool delivery for Bruno's second as well.
I'm not sure I want us to buy a CF. If we can get Sancho, then I think Rashford, Greenwood, Martial and Sancho competing for three places, with James as wide cover and Ighalo as CF cover, is pretty good - potentially very good indeed. I'd strengthen other areas.
comment by Clockwork Red (U4892)
posted 1 hour, 55 minutes ago
Greenwood's goal the other night was clever. I think he'd decided on the finish before he started the stepovers etc and just wanted to get the defender's body in the right place. Obviously great awareness and cool delivery for Bruno's second as well.
I'm not sure I want us to buy a CF. If we can get Sancho, then I think Rashford, Greenwood, Martial and Sancho competing for three places, with James as wide cover and Ighalo as CF cover, is pretty good - potentially very good indeed. I'd strengthen other areas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Agreed. We've got Ighalo as a plan B and he seems to be doing well so far. Would like to see him in a few more PL games, but so far so good. Sancho/RW has to be priority. After that maybe a top class DM or CB. Although I really want to see what Axel can do.
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Mason Greenwood
Page 2 of 3
posted on 1/7/20
I think the comparison with RVP is to do with his technique, particularly the way he strikes the ball with his left foot, and he’s particular reminiscent of the younger RVP that would come in off the right and was a bit weaker and more dynamic than the older version. Like RVP he’ll eventually become a number nine. That’s the plan. I think he’s pretty unique in his play style anyway because he’s so two footed.
posted on 1/7/20
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 1 minute ago
I think the comparison with RVP is to do with his technique, particularly the way he strikes the ball with his left foot, and he’s particular reminiscent of the younger RVP that would come in off the right and was a bit weaker and more dynamic than the older version. Like RVP he’ll eventually become a number nine. That’s the plan. I think he’s pretty unique in his play style anyway because he’s so two footed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Agreed. For me it is the way that he quickly switches the ball from one foot to the other and gets his shot off. Also, his body shape when he is striking the ball and how clinical he is.
posted on 1/7/20
Elvis
That ability to shift the ball from one foot to the other, as well as the step overs, must make it so hard for defenders and keepers. They don’t know what foot he’s gonna shoot with and when he does shoot he gets his shots off so early anyway that they haven’t set themselves properly, you can see this with the keepers when he does this.
Getting those shots off early is such an important skill that usually separates the top forwards from the rest.
This is one of the problems with Rashford and Martial, by comparison they take an age to set themselves before shooting, a lot of their shots get blocked as a result.
posted on 1/7/20
comment by lfc_smithy (U22402)
posted 8 hours, 23 minutes ago
I get the Suarez comparisons. He makes everyone around him better.
Your best signing since fergie retired by a country mile.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Believe it or not, he’s been at the club that long that when he joined, Ole was still playing for us
Joined when he was six years old.
posted on 1/7/20
comment by rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by lfc_smithy (U22402)
posted 8 hours, 23 minutes ago
I get the Suarez comparisons. He makes everyone around him better.
Your best signing since fergie retired by a country mile.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Believe it or not, he’s been at the club that long that when he joined, Ole was still playing for us
Joined when he was six years old.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who?
posted on 1/7/20
I think he commented on the wrong article.
posted on 1/7/20
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 18 minutes ago
Elvis
That ability to shift the ball from one foot to the other, as well as the step overs, must make it so hard for defenders and keepers. They don’t know what foot he’s gonna shoot with and when he does shoot he gets his shots off so early anyway that they haven’t set themselves properly, you can see this with the keepers when he does this.
Getting those shots off early is such an important skill that usually separates the top forwards from the rest.
This is one of the problems with Rashford and Martial, by comparison they take an age to set themselves before shooting, a lot of their shots get blocked as a result.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yep, getting that shot off quickly makes a huge difference. There was a prime example of Martial failing to do this in the last few games (Spurs?) where Fernandes pinged the ball in to his feet about 7 yards out and he had the chance to get a shot off, but took to long and the defender (Dier?) block his shot. Greenwood would probably have got that shot away.
My mate's son played for a few different academies over the years and played against Greenwood many times. My mate said that he stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the players very time he watched him play. He reckoned he barely ever missed the target and you could see that he was on a different level to the rest of the kids.
posted on 1/7/20
comment by Elvis: King of Cult (U7425)
posted 18 minutes ago
comment by rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted 7 minutes ago
comment by lfc_smithy (U22402)
posted 8 hours, 23 minutes ago
I get the Suarez comparisons. He makes everyone around him better.
Your best signing since fergie retired by a country mile.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Believe it or not, he’s been at the club that long that when he joined, Ole was still playing for us
Joined when he was six years old.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Who?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Greenwood.
posted on 1/7/20
Yeah that one against Spurs springs to mind. It was a great block, in fairness, but it’s a weakness in Martial’s game that allowed it to happen in the first place. It’s one of the things that frustrates me the most about Martial, as he is a clinical finisher when he has time and space to finish.
You hear some grate stories about Greenwood from the academy. Though what I find interesting is that despite him obviously being very highly rated he’s not played that much in the England youth sides.
posted on 1/7/20
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 2 minutes ago
Yeah that one against Spurs springs to mind. It was a great block, in fairness, but it’s a weakness in Martial’s game that allowed it to happen in the first place. It’s one of the things that frustrates me the most about Martial, as he is a clinical finisher when he has time and space to finish.
You hear some grate stories about Greenwood from the academy. Though what I find interesting is that despite him obviously being very highly rated he’s not played that much in the England youth sides.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s United doing their job properly
In seriousness, he’s been promoted through the England setup ahead of his age as well. Joined the U21 group when he was still 16 I think, which is why he didn’t play.
He’s had the benefit of training with the U21s in any case.
posted on 1/7/20
comment by rosso is done with this (U17054)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 2 minutes ago
Yeah that one against Spurs springs to mind. It was a great block, in fairness, but it’s a weakness in Martial’s game that allowed it to happen in the first place. It’s one of the things that frustrates me the most about Martial, as he is a clinical finisher when he has time and space to finish.
You hear some grate stories about Greenwood from the academy. Though what I find interesting is that despite him obviously being very highly rated he’s not played that much in the England youth sides.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s United doing their job properly
In seriousness, he’s been promoted through the England setup ahead of his age as well. Joined the U21 group when he was still 16 I think, which is why he didn’t play.
He’s had the benefit of training with the U21s in any case.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeh, I think that is probably it. He has been in the higher age groups, so probably not been getting in the staring line-ups as much as if he was in his own age group. But it won't have done him any harm training with the older lads.
posted on 1/7/20
Are you sure about that? He only got called up for the u21’s last year. He never played for the u16’s and didn’t play that many games for the other age groups.
Obviously it’s not the be all and end all, but for a player so highly rated in the academy at United you’d have thought he’d have played more.
Though I do think the England youth set up don’t view the United academy as highly as they once did. Chelsea, City, Arsenal, Everton and Spurs have often been filling the youth sides with more players than we have, especially Chelsea and City.
I think coming out of the United academy holds more weight with professional clubs, due the the education and preparation they’re given to enter professional football, than it has with the England youth and the quality of the players in most of the age groups.
posted on 1/7/20
My bad; he joined the U23s at 17, not 16. Still, that’s only given him one season at that level, and he was injured and recovering for a good part of it before lockdown then arrived.
Southgate has talked about him already, so I wouldn’t expect he’ll be with the U21s for long, if at all going forward.
posted on 1/7/20
I thought you were talking about the England u21’s. Gomes was always ahead of his years and played a lot more than Greenwood. It doesn’t matter anyway, just found it surprising.
Yeah I imagine he’ll get a call up soon. CHO did for England despite not really doing much a club level, but he’s been highly rated by the England set up since a youth. Foden similarly made jumps to the u21’s despite not playing at all for City.
England have an exciting collection of young attackers, and they all look very technically gifted as well.
posted on 1/7/20
comment by Imran The King Khan (U10026)
posted 47 minutes ago
I thought you were talking about the England u21’s. Gomes was always ahead of his years and played a lot more than Greenwood. It doesn’t matter anyway, just found it surprising.
Yeah I imagine he’ll get a call up soon. CHO did for England despite not really doing much a club level, but he’s been highly rated by the England set up since a youth. Foden similarly made jumps to the u21’s despite not playing at all for City.
England have an exciting collection of young attackers, and they all look very technically gifted as well.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry; I was talking about England U21s, which he joined at 17, not our U23s.
I’m too busy to post, but am still posting, which is (largely) why I’m writing nonsense. (Not sure what my usual excuse is...)
posted on 1/7/20
1. Is there a better 18 year old in world football at the moment? I don't see enough football to have an opinion on that.
-----------
Martinelli, Saka, Ihattaren
posted on 1/7/20
Don’t know the latter, but Greenwood is better than the two Arsenal lads.
posted on 1/7/20
Martinelli is 19 already. Ihattaren we need to see playing against PL-standard sides.
posted on 1/7/20
Ah ye, didn’t mean to say they’re better than Greenwood just the other 18 year olds that are comparable to him
posted on 1/7/20
That *could be compared to him
posted on 1/7/20
Ah fair enough. No CHO?
I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by him given a lot the hype from Chelsea fans. But he does look like he has a lot of tools to become a very good winger.
posted on 1/7/20
I think CHO is also 19 now. I think CHO for a lot of reasons was hyped by basically all Chelsea fans too much (including me) to the point the expectations were on for him to be a generational talent type level eg. Matching levels of Haaland, Sancho, Mbappe did in their late teens.
The spectrum of CHO is now a bit more varied, for me I think it’s clear that he is of course not at that level of talent - (and very few teenagers are). To me he is just a good young winger for now and then his performances so far kind of match that. The guy doesn’t have to be the next Sancho (as we all wanted to think and some still think).
As an example of where I think a realistic potential is for him, he could well be a good/great winger. Wilf Zaha level, just maybe not a world class mercurial talent. (And of course if he does reach Zaha level that’s still a great level to reach)
posted on 1/7/20
Fans in general do overhype their youth players. Some Chelsea fans probably did go a bit over the top, Sancho level was a bit optimistic, but there did seem to be a general feeling that he would be able to match Pulisic. The American is more experienced, in fairness, so it’s not surprising he’s shown more in a Chelsea.
19 is so bloody young for a footballer, he’ll have years to progress. Look at Rashford, he’s only this season really start to impact matches consistently, and he’s still not there yet.
Hopefully CHO can break into the Chelsea team on a consistent basis. One thing that did stand out was his crossing, he seems to have very good technique.
posted on 2/7/20
Greenwood's goal the other night was clever. I think he'd decided on the finish before he started the stepovers etc and just wanted to get the defender's body in the right place. Obviously great awareness and cool delivery for Bruno's second as well.
I'm not sure I want us to buy a CF. If we can get Sancho, then I think Rashford, Greenwood, Martial and Sancho competing for three places, with James as wide cover and Ighalo as CF cover, is pretty good - potentially very good indeed. I'd strengthen other areas.
posted on 2/7/20
comment by Clockwork Red (U4892)
posted 1 hour, 55 minutes ago
Greenwood's goal the other night was clever. I think he'd decided on the finish before he started the stepovers etc and just wanted to get the defender's body in the right place. Obviously great awareness and cool delivery for Bruno's second as well.
I'm not sure I want us to buy a CF. If we can get Sancho, then I think Rashford, Greenwood, Martial and Sancho competing for three places, with James as wide cover and Ighalo as CF cover, is pretty good - potentially very good indeed. I'd strengthen other areas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Agreed. We've got Ighalo as a plan B and he seems to be doing well so far. Would like to see him in a few more PL games, but so far so good. Sancho/RW has to be priority. After that maybe a top class DM or CB. Although I really want to see what Axel can do.
Page 2 of 3