Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
One of the great contrasts about Manchester United’s victory at Leeds in the Carling Cup on Tuesday night was that it gave both young and experienced players the chance to make an impression and show that they have a future at the club.
Whilst Paul Pogba was the young starlet getting alot of attention in the media leading up to the game at Elland Road, a young defensive star of United’s FA Youth Cup winning side surprisingly was handed his first team debut. It would be fair to say that not too many fans had heard of Ezekiel Fryers before this week but the defender looked composed throughout the game and formed a surprisingly good central defensive pairing with Michael Carrick before having to hobble of due to a calf injury 5mins from time.
Fryers certainly impressed and showed good intelligence that’s good to see in a modern defender showing a great range of passing ability that helped set up several attacks. He is certainly someone who fans will be following more closely before the season’s end and who knows the 19 year old may well be sent out on loan in the second-half of the season to gain further experience before coming back to United a better player.
United’s no.51 was obviously over the moon with his performance:
“It was a massive night for me. It was quality and a massive step up, so I was happy to get 80 minutes in,” he told the club’s official website.
“I had to come off with a bit of cramp so now it’s all about working hard with the Reserves and getting fitter so that I’m ready for whenever these chances might come again.”
Fellow youth stars Larnell Cole and the aforementioned Pogba also made their first team debuts for and United the Fryers admitted that sharing that moment with two of his team mates that he’s grown up with was a great moment for him:
“It was good to have Larnell and Pogba alongside me when they came on,” he said. “We have been playing together for a long time, so this was massive for all of us.”
At the other end of the spectrum of players who impressed in United’s 3-0 victory was Michael Owen who scored twice in the first half. Despite being written off as a top-flight striker more times than I could possibly list, the 31-year-old striker showed his class with arguably probably his best all-round performance in a Red shirt since joining on a free after being released by Newcastle United in 2009.
Owen though despite scoring 11 goals in his 12 starts for the club, is by no means assured of a place in the squad these-days but the former England forward admits that this only adds to the pressure to impress:
“I still feel I have to prove myself every time I play,” he said. “If I was playing every week, you could afford a bad game here or there because you can always score one in the next game and nobody will remember your bad games” he told the club’s official website.
“The Leeds game was my first match of the season and if I didn’t play well I would have a long time to stew on it and people would have a long time to criticise me. It puts the pressure on me.
“I have had some massive games in my career but you almost feel yourself getting nervous more these days because, as I say, it has been a while since I started.
“I am not ‘content’ if I am not playing – I don’t want anybody to think that. I get criticised a lot by people who say I don’t play but I pick my money up. I am not proud of that fact. I want to play all the time.”
You can sense by reading his words, that Owen is still hungry to prove people wrong and make the most of the first team opportunities that Sir Alex Ferguson provides him with this season. There’s no doubt that the Domestic Cup competitions provide the former Liverpool forward with best opportunities to get on the score-sheet this season.
It would though be great though if United’s no.7 could play more games this season and add a few more to the 16 goals that he’s scored for the club in just over two seasons, feeding a another plate of humble pie to the critics who say he’s finished. As for Ryan Giggs who scored United’s third on Tuesday, well he continues to look a player 10 years younger than his actual age and scould probably (if he wanted to) go on to play another season on top of this one, which is scary to even imagine.
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
