The Kids are alright

Last night’s game against Philly Union was harder than most of us expected. A spirited performance as well as a makeshift team saw United under pressure but as usual finding a way to triumph.

Many people may not have been impressed by the performance last night and I myself thought the Union may have deserved something from the game but this was just another stage in the tutelage of United’s potential next class of stars.

Last night a largely youthful team experienced the pressures of a relatively high profile game and it was the link up of two of them that lead to our winning goal. Danny Welbeck’s smart ball left Gabriel Obertan with the simply job of slotting past the opposition’s goalkeeper and he duly obliged.

As I said it wasn’t a great performance from the team but the fact that they didn’t play great but managed to come away with a result is indicative of a winning mentality already being present amongst them.

Big things were expected from a number of players, Obertan to build on his previous performance against Celtic, Welbeck to continue showing why he is so highly rated at the club and perhaps get amongst the goals again like he did against Celtic, Macheda to show why he is being touted as a future of Old Trafford and Cleverley, to show he can replicate his Watford form in the Red of United and to an extent each delivered.

Welbeck looked lively all night, a particularly memorable moment saw him flash a long range effort past the post and he will count himself unlucky not to have got his name on the score sheet.

Macheda had another solid performance playing on the left of United’s attacking front 3 and although many will feel Welbeck outshone him, he looked good in his time on the field.

Obertan is probably the most puzzling of these players in that as I have said before he makes the simple things look hard but the hard things look simple. It wasn’t a great performance from him but once he warmed up he ran at players and caused problems and his surging run allowed him to get onto the end of Welbeck’s perfectly weighted pass to score. He is a prime example of a diamond in the rough but when he gets it right, it does come off.

I personally was impressed with Cleverley there was a moment in the first half where he picked up the ball pushed forward, held on to the ball whilst Welbeck got into the right position and then released it at the perfect time, not too early, not too late.

He looked good out wide but also centrally so I can see him performing on the wing in a 4-4-2 or in a 3-man midfield.

There were cameos from Chris Smalling, Corry Evans and Ritchie De Laet who almost scored at the death. On a whole I feel the young players, who have been the focus of so much media attention since Sir Alex stated that they are the future of the club, did no harm to their reputations.

Next stop Kansas at the weekend where again the young players will be looking to make the headlines, hopefully they can continue to build off some strong performances and do so.