How Jesse Lingard can help solve Manchester Untied’s problems out wide and at No. 10.
Ashley young stole the headlines with his two wonder strikes to help Manchester United beat Watford 4-2 in the Premier League on Tuesday night. But Young wasn’t the best player on the pitch at Vicarage Road, a distinction belonging to another unlikely hero, Jesse Lingard.
The 24-year-old has been on the fringes of the starting XI for most of this season. But there was something significant about his standout performance against the Hornets.
Lingard assisted United’s first goal and later scored the winner after taking the ball from inside his own half before finishing coolly.
More than his numbers, Lingard showed how he can solve United’s problems at two positions this season. Those positions are No. 10 and wide forward.
Red Devils manager Jose Mourinho has struggled to find credible and consistent options at either spot. It hasn’t been for the want of trying, though.
Mourinho has given the No. 10 role behind striker Romelu Lukaku to Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Paul Pogba and Juan Mata. Mkhitaryan has gone off the boil since a strong start to the season, even drawing public criticism from his boss.
Pogba is a flair player who can provide decisive contributions from anywhere. But the powerhouse Frenchman is ultimately still best when running from deeper.
As for Mata, for all his skills he’s never truly been able to convince Mourinho of his value, neither with United nor Chelsea.
United’s issues at No.10 have left the title-chasers stunted going forward. The lack of ideas in attacking areas has been partly solved by Pogba’s return, but there are still too many times when Mourinho’s attack fails to click.
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Recent matches against Basel in the Champions League and Brighton in England’s top flight offered a litany of examples of these failings.
The absence of consistent creative output from the No. 10 position has been compounded by problems out wide. Mourinho hasn’t settled on the right players to supplement Lukaku from the flanks.
Anthony Martial offers goals, but isn’t the worker bee Marcus Rashford is. Both players are natural strikers, but neither is creative in the manner of a classic wing wizard.
What Mourinho needs is a player who can play both roles during games. He needs an attacker who can take up space on the flanks and provide width. He also needs somebody to drift into central spaces and unlock defences with vision and ingenuity.
Lingard fits the bill, despite making a mere six starts in all competitions this season, per WhoScored.com. His lack of starts is something Mourinho should remedy because of Lingard’s pace and trickery out wide, as well as his central leanings and creativity from the middle.
Movement is what defines Lingard and his value to United’s title challenge. His perceptive and varied runs off the ball lend a greater fluidity to the Reds’ play going forward.
Young’s first goal at Watford served as a great example of the effect of Lingard’s thoughtful movement at work.
Having seen Lukaku drop deep, Lingard keenly spotted the space in the middle and ghosted from out wide to exploit it. He received the ball in the centre-forward position and smartly turned his marker before deftly picking out Young on the overlap to fire in from the edge of the box.
Lingard’s set-up play showcased not only a good awareness of movement and space. It also proved his keen eye for a pass, as well as his anticipation to count on Young’s raid forward.
This level of understanding and intelligence is usually reserved for the classic No. 10 players. United legend Paul Scholes has urged Lingard to challenge Mkhitaryan for more playing time.
Speaking on BT Sport (h/t Goal’s Chris Burton), Scholes said:
"He’s not the big name of a Mkhitaryan or somebody like that. He’s got that ability. He’s got the same level of ability as Mkhitaryan.He can score goals, he can make goals. What’s his best position?He has to establish himself now, he has to be more consistent, he has to produce more performances like that to make him a real first-team player."
Lingard could take Mkhitaryan’s spot as United’s No. 10. After all, he’s impressed there before, particularly during a 1-0 away win over Manchester City in March 2016.
On the day, it was Mourinho’s predecessor Louis van Gaal who had Lingard tread both paths between being a wide forward and a central creator.
It’s the template for how Lingard should be used for the remainder of this season. Playing him will provide the extra support Pogba needs, something Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News has identified as important:
Luckhurst was speaking of Lingard as an extra runner in the middle. But concentrating on exactly where he starts a match misses the point about his value.
Lingard has to be allowed to play with freedom, even in Mourinho’s often rigid tactical formulas. Freedom is needed because Lingard has the positional sense, understanding of the game and intuition to exploit spaces wherever they develop.
In the process, he alters United’s shape in an instant.
If he moves out of the middle onto the wings, he makes the Red Devils a 4-3-3 or 3-4-3 team. Any time he ghosts centrally, Lingard becomes a No. 10, either in support of two strikers, depending on where Martial or Rashford roam, or as a supporting act for Pogba in 3-4-2-1 or 4-3-2-1 shapes.
The semantics of formations aside, Lingard lends United a fluidity few other players in Mourinho’s squad can. He’s more creative than Rashford and Martial, as well as more direct and energetic than Mkhitaryan or Mata.
If Mourinho is going to avoid seeing his side become predictable going forward again, he must start Lingard more often.