After Ole Gunnar Solskjaer publicly declared that he would be “brave” in giving Manchester United’s abundance of young talents a chance in the first-team, the Norwegian’s team selections have been under greater scrutiny. Was it all just talk or would he actually back up his words with his actions? Whilst it hasn’t exactly been a youth revolution, the Red Devils manager has given a chance to quite a few of the club’s academy prospects.
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Not least 19-year-old Brandon Williams. The left-back has benefited massively from the lengthy absence of Luke Shaw earlier this season, and has already registered 11 appearances for the senior side. And having been given the nod to start against Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday afternoon, the prodigy set about trying to prove his manager right.
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As per Sofascore, he had an impressive 88% pass accuracy, provided two key passes and was also fouled three times as he tried to take the game to the home side. And after seeing his performance, United fans flooded to Twitter to voice their thoughts on the defender.
A couple of fans were quick to insist that Williams represents a far better option than Luke Shaw.
A few supporters of the Manchester side also reserved special praise for his contributions going forward, with one fan in particular hailing how he has “incredible poise for a teenager”.
Another couple of United fans also took a shine to his crosses into the box, labelling it as “amazing” and “excellent”.
Still only a teenager, Williams shouldn’t feel too hard done by that he isn’t starting games for United week-in and week-out. But if he continues to perform like he did against Burnley, then Solskjaer can only keep turning to Shaw and Ashley Young for so long. Age is just a number, and the Manchester side’s promising academy product is really showing that to be the case with his displays.
Meanwhile, Man Utd’s swoop for this starlet could spell bad news for one of their own prospects.
