Manchester United youngster Jesse Lingard, has admitted via Manchester United’s official website that he is looking to progress as a player and is ‘enjoying his experience of being on tour’ with the rest of the first team squad.
Lingard’s career at Manchester United looked set to take off last year when under manager David Moyes, involved the youngster in his pre-season sides for the tour of China. He has now been involved in the pre-season tour to the US with the rest of the first team squad, coming on in the second half of the 3-2 win against Roma last night. However during last season, despite proving himself to David Moyes by impressing during the preseason tour to China with four goals in as many matches, he was unable to break into the first team and secure any game time for the season.
As a result who was loaned out twice last season, to Brighton & Hove Albion and Birmingham City. Despite openly stating he wanted to break into the Manchester United first team rather than go out on loan, David Moyes sent the youngster to Birmingham City to gain experience, where then went on to play 13 games scoring 6 goals in the process. Bizarrely, despite Birmingham City wanting to renew the player’s loan spell for a further month at least, he was recalled by Manchester United only to be an unused substitute against Swansea on January 11th. He did not make a single appearance for United and was loaned out to Brighton in February resulting in him losing a month of game time. At Brighton Lingard played 16 times and scored 4 goals for the club.
Now Lingard finds himself on the fringes of the Manchester United first team yet again, with him playing 45 minutes against Italian side Roma last night, in Manchester United’s 3-2 win in Denver. Lingard told Manchester United’s official website that he is fully aware of how Van Gaal ‘promotes youth’ and claims he has learnt from his previous loan spells. Going as far as to say “Playing in front of large crowds every week was great for my confidence”. His interview with Manchester United’s website shows clearly that the youngster is keen to not be loaned out again this season and play for the first team. Even if it means only playing in the cup competitions to begin with, to prove he is good enough to play in the league.
The rest of the pre-season will show whether Lingard will be able to achieve this aim of playing for the first team this season, without having to be loaned out yet again. With tough games coming up against Inter Milan and Real Madrid it is possible that Lingard may not see himself getting much game time and it is plausible that due to this, unless he proves himself to Van Gaal in training he will be loaned back out this season or asked to prove himself in the reserves.
