Jesse Lingard scored his seventh goal in his last nine Premier League appearances during Manchester United’s 2-0 win against Everton.
‘Manchester City have money, they have bought big players’ — Jose Mourinho has been harping the same tune for a while but there’s an unsung hero who is finally raising his game in the time of need.
Jesse Lingard is the man, who is finally rising above his ‘potential talent’ tag to a ‘performer’ for Mourinho’s United.
Mourinho has been very vocal in the recent weeks about how teams like Manchester City have spent millions to get a team that is becoming hard to beat. He has been stressing on the fact that the club has spent money on important players like Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku but nothing like the amount on a collective level like City. Jose’s statements had an undertone of ‘I need more money to bring better players.
But despite all the talk and subtle demands his best player at the moment is the one who cost the club nothing.
United, who pride themselves on having one of the best youth systems in the country, finally have a true Mancunian, who has been flourishing on the big stage.
After breaking into the first-team squad quite early in his career, he was sent on loans at Leicester City, Birmingham City, Brighton and Hove Albion and Derby County. He finally returned to United in 2015 and played a decent role under Louis Van Gaal. That followed suit under Jose and this year, he has finally stitched together a series of key performances that has seen him start more games than the much fancied Armenian in Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Much like Harry Kane at Tottenham, Lingard — a locally born player — has taken a meandering route to his current position as one of the form players in the Premier League. Yes! He’s nowhere near as deadly or prolific as the Tottenham goal-machine. Lingard’s ability to run at defenders with pace and continue trying has definitely caught Mourinho’s eye and he has been rewarded. The pocket-sized midfielder has scored some scintillating goals on his own — latest being the one against Everton on New Year’s Day but has missed some sitters as well that has costed United some crucial points.
But his manager is unfazed by that and feels he has finally arrived at the big stage.
“These boys, they jump or they don’t jump,” United manager Jose Mourinho said. “One thing is to be a talent, another thing is to be a very good player. Some players are not capable of making that jump, some players go from that…to normal players.
“I think Jesse has made that jump. He has been more consistent, adaptable, he understands the game, the different positions. He is going in a good direction.
He has scored 10 goals this season but it is not just the number of goals Lingard is scoring that is impressive, it’s the quality of his strikes, too. His latest goal at Goodison Park a curling 25-meter (yard) shot that found the top corner. Few weeks back, he made a solo run from his own box against Watford, twisting and turning defenders before finally slotting past Heurelho Gomes to seal the game for his side.
A difficult festive period for United had threatened to get worse on Monday. With Liverpool edging past Burnley 2-1 earlier thanks to an injury-time winner, a defeat for United at Everton hours later would have dropped Mourinho’s team below its arch rival to fourth place.
But thanks to him and Anthony Martial, United climbed to second place, 12 points behind Manchester City, whose game in hand is against Watford on Tuesday.
Lingard’s future at United as a first-team player is not under doubt but if Jose indeed decides to jump into the market and get an attacking player, his role as a starter will definitely be under the cloud. But as of now, the 5’7” tall attacker rolls on and will hope that his form not only helps United gain the lost touch but also book his ticket to the flight in Russia for the Three Lions in the summer.
courtesy= india today.in.com
