At the end of the FA Cup final, there must have been one man who was ecstatic with his performance. Jesse Lingard was on the bench for Manchester United but he came on for the 10-men and ended up scoring the winner and giving United a trophy, something which they really needed and also something that could have saved Louis van Gaal’s job.
Unfortunately for the Dutchman, he was sacked after the season and new man Jose Mourinho has come to take over at the club. There is a real fear by some of the players who aren’t “world class” that they could be on the chopping block or would be on the subs bench more often than not.
Jose Mourinho is known to bring in his own coaching staff and will also be looking to bring in his own players, someone who he can trust and knows really well. He has done the same at Chelsea when he took over the first time and he probably would look to do something similar before the season starts next term.
A history of not using too many young players-
If we are to look into all his years in management, Mourinho isn’t always keen on using young players and giving them too many chances. We would be hard-pressed to think of 10 young players who were constantly given chances to improve under Mourinho, at least Louis van Gaal was regularly given youth team players a chance in the senior squad.
Jesse Lingard was one such player who got a chance to play in the first team after the failure of Memphis Depay. Lingard though took his chances with both hands and feet and rarely disappointed. He is only 23-years-old and did put in a number of decent performances last season, with the FA Cup being his most cherished memory for sure.
The big question that everyone would be asking though is what is his future at Manchester United and just how would Jose Mourinho use the English player?
Lingard did play 40 games in all competitions for Manchester United last season, but the number of goals scored by the 23-year-old wasn’t that great. Just six goals in 40 games is not the best of returns but again, he is still learning and having to play on a regular basis for someone so young does require a lot of changes made for the player to perform consistently.
Mourinho though is being brought here to do a job and that is to win the Premier League, if not at least get them back into the Champions League and his ruthless nature will be good for Manchester United in the short term but we doubt it would be beneficial for the club in the long run.
Lingard could find himself playing on the bench more often than not and that might not be the best thing for a player looking to grow after one of the best moments of his career. Mourinho would probably use him on the wing more, but the youngster might not play regularly for the club as the Portuguese manager looks to bring in more quality at United.
The future does not look too great for Lingard, unless he can impress Mourinho with his work rate and tracking back but in all probability, the 23-year-old FA Cup winner will be performing more often from the bench than not next season.
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