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This Friday United U23’s welcome West Ham u23’s to Old Trafford. It is free entry to supporters and United will be hoping for a big turnout for their exciting youngsters. It is another opportunity for some of these players to show what they’re about and prove they deserve to play at Old Trafford on a regular basis, while West Ham’ players should also be up for this knowing they are getting a chance to play at Old Trafford which not many youngsters get to do.
It’s been a great start to the season and a great start under the new management of Neil Wood and Quinton Fortune. It’s been 3 wins out of 3 with a total of 11 goals scored and none conceded so far with the last game, seeing United comfortable 4-0 winners away to Newcastle at St James Park. This game also showed why Tahith Chong and James Garner are well thought of at Old Trafford, with Chong getting off the mark this season and grabbing two goals and Garner continuing his goal-scoring form by grabbing one and making it 4 in 3 games.
(Dailymail.co.uk)
This game sees both United and West Ham on 9 points out of 9 and sitting pretty at the top of the table and like United have been amongst the goals in the first 3 games. It could be an interesting team selection for West Ham this Friday as the first team has got a Carabao fixture in midweek which could see some u23 players given an opportunity to be involved in the match squad and maybe mean they miss this tie at Old Trafford.
However, United could also be missing a key player because depending on the injury of Anthony Martial it could mean that Tahith Chong is unavailable for the u23’s and called up to the first team especially after his two-goal heroics last week.
Neil Woods men have been very impressive so far this season and one standout performer in the team that may have gone unnoticed is Brandon Williams who is the left-back for the 23’s. He is aged 18 and has made the step up this season form the u18’s and maybe remembered most recently as being called up to the first team for that trip to Paris in March.
(ManUtd.com)
Also, as well as Martial being a doubt at the weekend, Luke Shaw is also a doubt and possibly could be out for a couple of weeks could this be an opportunity for Williams to pounce. Yeah, it may be too soon at the minute, but never say never with Solskjaer in charge, especially knowing how much he trusts the youngsters. Williams is doing no harm anyway, after so far picking up 3 assists in 3 games and already making more appearances in the 23’s than he did last season.
Finally, a win for either side on Friday night will see them clear at the top and see a bit of breathing space from the chasing pack and Neil wood will be hoping his team grabs this opportunity.
