According to Manchester United legend Gary Neville, the Red Devils “have got a real star” in youngster Mason Greenwood, who doesn’t think the teenager will end up flopping, in the same way, Belgian youngster Adnan Januzaj did during at Old Trafford.
The 18-year-old Greenwood was enjoying quite a superb breakthrough season before the coronavirus brought an end to all football activities in March. The young United forward scored 14 goals in 38 appearances across all competitions for the Red side of Manchester showing his potential.
Although Greenwood has been forced to be content as a backup forward behind Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial the England U-21 star has managed to impress on the pitch at every given opportunity.
There were plenty of concerns over United’s lack of attacking depth when manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer opted to sell goalscorer Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan in the summer as Chilean star Alexis Sanchez also joining the Belgian at San Siro on a loan deal.
However, despite their inexperience in terms of age, Rashford, Martial and Greenwood have racked up a total of 49 goals across all competitions, helping Manchester United climb back up towards the top end of the Premier League table and sit in 5th spot, only 3 points behind Chelsea in fourth.
One man who was unable to establish himself after plenty of hype around Old Trafford was Belgian winger Adnan Januzaj. Januzaj was tipped as the next Cristiano Ronaldo but was eventually sold to LaLiga side Real Sociedad in 2017.
However, Neville cannot see young Mason Greenwood following the same path as Januzaj, with his belief that the star forward is even “more composed” than Marcus Rashford was at a similar age.
11 – Mason Greenwood has scored 11 goals in all competitions this season, the most of any Premier League teenager. Elementary. pic.twitter.com/VQ3xkHhw10
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 23, 2020
While speaking to Sky Sports, the 45-year-old Gary Neville said that Greenwood is probably more composed and classy as a striker than England star Marcus Rashford, “I think Mason Greenwood is an outstanding player, the equal of Rashford at his age, in some ways more composed and a bit more classy, less raw, he looks well above his age group in terms of his composure and his temperament.”
The two-time Champions League winner further explained that he does not believe that Greenwood will follow the same path as Adnan Januzaj, “I think Manchester United have got a real star there. We’ve been wrong before, you talk about Adnan Januzaj, I thought he was going to be world-class, but I think Greenwood is going to be the real thing.”
