Manchester United Youth Challenge

Sorry for disappearing from my last story, unfortunately, the save got corrupted and I didn't have any backups and I've been playing around thinking of other saves since and I thought I'd go back to one I always wanted to do but didn't have the motivation to do because I felt doing United weren't much of a challenge. However these days it is...

We all know about the Class of 92, we know about the Busby babes and we all know about United's famed academy.

Usually United compliment their academy with big budget signings, but I am going to scrap that. We are only going to bring through Academy players.

I will not actively sell current United stars like De Gea, Martial etc - I will merely wait until their contracts run down, and I just won't renew them, which will give me time to bed in any youngsters.

The key youngsters for this season will be Axel Tuanzebe



Brandon Williams



Mason Greenwood



There are some others who aren't as highly rated who will be getting some game time, particularly in the Carabao Cup and the Europa League such as

Ethan Laird



Dylan Levitt

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I will play 4-2-3-1 tiki taka, but I may alter that to a 4-5-1 for big games.



Thank you all for reading, please let me know if you have any requests. I will be playing more youngsters than I've shown, if there are any new youngsters that I use in games, I will show them on here as well.

Don't let your guys go on a Bosman! You gotta get some of that sweet transfer money.

2020-04-28 22:58#269303 OohAhCantona : Don't let your guys go on a Bosman! You gotta get some of that sweet transfer money.

good point. What I will do - I will sell them probably in the summer before their contracts are up. I realised that point when leicester came in for Matic who I let go for 7.5 million, there'll probably be a couple of others due as well soon.

Love it mate, all the best, make sure Mejbri is in the first team too He develops fast into a world class player if he get's the game time.
Also Hoogewoorf can be useful, Angel Gomes. Tahith Chong and Aliou Traore all develop into first team players.

You have picked the right club for this challenge for sure, I wish you luck man!

2020-04-29 01:58#269305 FMBlake : Love it mate, all the best, make sure Mejbri is in the first team too He develops fast into a world class player if he get's the game time.
Also Hoogewoorf can be useful, Angel Gomes. Tahith Chong and Aliou Traore all develop into first team players.

You have picked the right club for this challenge for sure, I wish you luck man!

Thank you, I've never played it long enough to see how Mejbri develops so I aim to this time - for my first year in charge, I think he will be mainly a bench player with a couple of starts here or there against weaker opposition in the Europa league/Carabao Cup. In fact I've also featured Chong in one game so far as well as you will see., Definitely featuring Gomes, I think he's brilliant and in honesty I've never heard much about Traore so I'll be interested in seeing how he goes too. Thank you for reading it.

Hello everyone, I hope we are all well.

I'm here to give a report on my first month in charge.

I had a little bit of a comedy with injuries. Wan-Bissaka got an injury in my first game and was out for three weeks. Ethan Laird came off the bench for his debut. Unfortunately he got injured the day before he was going to make his first start, so I ended up with Brandon Williams at right back and Luke Shaw at left back. Williams is right footed so it wasn't much of an issues.

Tuanzebe also started the first three games...before also getting injured for three weeks.

So I ended the month with a line-up which looked something like this.



Anyway onto the games.

First up was Bournemouth at home, we weren't at our scinitillating best, but we were creating enough chances and a Rashford penalty before half-time put us in front. Bournemouth grew into the game in the second half, but we put the game to bed thanks to a goal from substitute Dylan Levitt.



I went with a more conservative 4-1-2-3 formation away at Tottenham. We had the better of the game, but we couldn't finish our chances. It finished 0-0 and there's not much more I can say about about that game. Oh I just noticed Dalot got injured - I think that's why Williams ended up at right back actually.



Once again we dominated proceeding against West Ham, but this we had a added clinical touch. It took until the 35th minute to take the lead, but it was another academy product, Mctominay who put us ahead with a screamer. West Ham have always been a bogey team towards United, but this time they were anything but and Rashford added a second shortly into the second half, which allowed me to give some game time for Chong up front who replaced the ineffectual Martial.

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Here is Chong's profile.



Our last game of the month was against Arsenal, and you could say they had a very Arsenal performance, and Utd being as they are took great advantage.

They took the lead through Ozil, before Greenwood equalized in the 33rd minute against the run of play. To compound matters, Mctominay got sent off shortly before half-time. You'd think they'd step it up a gear, in fairness they did. however a late quick fire double from the plague of the gunners, Rashford clinched us the victory.



So a very good first month, but where does it put us?



Top, which is just reward for overcoming a reasonably difficult first month, but we will have bigger tests along the way.

This is our players form so far, as you can see, it's the academy players who are very much leading the way. My personal favourite has got to be Rashford, whose goals have been crucial in getting us to first place.



Next month we will begin our Europa League adventure with a home game against Young Boys. We've also been drawn with Spartak Moscow and AZ Alkmaar.

We will also have our first Carabao Cup game against Oldham at home.

So a lot of opportunities to play youngsters.

Thank you all for reading.

A good start and some good progress from the younger talents.

A good start in this challenge. Levitt seems to be impressing off the bench as well as the obvious talents that Rashford has. A shame about the injuries hopefully that is sorted soon!

Thank you all for reading.

And so begins my second month in charge. I decided to play until the next international break so this will be an extended update.

We began the month away at Sheffield United. We had Mctominay suspended and Rashford injured, in there places, I decided to put in James Garner and Jesse Lingard.

Unlike most, I don't mind Lingard, I think he's just in need of a break...but unfortunately he wasn't even up to speed for me in the game, and he's just not got the quality that Rashford has.

We weren't at our best as we suffered a sucker punch late on as we lost 1-0 thanks to a late Lys Mousset goal. Not the best start.



Here's a profile on James Garner.



Our next game was against Young Boys where I put forward a much changed side. Thankfully we cruised to a 4-0 victory due to goals from academy products Chong and Levitt, as well as a strike from Dan James.



Next up? Liverpool.

Definitely not the ideal game to settle the nerves following our first league defeat of the season and in the opening stages, they definitely had the better of the game, but we settled into it, and got what proved to be the winner from Mason Greenwood in the 35th minute. In the second half, I brought on Garner and switched from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-5-1 and we saw out the game in relative ease.



We began our Carabao Cup adventure with a home tie against Oldham. I managed to put out a team with 10 outfield players from the academy, with Romero being the one exception. The result? a comfortable 4-1 win, which was helped in part to Oldham going down to 9 men in what was quite a feisty encounter. In the next round, we have a home tie against Burnley.



In the league, we next faced an away game against Aston Villa, who were 8th at the time of asking, highlighting what could perhaps be a tricky fixture. I switched to a 4-4-2 formation for this game due to some advice from my assistant manager. He proved to be correct as we dominated, winning 2-0, thanks to a Greenwood free kick and Martial's first goal of the season.



Our next game was away to Spartak Moscow, where I featured a lot of fringe players and youngsters, including Hoogewerf and Mejbri, who came off the bench in a dull encounter which finished 0-0. Not too much I can say about it really.



The final league game of this update was at home to Brighton, where we put in the best performance so far and could've won by 5 or 6 goals really. We still scored 3, with Tuanzebe getting his first goal for the club which was nice. Fernandes also had his best game so far, hopefully he keeps it up.



We find ourselves 2nd in the league, six points behind Man City, with a game in hand. Our target is to get the top 4, but I wouldn't mind a go at the title...



Player of the month has to go to Greenwood, thanks to his excellent goals against Liverpool and Villa.



And here are profiles on Hoogewerf and Mejbri





Thank you all for reading.

We began the month with an away game against Wolves, who were 8th at the time of asking. Wolves have been a bogey side for United, who haven't won at the Molineux in any of their last 3 matches.

But we made amends here, with Greenwood getting the only goal of what was a very tight encounter.



Our next game was a continuation of our Europa League adventure. I decided to start with Martial up front, to give him the opportunity to impress. Impress he did as he scored from the penalty spot to get us back into the match. Mejbri, who I brought on got the winner in what was a very impressive performance from the bench.



We then continued our resurgent league form with a 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Greenwood and Chong. We possibly could've played better, particularly with Everton down to 10 men, but a wins a win at the end of the day.



Unfortunately we bowed out of the Carabao Cup on penalties to Burnley. We just couldn't make the breakthrough despite having the better of the game. They stuck to their gameplan and got what tthey deserved from it, not much more can be said.



We bounced back with a comfortable 2-0 victory at St James Park, thanks to goals from academy products Pogba and Rashford. Ethan Laird provided an assist, and seems to be growing into his role at right back.



Next game, a trip to Holland. A victory would confirm our place in the next round. After a tough home game, I was expecting a tough away game, but superb performances from Jesse Lingard, who got 4 assists and Dan James who got 2 goals, saw us win 4-1 and will give me even more opportunities to start even more youngsters in the final two Europa League matches.



Our final game of this update saw us face 17th place Leicester at home. We weren't at our best, but thanks to Ethan Laird we came away with a 1-0 victory.



The result sees us joint 1st (2nd on goal difference), but with a game in hand on City. A win or a draw in our next game will see us top.



I will give player of the month to Ethan Laird, despite Greenwood bagging a few again, Laird is swiftly growing into his role at right back.



Thank you all for reading.

Aside from the defeat to Sheffield United and the early departure from the Carabao Cup, everything seems to be heading in the right direction!

We had a chance of going top with a victory or a point against Southampton. In typical current Utd fashion, we lost. We weren't at the races really. Redmond ran rings around us. Che Adams came on to finish the job.



It turns out we weren't fully in the next round in the Europa League in my last update, but with 10 points, we may as well have been. We confirmed our places in the next round with a dull 0-0 draw against Young Boys.



Our next game was against Crystal Palace at home, who were riding reasonably high in 8th place. But we came out as comfortable winners thanks to a good performance from Jesse Lingard who forced an own goal, and got the 2nd.



Next up? Chelsea who were only a couple of points off top themselves, highlighting what a good season they were having, but we blew them away in the opening stages and raced into a two goal lead. We should have added more to our tally before a late David De Gea mistake gave them a way back into the game. But we managed to see the game out for an important victory.



In the first half we got well and truly football managered. We absolutely battered Burnley, hitting the bar, the post, bringing forth numerous saves. Of course we conceded with their only shot on target in the first half. In the second, we just weren't as good, and couldn't get an equalizer. A devastating defeat.



An Odion Ighalo wondershow clinched top spot in the Europa League with a confidence boosting 5-0 victory over Spartak Moscow.



Next up was another home game, this time against Norwich which saw another comfortable victory by 2 goals. We're perfect at home, we just need to sort out that away form.



It was the perfect preparation as next up was City....away.

I decided to do something a bit crazy and put Ighalo up front instead of Martial who just wasn't cutting the mustard. Ighalo had 5 goals in his last 2 games. Martial, just 2 goals all season.

But Ighalo was also ineffective as City took an early lead. It was a quiet derby overall, and I was expecting it to peter out into yet another 1-0 away defeat, but up pops academy product Angel Gomes with a late equalizer to send the away crowd wild.



We weren't at our best in our next game at home to Watford and conceded due to an early penalty from Troy Deeney, but we came back into the game, and eventually got a winner thanks to former Watford man Odion Ighalo.



Another dominant away performance, another away game where we cannot get the 3 points. We conceded early on due to former United player Michael Keane heading home, and we toiled and toiled away to get an equalizer and a possible winner. Thankfully Pogba popped up with a screamer from the edge of the box in the 89th minute, but it did not leave us with enough time to get that all important winner.



AT LAST!!!

We broke our away day hoo-doo with a 2-0 victory over Brighton. I was getting worried that once again, this would end up a draw or even worse before Greenwood got a late goal from a corner and then Martial sealed the deal with a 94th minute penalty.



I decided to play a few key players against Rotherham to hopefully boost their confidence, it didn't work, but we still won 1-0 in a rather dull encounter. We play Doncaster Rovers at home in the next round of the FA Cup.



Easily one of the best results of the season. What was looking to be another dull encounter was lit up in the second half, particularly due to great performances from Fernandes and James. It will do wonders for our goal difference which you will see is getting mightily important.



This game on the other hand will not do wonders for our goal difference. Thankfully we still got the win, but we could and should have won by more goals. Thankfully a wonder goal by Bruno Fernandes got us the win.



It's shaping up to be a hell of a title race, but we are going to have to start winning by more goals, otherwise we are going to have to hope to win this title on points.



Player of the month has got to be Bruno Fernandes who is finally starting to come to form with a couple of crucial goals and assists.



Thank you all for reading, if there's anything more you'd like to see, Please feel free to ask.

A few sloppy performances in defeats could be costly, but your position in the table looks to remain strong.