Why does Jesse Lingard get a pass from Manchester United fans?
By Ali Akbar
Manchester United fans seem to go easy on Jesse Lingard because he is an academy graduate – but he can’t keep getting a pass for much longer.
Although there was hope that Manchester United could finish in the Premier League top four when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer first arrived, such optimism quickly vanished when the Red Devils’ form took a nosedive once again in the final third of the season.
Fingers are rightly pointed at the players rather than the new manager, as their similarly dire performances to those witnessed under Jose Mourinho proved that it wasn’t tactics that were to blame for our league position but mentality.
However, although much of the fan and media scrutiny has centred on big-money signings such as Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku, some of our most woeful players towards the end of the season appeared to get a pass. Why? Because they’re home-grown talent.
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One of these players is Jesse Lingard. The academy graduate has been treated like an up-and-coming youth prospect for years. He’s 26 now. Yet fans tear into Pogba and Lukaku when they’re both younger than the Englishman and perform better than him.
Lingard has only scored four goals and registered three assists in the 2018-19 Premier League season. Meanwhile, Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is six years younger and plays at full-back, has registered 12 assists in the same period – more than Lingard has managed in his entire Premier League career!
This is a damning statistic that proves fans are being too easy on our attacking midfielder. If we don’t open up our academy products to the same level of scrutiny as our transfer window recruits, players like Lingard risk ending up like Theo Walcott – someone who looked bright coming up through the ranks at Arsenal but never managed to reach his potential.
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If Lingard doesn’t show much improvement in his performances next season, he should be held to the same standards as everyone else at Manchester United and should be sold in the following transfer window.