Which academy star will make the breakthrough on pre-season tour – Part 2 | OneFootball

In a summer packed with international football with Manchester United players taking part at the European Championship and Copa America, United’s pre-season will kick off with a depleted squad available.

As a result Erik ten Hag will have to draft in a number of academy players to fill the holes for the pre-season tour.

With United’s u18s hot off the back of a treble-winning season, the timing couldn’t be any better to dip into the never ending production line of talents at Carrington.

Therefore, we take a deeper look at some of the names who could burst onto the scene this summer in our five part series. If you missed the first edition, you can view it here.

In our second part of the series, we look at the Denzil Haroun Reserve Team Player of the Year, Elyh Harrison.

In arguably the toughest position to break through into the first team, it won’t be easy for Harrison but his talent is worth a mention.

Many talented keepers have come through the ranks in recent years but ultimately weren’t given a real chance to claim the number one shirt, such as Matej Kovar and Dean Henderson.

Harrison will be hoping for a different outcome this time around and with Altay Bayindir at the Euros and Tom Heaton training with England, he will be hoping to split playing time in the early pre-season matches with Andre Onana.

An England u18 international, the first thing noticeable about Harrison is his distribution of the ball, which is increasingly becoming a more important factor in a keeper’s role.

Extremely composed on the ball, Harrison always looks to play out of pressure perhaps to a fault even, but with his ability which has seen him nutmeg strikers with ease, it can be worth the risk to beat the press and counter.

In a more traditional keeping sense, the 18 year old’s shot stopping is also impressive and he possesses quick reflexes to sprawl for lower shots.

The only weakness in the young keeper’s game has been his shorter stature. But a little growth spurt in the last 12 months and a more intense physical routine to put on muscle has seen Harrison improve in his commanding of the area.

Coming up against bigger opponents at u21s level, Harrison has progressively improved aerially with his claiming of high balls.

While it continues to need work, the signs of a continuous progression are the most important at this stage of development of a young keeper.

So a keeper may have the most difficult challenge to break into Manchester United’s first team, but if anyone could do it, it is Elyh Harrison.

The next of this academy breakthrough series will be published tomorrow, bookmark thepeoplesperson.com so you don’t miss out.

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