Which academy star will make the breakthrough on Man United’s pre-season tour – Part 1 | OneFootball

A summer packed with International football sees Manchester United players taking part at the European Championships and Copa America, so 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.

The first academy star to look at can’t be anyone other than Harry Amass.

The 17 year old joined United in the summer of 2023 from Watford and immediately took the u18s by storm with a man of the match style performance on his debut against Sunderland.

An ever present in Adam Lawrence’s treble winning u18s, Amass spent the latter stages of last season on the bench for the first team, but was never handed his debut by Ten Hag.

With no fit senior left backs though, pre-season marks the perfect opportunity for Amass to break his duck and get an opportunity.

After a year of absence through injury for Tyrell Malacia and with Luke Shaw being in and out of the squad with his injury issues, left back has become a position of need but funds may be prioritised on other areas, meaning Amass could be looked to as the solution.

In search of a fill-in for Shaw, there is not another footballer in the world more stylistically similar.

While not the tallest, Amass has a physically robust frame which allows him to hold his own against bigger opponents and he took to u21s football like a duck to water.

Having trained with the first team for months, the youngster will be fully aware of the physical requirements and will have a chance to test himself in pre-season against senior opposition.

In terms of talent, Amass is one of the very best in his age group with a special ability in possession.

During Shaw and Lisandro Martinez’s absences last season, the first team struggled a great deal with working the ball through the first phase.

This is a problem that Shaw usually alleviates and Amass has the tools to take up the mantle, having exceptional composure to take the ball under pressure and play through a press.

This perfectly fits into Ten Hag’s preferred fullback blueprint. Where the likes of Shaw or Diogo Dalot are often used to push centrally into midfield, Amass has been deployed in a similar role by Lawrence.

Possessing a good turn of pace in his locker, the academy star doesn’t have quite the explosive top speed as Shaw, but it may yet come as he continues to grow into the body of an adult.

His never ending engine though allows him to get up, down, and inside the pitch for 90 minutes long, impressing both in attacking and defensive phases.

Amass’ breakout has also recently been tipped by Shaw himself, who undoubtedly sees a lot of himself in the youngster, and may find himself with a new competitor this season.

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

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