Man Utd played Wrexham in pre-season on Saturday afternoon and the club’s youngsters played in the second half.
Manchester United boss Michael Carrick was impressed by youngster Jacob Devaney in the defeat to Wrexham on Saturday. United began their pre-season schedule against the Welsh club and Carrick made wholesale changes at half-time.
The senior players were replaced by an academy XI for the second half. Devaney played at centre-back and emerged with his reputation enhanced considering his natural position is midfield.
The 19-year-old spent the second half of last season on loan with St Mirren. First loans can be challenging for young players, but Devaney excelled during his time in Scotland.
St Mirren maintained their Scottish top-flight status and Devaney started in both relegation play-off matches. That meant his time in Scotland ended with him having not started just two games.
Carrick liked what he saw from United’s youngsters against Wrexham, but he singled out Devaney for praise. “I was really pleased with the second-half team,” he told MUTV.
“I thought they controlled the game really well against a team that’s not easy to play against, and makes you work for it, and they can play long into.
“I thought that, in general, the boys took responsibility and showed their quality. Again, that final bit of trying to break down a lot of bodies behind the ball, at this stage of pre-season it’s not easy to find that sharpness. I think they can really be proud of themselves.
“JD playing centre-half, it’s not natural to him, he’s played there a little bit, but not a lot and I thought he did ever so well.
“He had a really successful few months up there [in Scotland] and it was good to see him kind of take that next step. And you could see today the confidence and the assurance in his game, even though he was playing a slightly different position.
“He was vocal, he was commanding and, yeah, I liked a lot of what he did there.”
Tyler Fletcher captained the youthful United team in the second half. The young midfielder received a late call-up to Scotland’s squad for the World Cup, but he has already reported back to Carrington for pre-season.
“He’s had an eventful three or four months, really,” said Carrick. “He had a couple of weeks off [after the World Cup]. He didn’t want long off. He wanted to get back into it, and again, I think he stepped into the game and took that responsibility. He led the team in the second half really well.”
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