Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire have both been impressed by Amad Diallo after his arrival from Atalanta and compared him to Man City star Riyad Mahrez.
Shaw, who has impressed massively this season at left-back, thinks Amad is not far away from being regularly involved with the first team.
Thus far he’s made most of his appearances with the U23s, but this past week he was handed a first team debut as United won 4-0 against Real Sociedad in the first leg of their Europa League tie.
Shaw revealed that Maguire, formerly of Leicester City, had compared the teenager to Mahrez – a comparison he gave his approval to.
“He’s still so young but he’s come into training and you can tell he’s got confidence,” Shaw told Sky Sports (the interview was clearly recorded before Amad made his debut v La Real).
“You can tell by the way he plays, his first touch is brilliant, the way he takes the ball and drives at players. He’s got great skills.
“Of course, like I said, he’s very young and got a long way to go. But you can tell already he’s going to be one for the future and I’m sure he’s not far away from getting a first team appearance.
“He’s a wonderful talent and already a wonderful player so I’m sure fans are looking forward to seeing him on the pitch.
“It was interesting because Harry said to me the other day that he reminds him of Mahrez when he was at Leicester.
“Really quick, skilful, agility, can turn really quick, got great skills and I would agree with Harry – he does remind me of Mahrez.
“Even the way Mahrez plays now I’ve seen the qualities that Amad already has and has shown in training.
“Mahrez is a wonderful player so hopefully if he’s any good like him it would be great for United.”
United have a number of quality players coming through the academy at the moment, like Shola Shoretire and Hannibal Mejbri, so we’ve got a lot of talent to work on developing in the coming years.
At least with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in charge we’ve got a manager who believes young players.
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