Anthony Elanga could make his Manchester United debut in the Europa League on Thursday night.
The 18-year-old will fly to Spain today for the quarter-final first leg against Granada and he’s the latest youngest in contention for as place as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer continues to show faith in youth.
In the Europa League, clubs are allowed to add homegrown players to their B list for the competition if they meet a certain criteria, according to ManUtd.com.
He won the Jimmy Murphy Young Player of the Year last season and Solskjaer dropped a hint that he could make his first team debut tomorrow night.
“He’ll be in the squad, he’ll be on the bench,” Solskjaer said, as per Manchester Evening News. “He was very unlucky when he got an injury about two or three months ago because he was about to move into the first-team squad then. He has a lot of quality, speed and he is a goalscorer. He likes to beat men and has a right foot and left foot. He has an appetite to develop and to keep learning. It’s not just for the experience. He’s ready to play.”
The Europa League gives the manager a great opportunity to test young players. We’ve seen it when Marcus Rashford was handed his debut under Louis van Gaal, and we can only hope that Elanga shows as much promise when the chance comes.
Hopefully we can get the job done tomorrow night like we did against Real Sociedad.
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