Ashley Young Continues to Defy Critics for Manchester United

When Gary Neville awarded Ashley Young Man-of-the-Match for his performance for Manchester United in Sunday's derby, it came as little surprise.

Young had been superb. His goal may have required a large slice of good fortune, but he capitalised on it well, executing an agile pirouette before tapping the ball home. His two assists were both superb—the first a perfectly weighted back-post cross for Marouane Fellaini, the second a perfectly weighted free-kick crossed into Chris Smalling's path.

As Juan Mata wrote in his blog after the game: "Ashley was decisive to tie the score and also in our second goal, and after that we could control the game and add up three more points that are very important to reach our goal."

Jon Super/Associated Press

Young's resurgence has been remarkable. The first metric which evidences how different this season has been for him is simply his level of involvement. In the whole of United's last Premier League campaign, Young played 1030 minutes.

This season he has already racked up 1579 minutes of time on the pitch, a number which means this is guaranteed to be the most involved Young has ever been in a United league season.

And it is easy to see why Louis van Gaal has repeatedly looked to the Englishman. Firstly, Young has been happy to be involved, whichever position he has been asked to play. He played at left-back and left wing-back without ever complaining, happily joking about his role on Twitter.

Secondly, he has rarely, if ever, let Van Gaal down. In Young's defence, even when he was at his most pilloried, his work rate was rarely questioned. However, this season, his endeavour has been second to none, as he has patrolled his touchline with vigour.

Thirdly, and most significantly, has been the quality of his performances. Young has made an average 1.2 key passes per league game this season, the fourth highest average of any United player. He has made 1.6 successful crosses per league game, on average, joint top of United's table with Angel Di Maria and ninth best overall in the Premier League.

Sunday's game was good for his figures, as he added two assists, tripling his number for the season.

That his statistics are reasonably impressive is no surprise, given that from a subjective, intangible perspective, it has been clear that Young has been playing better. There is a confidence in his game, a willingness to take on opponents which is evidenced by his average of 1.5 successful dribbles per league game, second only to Di Maria at United.

He has formed an effective working relationship with Marouane Fellaini and Daley Blind on the left-hand side of United's current system. Fellaini and Young act as a classic big-man, little-man partnership but on the wing rather than in the box. When Fellaini receives high balls and controls them with his chest, Young's movement ensures the Belgian has somewhere to go with the ball.

Scott Heppell/Associated Press

Young's end product is still slightly lacking—two goals and three assists is not a great return for the league season—but he did play a good chunk of the campaign in a much more defensive role.

I left Young out of the “Best XI” I compiled last week, and it is still hard to argue that if both players are performing at their highest level, then Young should be keeping Di Maria out of the side. However, on form, it is impossible to argue that Young should be dropped. He is currently one of United's most important players, and his star turn in the derby was a fine example of why.

All statistics per WhoScored.com