Breaking Down How Manchester United Can Get Consistent Class from Jesse Lingard

It is easy to think of Jesse Lingard as younger than he is, but in truth, at 23, he is approaching an age wherein Manchester United will be expecting a good deal of consistency from him.

It is a combination of his youthful looks and the fact that this has been his breakthrough season at Old Trafford, which makes it hard to remember that he is a long way from his teenage years. He is a player who was a contemporary of Paul Pogba and Ravel Morrison in the United youth setup, rather than Marcus Rashford and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson.

Paul Gilham/Getty Images

In order to get the best out of him, Louis van Gaal or his successor need to ensure that the player's role fits his attributes and that he is given the freedom to make some mistakes. In spite of being older than the group of teenagers coming through at United, his experience in top flight football is still fledgling.

Nonetheless, Lingard has made a significant impact on United so far this season. He provided what should have been a vital assist against CSKA Moscow at home in the Champions League, then followed it up with a superb goal against West Bromwich Albion at Old Trafford. A long barren spell followed, but then the player found some productive form again.

Alex Livesey/Getty Images

Between 12 January against Newcastle United and 28 February against Arsenal, Lingard played 11 games, scoring four times and providing three assists, meaning a goal or an assist every 0.63 games. Since then, he has been reassigned to a new role, one which at first did not seem a natural fit, though he has been making an impact.

Up until United's past couple of games, Lingard has been playing wide—mostly on the right; occasionally on the left. This seems relatively natural for a player whose best qualities are his speed, abundant energy, directness of purpose and intelligent movement off the ball.

His work ethic on the wing has been valuable to his side, especially given the turnover at full-back that has been brought about by injury and rotation on Van Gaal's part.

The latter was noted by Rio Ferdinand, who tweeted a favourable comparison of Lingard's vision when compared with his peers.

However, almost inevitably given his inexperience and the nature of playing on the wing, there have been times he has drifted out of games or been unable to make much impact on the outcome. The nadir of this came against Sunderland away in February. He made just 26 touches of the ball in his 62 minutes on the pitch—when Matteo Darmian had got to 20 in the 36 minutes before he went off injured.

Three of those touches were categorised as unsuccessful, meaning he lost the ball through miscontrol. It was, all in all, a bad day at the office. 

Recently, Van Gaal has made a switch that he presumably believes will get more consistent performances out of the 2011 FA Youth Cup winner.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

While it seemed baffling that he would deploy Lingard at No. 10 and Juan Mata at right wing—as he did against Liverpool and Manchester City—that bafflement was more about the effect on Mata than on Lingard.

After all, the United academy graduate is a player who was described by former United coach Rene Meulensteen as having the potential to become "the English version of [Andres] Iniesta," per the United Review, the club's programme, in November 2015.

After the win at the Etihad on 20 March, Van Gaal was asked about Lingard's good performance at No. 10 and replied, per the club's website:

"

That is why I have put him there [because he played well], but sometimes also I need a right winger who is fast. It’s also dependable on the opponent and the game plan, but I think Jesse is more of a midfielder than a right-winger. He played there two times very well.

"

For now, this seems a good way to get some consistency out of Lingard, though something has to be done about the team's balance when Mata plays wide on the right, a position to which he frankly appears unsuited.

Playing Lingard centrally allows him to make the best use of that intelligent movement cited by Ferdinand, and while his passing may not be anything like Iniesta's, there is ample evidence in his movement of the kind of footballing intelligence required to make good decisions.

He has proved he can do damage with his long-range shooting, too, as evidenced by the goal against West Bromwich Albion at home. 

He needs time, and he could do with a set role in the squad. It may, in fact, prove that he will never be able to hit the kind of consistency required at the top level. But giving him an extended run in the centre of the park seems like a good attempt to help him get there.

He will have poor games and needs patience from both staff and fans, but he is evidently a real prospect. He has been at United for a very long time, and his success would be well worth celebrating.

Advanced data per WhoScored.com.