Shorter, Better, Faster, Stronger: How a New Ashley Young Is Settling at United

Ashley Young's 18 million pound move from Aston Villa raised many United fan's eyes. The summer was filled with the usual rumours of exotic European transfers, from Eden Hazard to Alexis Sanchez, along with tedious pieces about signing Paul Scholes' replacement, signing a winger seemed next on Sir Alex Ferguson's agenda.

With the amount of money Sir Alex was disposing of for the signature of David De Gea and Phil Jones, it seemed like the manager was willing to pull out all the stops to get his targets. 

Therefore, the signing of a 26-year-old winger from a mid-table Premier League club, Aston Villa, who wasn't selected for his nation's World Cup campaign, not to forget was on the last year of his contract, for close to 20 million pounds was a bit surprising to say the least.

Young, while posing impressive numbers over his career at Aston Villa, 30 goals and 44 assists in 157 appearances, he was thought of as no one more than a talented but ultimately inconsistent winger who was very one-dimensional.

A player who ultimately was not much of an improvement from Nani and Antonio Valencia. Much was discussed about how Young would fit into the lineup, my opinion was that he was brought in to increase the depth in the winger's position—something United did not have last season. 

A lot was expected from Young when he arrived at Villa after just six months in the Premier League for his youth club, Watford, for a high price of 10 million pounds. In the coming seasons, Young would continue his development, having a stellar 2007-08 season, in which he ended up with an astonishing 17 assists for the season. But towards the end of his Villa career, his ability began to stagnate as the tactics around him prevented him from expressing his true potential and creativity.

Ronaldo came into United a talented right winger and left as one of the most complete players in recent history, capable of assists and goals from all sides of the pitch, something Ashley Young was not given the license to at Aston Villa. 

Being around players of largely lesser technical ability, a lot of emphasis on the creation of goals was put on Ashley Young's shoulders. Additionally, the lack of offensive firepower made Villa play a more defensive game compared with what United have played this season.

More emphasis was placed on the counterattacking by playing the ball long over defenses and quick crosses into the box. Also, having Emile Heskey in the side didn't help Young's case since there is only one way he can score.

Ultimately, Young was made to look much more one-dimensional than what he was truly capable off. The above display of his passes (blue: made, red: missed) indicates the amount of long ball attempts Young was forced to make as part of Villa's attacking system which was dependent upon the constant service from the wings to their one-dimensional premier goal-poacher, Darren Bent.

A system which showed little of Young's ability to pass and move into space. A picture of Young's passing performance against Arsenal shows the difference in playing style Young is adopting while playing for United's fluid front-four system.

An obvious difference can be spotted with the length of the lines representing Ashley Young's passes against Arsenal. Compared to the approximately six long balls into the box against Birmingham, Young attempted just three against Arsenal—all inside the Arsenal box. The amount of completed short passes illustrates Young's ability to play the shorter part of the game with efficiency—something which wasn't on frequent display during his time at Villa. 

That aspect of his game is essential to a new-look United during this season. While United have always been known as an attacking side with a killer ability to hit sides on the break, their ability to possess and pass the ball in the middle was put under question during the last season with the blame being put on the lack of quality in the center of the pitch—something which fueled fan's desires for an expensive central midfielder rather than a winger like Young. 

United's new attacking system with Cleverley-Anderson in the middle and an attacking front four of Young-Nani-Welbeck-Rooney has compensated for that weakness in retaining possession by bringing forward a quick passing system built to find space in midfield by short passing and quick movement amongst midfielders and attackers.

A system which relies on the attackers versatility and ability to quickly move the ball along with having the intelligence to push into space in order to receive the ball again—something akin to the formation brought forward by legendary manger Rinus Michels and adopted by Ferguson in the 2007-08 season when Ronaldo-Rooney-Tevez-Nani-Carrick-Scholes comprised the deadly front six that won United the League and Champions League double. 

That being said, perspective should be taken when looking at Young's performance against Arsenal. At the end of the day, Arsenal put out an extremely mediocre defensive backline that had absolutely no collective idea as to how to play against United's talented attacking system. The sheer lunacy of decision to play a high line dumbfounded even the newest of football fans.

A match against United at Old Trafford, a place where United had won all but one of their games last season, with a second-string defence and Wenger decides to play a high line?

You're havin' a larf! Not every side will present opportunities to score like Arsenal did on Sunday, so there will still be many occasions where United will not be able to pass through retreating defences and then the onus will be on Young to deliver crosses from the flanks onto the strikers.

His ability to cross accurately was tested in the first match of the season against West Brom. As the match veered towards the end with United unable to retake the lead, Young saw a lot more of the ball wide left in the final third and was made to cross the ball with United piling bodies in the box.

After multiple failed attempts, it was Young's cross which brought about the own goal which ultimately won the match for United. A poor return of of zero crosses completed from 15 attempts shows that, with all the positives emitting from Young's performance against Arsenal, there is still some improvement needed from Young, especially in terms of his ability to cross the ball efficiently if United are to be able to get past well-drilled defences like Hodgson's West Brom.