While Manchester United’s Young Player of the Year award will almost certainly be handed to Marcus Rashford this season, Timothy Fosu-Mensah is making a late charge for consideration.
The 18-year-old defender has been a breath of fresh air for Manchester United fans in recent weeks with a string of impressive performances since being handed his first team opportunity by Louis van Gaal.
Fosu-Mensah was one of the stand-out performers in United’s FA Cup quarter-final replay triumph over West Ham midweek but a former Manchester City full back has poured some cold water on all of the excitement surrounding the youngster.
Danny Mills has insisted that it takes at least 50 games for a defender to be truly judged as reliable and that the Mosu-Fensah hype may be just a tad premature at the moment.
“Young players often do well for the first four or five games, then tail off a bit,” Mills told BBC 5 Live.
“Sometimes a little bit of reality kicks in, it’s whether they can do it seven to 20 games.
“You’ve never quite made it until you’ve played 50 games. It’s different as a striker, you get thrown on for 10 minutes and if you give the ball away you’re 70 yards from goal.
“If you’re a defender, you make a mistake it ends up in the goal and you can’t get back from that. He’s got a lot of potential and looks a good prospect for the future, but that’s all it is at the moment.”
