The 4-0 result in the Bangkok Century Cup pre-season match between Manchester United and Liverpool, Tuesday (12/7), was quite a shock to the football world. The appearance of Manchester United, which has just undergone its first game under the direction of Erik Ten Hag, is considered quite impressive. In this match, both teams presented a total of more than 50 players to alternate performances.
The pre-season match is certainly a separate facility for young players and new players to “find face” in front of the team architect. Tyrell Malacia, a new Man United player who has been waiting for his appearance, actually lost out to Zidane Iqbal. On the other hand, the brilliance of the young Man United player is actually not too surprising.
Previously, Iqbal was praised by Ten Hag’s staff for his performance in the training session. The results of that practice carried over to their first pre-season match. Iqbal’s calm in United’s midfield seemed to give a glimmer of hope in the face of Jurgen Klopp’s gegenpressing applied by Liverpool in the match.
One of the most golden moments from him was the dribbling he did who knows how many times and also when he showed off his vision and passing with a long pass to Anthony Elanga who was unfortunately caught offside. You can see Iqbal’s ability when facing Liverpool’s senior players who were revealed in the second half in the following video.
Then, who is this Middle Eastern boy who stole the show?
Iqbal is an Iraqi local boy from Manchester. The boy who was born in 2003 has been recorded as playing football since 2007 with the Sale United team. In 2012, Zidane finally broke into Manchester United’s youth squad.
The midfielder with number 73 on the back was originally a more attacking-oriented player. This can be seen from his statistics when defending the Man United U18 squad with a record of seven goals and one assist in 16 matches. However, Iqbal’s role began to shift when he entered another age group. This allows him to operate in almost every midfield position.
In the match against Liverpool, Iqbal was seen as a complete figure. The Iraqi player seems to have the attributes of passing, dribbling, and a pretty good vision of playing in the match against Liverpool. In fact, he is able to take advantage of his agility for defensive situations, such as grabbing the ball.
Ten Hag said he was surprised by the player’s abilities. Reporting from the Metro page, the manager also questioned why the player has not been given many opportunities in the main squad so far.
Actually, the pre-season match against Liverpool was not his first appearance for the senior Man United squad. Iqbal had previously debuted in the final match of the UCL group stage together with his colleague, Charlie Savage. It’s just that their coach at the time, Ralf Rangnick only gave them the opportunity to enter the field a few minutes before the game was over. As a result, not much can be known from this one player, especially for fans who don’t really explore the young squad.
For Man United fans, the presence of these young talents is a breath of fresh air as well as good news. The reason is, Ten Hag is quite well known as a coach who likes to orbit young academy talents. When he served as Ajax manager alone, Erik was recorded to have tried and orbited 21 names of academy players. Some popular names include Noussair Mazraoui, Ryan Gravenberch, Mitchell Bakker, Sergino Dest, Jurrien Timber, and Brian Brobbey.
Meanwhile for Man United, players like Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Scott McTominay, and Mason Greenwood may be the latest names that have shined quite a bit after being promoted from the youth team. It has been a long time since the Man United architects have really taken advantage of young players from the academy as Sir Alex Ferguson had in his prime. If true, then Man United supporters can have a little hope with the project of young Man United players which hopefully Ten Hag will realize.
For the case of Iqbal himself, the management of Man United seems to have sniffed the potential of this player’s ability. The team nicknamed the Red Devils has secured the player’s signature by offering a contract last June. This contract will keep the player at Old Trafford until 2025 with the option of a year extension. Now, the choice is up to the Ten Hag: take advantage of it or drop it like it used to be?
The midfield is one of the most highlighted lines of the Man United squad. The accumulation of players in this line does not seem to be accompanied by really qualified quality for a team of the caliber of Man United. That’s also what made Ten Hag insistently wanting to bring in his former foster child, Frenkie de Jong to Old Trafford.
On the one hand, United’s “fat” midfield makes Ten Hag have many options for rotation. Not to mention, the existence of young players like Iqbal who sooner or later will definitely get the opportunity to show their abilities in competitive matches. Of course it is still too far to say that the 19-year-old player can fill the void in the Man United midfield. However, it is not impossible that Iqbal could be an option for Ten Hag to rotate his midfield. The possibility is certainly still wide open because the Red Devils will appear in four different competitions next season.
All parties certainly have high hopes for Iqbal and other young players to be able to continue to improve their abilities. These players must continue to be disciplined and work hard in order to meet the expectations of the Dutch boss. It will be a pity if these young talents only end up as bench warmers or “call players” who only go back and forth on loan to other clubs.
ASL
