Kevin Kilbane was on Friday’s OTB AM and spoke about how Manchester United youngster Mason Greenwood fared against Astana.
The 17-year-old scored his first goal for the Red Devils against the Khazak side but Kilbane felt that the youngster looked out of depth.
“It wasn’t the greatest of games. I think United dominated the game really. In fairness, Greenwood didn’t have the greatest of games himself.
“He looked like he was outpowered a lot of the time. He probably didn’t look strong enough physically to deal with Astana at times,” Kilbane said.
In the lead up to the game, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said that Greenwood was the best finisher he’d ever seen. Kilbane wasn’t buying it.
“It probably was a load of nonsense. It’s probably something to give the young lad a bit of confidence, I imagine.
“He took his goal well, that’s the thing. He’s obviously a really good finisher. We’ve heard that comment about so many different players over the years, haven’t we?
“I just think it was maybe a bit of a throwaway line from Solskjaer in the lead-up to the game,” Kilbane commented.
Greenwood turns 18 in October and while Kilbane wasn’t blown away by his performance he understands that playing in the Europa League is not easy for a teenager.
“His hold-up play wasn’t the greatest but you have to give him the leeway that he’s a 17, 18-year-old kid coming into the fray there last night and he hasn’t got a lot of game time on his hands.
“Astana played in a way where they went to United and rarely attacked. They had a few moments where they maybe capitalised on a few errors from Phil Jones.
“But when a lot of the balls were being fired into Greenwood he was losing possession,” Kilbane said.
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