Rojo: Youngsters' Rise No Surprise

Marcos Rojo insists that while the emergence of Manchester United's exciting young stars this season may have come as a shock to many people, it has not been a surprise within the club.

Prolific striker Marcus Rashford has, of course, grabbed most of the headlines with his brilliant return of seven goals in 12 games at the tender of 18, but others including Tim Fosu-Mensah, Jesse Lingard, Guillermo Varela and Cameron Borthwick-Jackson have also excelled when given their opportunity.

Their contributions have been vital in helping the Reds to reach this weekend's Emirates FA Cup semi-final at Wembley and to stay in the fight for a top-four finish, and Rojo has been impressed by what he's seen, particularly from Rashford and Fosu-Mensah.

The Argentina defender told MUTV: "It might have come as a surprise to everyone else, but certainly not us. It is not a surprise for us because they have been training with us for a while so we had seen what they could do.

"Tim has great maturity and copes really under pressure, while Marcus has been vital for us and has brought us some important goals that came in fantastic wins for us.

"They’ve been showing their qualities out there for the first team and in important matches."

Since returning from an injury lay-off in February, versatile Rojo has been a regular at left-back for United. He has helped the Reds earn the best clean sheets record in the league and has high praise for the solid central-defence partnership Chris Smalling and Daley Blind have formed this term.

"What’s really worked is that their respective styles have complimented one another," he explained. "You might say that Daley is not the most physical of central defenders, but he makes up for that with his ability to play the ball out of defence. Chris is a skilful player too, but he’s known for his strength and power. Those two things really strike a great balance.

"It is a good feeling [to have the clean sheets record] because we know that we are doing our main job well. Yes, in some cases we need to get forward and make chances, but we need to ensure that the opposition don’t score against us. So we’re happy that aspect is going well."