Young Ready For Wembley Test

Ashley Young is confident the Manchester United players have sufficient time to rest and recuperate ahead of Sunday’s EFL Cup final against Southampton at Wembley Stadium. 

Jose Mourinho’s men secured a 1-0 win over Saint-Etienne at the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on Wednesday to progress into the Europa League Round of 16 with an excellent 4-0 aggregate victory. 

The match was played a day earlier than usual due to Les Verts’ local rivals Olympique Lyonnais facing a European home game against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night, and that has afforded United another 24 hours’ rest ahead of the weekend's trip to the national stadium.  

“We have an extra day to recover,” Young told ManUtd.com in France. “The amount of games we play takes its toll at a certain point but we have people who help us to recover. You know your own body, you know what to do to recover. We didn’t play on Thursday this week, we played on Wednesday, so we have an extra day to rest and as long as we recover properly then we will be ready for Sunday.” 

On a personal level, Young has impressed when completing United’s last two matches as a stand-in right-back at Blackburn Rovers and Saint-Etienne. Mourinho has also lavished praise in his direction and, now, the 31-year-old hopes to feature in the cup final against Saints this weekend. 

“I am delighted,” he added. “I am a player who wants to play week in, week out. Everyone in the squad wants to play. Whenever called upon, I have got to go out there, give 110 per cent and play as well as I can. The manager said I was Man of the Match at Blackburn and it was nice to get a compliment. 

“I am also just one of the players who want to get back on the training pitch, go again and look forward to the next game. It would be fantastic to play on Sunday at Wembley, but that is down to the manager to decide. As long as I'm ready then we will just have to wait and see.”
 
Reflecting on Wednesday’s game, United’s number 18 amusingly admitted that the plan to silence the fiery home crowd was ultimately fruitless. “It may have helped us to be honest,” he laughed. “For them, they were 4-0 down [on aggregate] and their fans were still singing. We said we wanted to keep the crowd quiet and that wasn’t the case! We just had to concentrate on our jobs, go out there and perform. 

“I think every man performed. Going a man down [following Eric Bailly's dismissal], we knew it was going to be difficult so we had to keep our shape. We did that really, came out the other side and got the result we duly deserved.”

Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored the only goal in France before he was substituted in the first-half due to injury, and Young hopes his team-mate will be able to feature at Wembley. “I didn’t actually know what had happened,” Ash said. “Obviously I spoke to him at half-time to make sure he was alright, but we had a job to go out and do. Fingers crossed, we want everyone fit and ready for Sunday.”

Find EFL Cup features and previews in our special section at www.manutd.com/EFLCupFinal.

Credit: Manutd.com