Matic: Young Players Need Freedom

Nemanja Matic says giving young players the freedom to express themselves is key to their development and he will continue to do all he can to help Manchester United's budding stars.

Matic started alongside 21-year-old Scott McTominay in Wednesday's 1-0 win over Bournemouth, having also partnered him in the UEFA Champions League victory over Benfica earlier this season. The match came on the back of the news that Angel Gomes has signed his first professional contract with the club, after making his debut at the end of last season and in turn becoming United's youngest ever player since Duncan Edwards in 1953.

Matic has been highly impressed by the way McTominay in particular has taken to life in United's first-team engine room and the experienced campaigner discussed the importance of not putting further pressure on the Reds' young starlets.

"I think the young players just need freedom [to play], you don’t need to put extra pressure on them because they feel the pressure when they’re on the pitch playing for Manchester United, they have enough pressure, so you have to try to release them a little bit and then they can show all their quality," he explained in an interview with MUTV.

"The manager is there to explain to someone like Scott what he needs to do and I’m really happy for him because he’s a good guy and I’m sure in the future he will get more chances to play and show his qualities."

He went on: "The most important thing for a young player is that they’re focused on their job and that they’re not focused on things outside of football. He has exactly what he needs to become a big player. He’s working a lot every day and is looking to the older players to take things from them and to learn and I’m sure that he will be an England star and a Manchester United star because I think he is born for this job."

Asked about the best piece of advice he was given as a youngster that he still follows to this day, Matic revealed: "When I was young I just tried to, let’s say, copy the older players… how they work and how they were as professionals.

"We are all different, you cannot try to do what the other players do because one player has one quality and you might have another, but I always tried to look at everything about how they worked, how they were professional and all these things."