Former Manchester United coach Rene Meulensteen has praised current United ace Jesse Lingard, likening him to Barcelona stalwart Andrés Iniesta.
Lingard has impressed this season, establishing himself among Mourinho’s core group of starters for United, and Meulensteen rates the 25-year old as the “English Andrés Iniesta”.
Since making his breakthrough in Louis van Gaal’s first competitive match as Manchester United boss, the attacking midfielder has rarely been considered a crucial player for the Red Devils.
Since then however, the England international has gone from strength to strength, scoring 11 goals in all competitions this season.
Tipped to be a a part of Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the World Cup finals this summer, Lingard’s performances have drawn him all sorts of praise, including that from Meulensteen.
Meulensteen worked with United’s youth and reserves sides in the early 2000’s, before taking place alongside Sir Alex Ferguson’s first-team coaching staff from 2007 to 2013.
Talking to Bleacher Report, Meulensteen had this to say about Lingard’s form this season;
I saw so many similarities in their games, and I always believed that Jesse was the English Andres Iniesta.
Like Iniesta, he finds these pockets of space, he is always on the move and has very good feet. The only thing missing until recently was goals, but now Jesse is scoring important goals too.
In my opinion, you could fly Jesse to Barcelona, let him play in Iniesta’s position, and he would comfortably be able to do it and fit in. And he does it in the Premier League, which is more difficult than La Liga, so that is a credit to Jesse.
Meulensteen also admits that he was not the only person to spot Lingard’s dormant talent way back when, claiming that Ruud van Nistelrooy and Diego Forlan were both impressed with the youngsters ability. He continutedl
I can recall players like Ruud van Nistelrooy and Diego Forlan coming down to watch our sessions, and when they saw Jesse, both said, ‘Jesus, this boy is good!’
The major concern with Lingard was always about his being significantly smaller than the other boys in his age group, and when he was an under-18, he stayed with the under-16s because of his size. But the United coaches refused to lose faith and believed he would just take longer to mature as a player.
In England, you need physical strength, and we knew Jesse was never going to be like Cristiano Ronaldo. But Sir Alex himself was never worried by Jesse’s size; all he ever asked us coaches was, ‘Can the boy play?’
