Young aims to win back Moyes trust

30 October 2013 17:31

Manchester United winger Ashley Young hopes his encouraging return to the side has pushed him back into manager David Moyes' thoughts.

Young made his first start for United since their infamous derby thrashing by Manchester City in September as they eased into the Capital One Cup quarter-finals with a 4-0 win over Norwich at Old Trafford.

The 28-year-old England international was hauled off early in the second half after a poor display in the 4-1 hammering by City at the Etihad Stadium.

He was not seen in action again for a month, until making a late substitute appearance against Real Sociedad in the Champions League last week.

His next chance came as Moyes made nine changes to face Norwich and Young hopes he impressed enough in a routine victory secured by two Javier Hernandez goals and late Phil Jones and Fabio strikes.

Young told MUTV: "I have not played since the City game. I have been waiting my time and I wanted to get out there and impress.

"I felt I did well, I enjoyed the game. We will have to wait and see what the manager thinks come the weekend."

While Young did look lively on the left, as did Wilfried Zaha on the opposite side on his first appearance since the Community Shield, the show was stolen by Hernandez and Adnan Januzaj.

Hernandez opened the scoring with a 20th-minute penalty and headed a second soon after the break to send another message to Moyes soon after his winner against Stoke last weekend.

Januzaj, whose emergence has been a huge positive in a mixed start to the campaign, maintained his form with an electrifying attacking display throughout.

Assistant manager Steve Round said: "I was really pleased for Wilf Zaha to get a start and play as well as he did.

"Tom Cleverley was excellent, Adnan is getting stronger and stronger as each game goes by.

"One of the other players I was really pleased for was Ashley Young. I thought he had a terrific game.

"He has worked really hard in training to regain his form and put himself back on the line for Manchester United. His performance was excellent."

United are slowly starting to build momentum, having now gone six games unbeaten since their surprise home loss to West Brom at the end of September.

Young felt the performance against Norwich was excellent and accepts the competition for places is tough.

He said: "You just have to look at our squad - players that haven't played have come in and done well.

"Everyone did their jobs. As a whole it was a great team performance.

"Scoring four goals and creating more opportunities to score goals was brilliant.

"From the first whistle there was only one team in it and that was us."

Norwich manager Chris Hughton was unhappy about the awarding of United's penalty, given after Januzaj went down on the slippery surface after contact from Leroy Fer.

But after that his side were outplayed and United wrapped up a comfortable victory as Jones volleyed back a clearance past Matt Bunn and Wayne Rooney set up fellow substitute Fabio.

Of further concern to Norwich was a serious-looking injury to midfielder Robert Snodgrass, who was knocked out in a clash of heads with Rafael.

He was carried off on a stretcher and taken to hospital after play was halted for eight minutes.

Hughton later delivered a positive assessment, saying Snodgrass had come round and his trip to hospital was more precautionary, although he would also be x-rayed for possible breakages.

Midfielder Nathan Redmond could also be an injury doubt for the Barclays Premier League trip to Manchester City at the weekend after being withdrawn with a hip injury.

Hughton, who had made eight changes, admitted keeping pace with United had been a tough task.

He said: "They have got 10 very good outfield players, and it is about dealing with all of them.

"When they have got the quality to bring on Wayne Rooney as a substitute, that is the quality you have to deal with.

"Whether it is Young, Zaha - you have to be able to deal with these top player.

"But what we were able to do was limit United's clear-cut chances, but they were just incredibly clinical with the goals they scored."

Source: PA