David Moyes should axe Ashley Young

Standing in the singing section at Old Trafford on Sunday watching relegation battling Fulham, fail to do what Everton, Newcastle, Spurs and West Bromwich Albion have done this season and beat United at Old Trafford, one thing became abundantly clear. As the two different Adnan Januzaj chants rang out at various times- personally I prefer the ‘boy who can do anything’ one- it became obvious what was causing the fans to sing Januzaj’s name.

Ashley Young, didn’t have the worst of games against Fulham. In fact, he’s not been the worst player in a Red shirt for sometime, despite the lack of popularity he enjoys, or rather endures among the Old Trafford faithful. The problem for Young, is quite simply there are better options available for Moyes and almost everyone bar the boss seems to know it.

The obvious option to replace Young is Januzaj, the player who’s been United’s biggest bright spark this season, while Wayne Rooney may have been the champions’ best performer during David Moyes’ tenure it’s the young Belgian who’s given the fans something, just anything, to cheer about.

If Moyes is going to persist with his 4-2-3-1 formation, which everyone bar him seems to realise is just a conventional 4-4-2 then Januzaj should surely be one of the wide men, Young may have bagged two goals in his last eight games, but he’s yet to provide a solitary assist all season, something that’s quite frankly abysmal.

Januzaj on the other hand, has scored one more goal than his team mate and has also bagged a couple assists, admittedly hardly enough to automatically warrant a starting place in the side, but an improvement nonetheless. Forgive me, but the atmosphere at United at the minute, both on the pitch from what we can see and in the stands, resembles a hospital waiting room and one of the few players who gives everyone a lift is Januzaj, so it’s time to start using him.

The other player who has given everyone at United a boost, although the honeymoon is drawing to a premature end, is Juan Mata and the fact he’s been shifted out wide most games borders on criminal. Again this ties in with the tired old 4-4-2 formation in whatever guise you wish to label it, that Moyes has persisted with. Mata has to be used more centrally and the only way to do that would be part of a front three of Rooney and Robin Van Persie.

If Moyes were to finally ditch the 4-4-2 formation that’s become something of a joke, then could United switch to 4-3-3 with RVP, Mata and Rooney being the forwards, interchanging and working in tandem? There’s every reason to think so as both Rooney and Mata often like to drift wide while RvP is no stranger to roaming should he feel the need to. To make this work, though, United would need three central midfielders rather than two, which could help solve some of the problems they’ve been facing in the middle of the park.

A central three of anyone from Ryan Giggs, Phil Jones, Marouane Fellaini, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick and Tom Cleverley backing up the three forwards could prove just the tonic for Moyes’ struggling side, unfortunately for Young, it doesn’t leave a space for an inconsistent winger. It’s time for the United manager to make some changes and Young may be on the receiving end of them.