Manchester United weren’t in action on Saturday, October 26th but the more exciting version of the team put away their opponents 6-0.
Manchester United U18s continued their thrilling start to the season with a 6-0 win vs Nottingham Forest U18s but the headlines went to one man and deservingly so.
Chido Obi-Martin announced himself to the Man Utd fans with a stunning 14-minute hat-trick on debut, putting his team 3-0 up after the first 14 minutes.
He was a menace throughout the game and the fans are already dreaming when Obi-Martin could make his senior Man Utd debut.
Of course, it’s just one game but it looks like he’s already too good to be playing for the U18s. In the meantime, the player has spoken out for the first time after hitting a hat trick for United.
Chido Obi-Martin’s message after a hattrick
Chido Obi-Martin’s goalscoring record at the youth level already made sure that he is no stranger to scoring goals but not many would have predicted this start.
After all, he couldn’t train with the team as the Premier League ratified his move from Arsenal so some rustiness was expected.
He had made his debut for the team in the previous game where Jim Thwaites outshone Obi-Martin but he wasn’t letting the glory spotlight away from him here.
Three killer finishes had him looking like a man playing amongst boys which is why it is easy to see him do this regularly for the U21s by the end of November.
Obi-Martin went on Instagram after the game and sent a four-word message to Man Utd fans and the rest of the footballing world.
It sounded ominous and provided a sign of things to come as he simply put: “Happy to be back”, with a praying emoji with no words about his performance.
Pretty much every teammate of his replied. Jack and Tyler Fletcher responded, with the latter calling him “The main man” while Amir Ibragimov termed his performance a “joke”, so good was he on his first start.
Balancing hype with reality in Chido Obi-Martin’s case
It is hard to not get carried away with a youngster who arrived with massive expectations and not only lives up to it but arguably surpasses them in a dream scenario.
However, it was already known that he dominates at the U18s level, the only unknown was how he would do in a new team.
Still, United U18s have been flying so he joined a team that was scoring plenty before him as well. Therefore, the next step will be to see how he handles the promotion to U21s.
At the U18s level, his physical dominance over his peers is easy to see and that can sometimes give a false assessment of the overall skill set.
It happened with Joe Hugill and while Obi-Martin’s game looks well-rounded, the hype around him needs to be balanced with careful progression through the ranks.
Hot-shotting him into the first-team conversation isn’t the way to go, even though there’s a clear need for a killer finisher.
A 16-year-old joining a new team after no team training for months can’t be the answer, at least not right away. It wouldn’t be fair to him.
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