Manchester United’s U21 side were defeated 3-1 on Tuesday night by Nordsjaelland with Sekou Kone having some positive moments.
Travis Binnion watched his side concede a flurry of terrible goals against the Danish side to give away an insurmountable deficit.
Manchester United did pull one back through Chido Obi in the second half, but it was too little too late as the scoreline ended 3-1 for the visitors at Moss Lane.
There were few positives to take from the game, Obi was one.
Another positive was some of the on-ball work from another summer addition Sekou Kone.
18-year-old Kone cost United £1m from Guidars FC in Mali and has been slowly integrated into the U21 side. Against Nordsjaelland, Kone did well receiving the ball deep and playing out of pressure with dribbles and quick passes.
However, Binnion was not so impressed by Kone.
READ: Man Utd under-21s top scorers and assists in 2024/25, all results
Travis Binnion sets the gauntlet for Sekou Kone
Kone’s comeback from injury continued on Tuesday, after making his return at the weekend.
After the 3-1 defeat, Binnion told club media what he thought of Kone’s performance and actually had criticisms over the Malian talent’s fitness.
“Yeah listen I think he’s found tonight really hard. It’s just about getting games into him and training him.
“He is a good player, he’s going to be a really good player. He’s still getting to grips with the language, the intensity, the positional stuff and his own fitness.
“You’ve seen tonight like, they’re fitter than him and some of our players are fitter than him and that can’t be right.
“In time, he’s got to be everywhere on the pitch and finding it pretty easy physically at this level, so that’s the challenge and where he’s got to get to, and he will get there.
“It’s just nice to see him training and playing and building and working on things.”
Kone’s journey as a Manchester United player is just beginning
Despite Binnion’s critique, it is important to remember that Kone has only made a handful of appearances for United – and it will take time for him to adapt.
Kone’s injury kept him out for two months, which stalled his development, but now the hope will be that a run of games will see him finally begin to adapt to playing football in England.
Ruben Amorim will be watching Kone, with numbers in midfield set to be light this year – with Amorim expected to give Kone a chance in pre-season, although a lot of work will need to be done before then.
United signed Kone for the future, but with one eye on a first-team role in the near future.
Kone is showing signs to be excited by, so it will be intriguing to watch how he evolves over the next year.
As Binnion also suggested, we would assume he will get there.
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