Manchester United fielded a much rotated team against Rayo Vallecano on Sunday after fielding a first choice side against Atletico Madrid just over 24 hours earlier.
This gave Erik ten Hag the chance to call up several young players, with Zidane Iqbal, Alejandro Garnacho and Ethan Laird among those to feature.
Shola Shoretire, Hannibal and Isak Hansen-Aaroen all made it off the bench too – but not everybody did so. Young striker Charlie McNeill just missed out.
Despite this ‘so near yet so far’ brush with a first ever appearance for the senior team, McNeill is staying positive and looking on the bright side.
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McNeill misses out
McNeill scored five goals during Manchester United’s FA Youth Cup run, just narrowly behind Alejandro Garnacho, who struck seven.
While his teammate lit up Old Trafford with an excellent performance against Rayo, McNeill was unfortunate to miss out.
The 19-year-old wrote on Instagram that he enjoyed simply being part of the first team squad and found it a great boost ahead of the hard work to come.
McNeill scored a hat-trick in an under-19s pre-season match against Bayern Munich last week, before providing a match winning assist in a under-21 win over Kidderminster.
Since joining United in 2020 from Manchester City, McNeill has scored 40 goals for the club in competitive youth games.
This season he will be looking to cement himself as a key player at under-21 level with D’Mani Mellor gone, and hopefully receive a first team chance.
United are low on strikers, this has been evident throughout pre-season, and while McNeill has not received any minutes with the first team, he isn’t too far away. Simply being in the squad shows he is on Erik ten Hag’s radar, and he has to keep working.
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