Callum Gribbin Making Waves with Manchester United’s 2nd String

Those watching Manchester United’s youngsters in recent years have had a lot to say about the mercurial emerging talents of Callum Gribbin.

Nick Poole, who covers United’s youth team on Twitter as @ManUnitedYouth, said of the 17-year-old: “Gribbin is the most naturally talented and exciting prospect to come through the ranks at United since Ravel Morrison six or seven years ago. Unfortunately, as with Morrison, there are several attitude-related question marks that cast doubt over the likelihood of him fulfilling his immense potential.”

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In November 2015, Kyle Butterworth of Shoot wrote:

Though his occasional outbursts on Twitter about being benched have seen him in hot water with his coaches, it could perhaps be forgiven given his young age. And in spite of his social media antics, Gribbin’s on-field performances even earned him a substitute appearance for the under-21s against bitter rivals Manchester City last term, at the tender age of just 16.

Regular United youth-team watcher Doron Salomon said: “He’s like a snake on the pitch [in] the way he glides over it, moving this way and that. Technically, he’s outstanding—the close control, the way he uses different parts of his foot for different kinds of passes [and] the way he eases past opponents.”

Here we see Gribbin in action against Wolfsburg last season. His attempt does not quite come off, but his skill means it takes two of the German side’s defenders to get him off the ball:

For the first part of the move, he showed quickness of feet to sucker the defender in for a challenge before knocking the ball past him. That does not go quite right—the ball cannons into the other defender’s legs—but Gribbin has both the speed of thought and technical ability to dig the ricochet out with a side-foot flick and knock the ball into space.

It is slightly overcooked and he loses possession, but playing against a player that talented with the ball at his feet is an enormous challenge, as Barcelona’s youngsters found out in the Otten Cup earlier this summer.

After dropping into space just outside the edge of the area, Gribbin received the ball, took advantage of a moment of poor positional work from a Barca defender, burst into the box, beat two men and slipped the ball past two more for a goal.

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