Last summer saw Manchester United sign talented young striker Chido Obi from the Arsenal academy, bringing excitement for the future of United’s attack.
Amid poor performances from Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee being ruled out with injury, Obi secured his debut in his first season at the club, making eight appearances under Ruben Amorim.
However, now four games into the season, with Rasmus Hojlund dropped from the squad and now loaned to Napoli, Chido Obi hasn’t even been on the bench under Amorim, with Benjamin Sesko and Joshua Zirkzee ahead of the youngster in the pecking order.
As such, Obi is now getting regular game time with the Under-21s side, having played three games and scoring in the last two against Norwich City and Manchester City.
The Daily Mail has reported that speaking about the pressure on Obi, Under-21s boss Travis Binnion has reported that: “It’s not easy for him because people look at him as this big kid.”
Binnion continued: “He is still very young and still learning his game. Because he has had that exposure of the first team, people expect performance levels that are consistently high and none of these deliver that.
“You’ve got first-team players across the country who don’t deliver consistently high performances. The expectation on him is high but he has to deliver the basics.
“He’s dying to be a footballer. He’s hungry and he’s still learning the game, how to project himself, how to play in a team, how to play in the shape and system and the requirements. The key thing is he wants to play, wants to do well, and he’d train every day if he could!
“Chido will get opportunities with the first team to train because he’s a really important player, but he gets that opportunity to really work on his game and we can work with him.
“When you are in the first-team squad all that matters is Saturday 3pm or Tuesday 7.45pm … that’s the whole focus and he’s not a priority within that, that’s normal. But for us he is a priority and he really needs to see and understand that this is a golden period for him to develop his game.”
As such, it’s expected that Obi will be remaining with the Under-21s side this season, only likely to appear for Ruben Amorim if the club goes through another injury spell, or if the youngster continues to impress the Portuguese manager.
