United's Young Guns

Two very comparable performances and two very comparable results from Manchester United's youngsters over the past week has many people, including myself, wondering - does this new breed from United's acamedy have what it takes?

A miserable 1-0 home loss to Besiktas in the Champions League (their first in the group stage for eight years!) followed with a dominant 2-0 win at home to Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup leaves me dumbfounded.

Spurs' line-up last night was by no means week with only Niko Krancjar unable to play due to being cup-tied. Playing Alan Hutton and Gareth Bale at full-back also does not constitute a weak line-up as the rest of the team consisted of that of which gained a creditable draw at Villa Park at the weekend.

Looking at the United starting XI before the game you would think that the presence of Wilson Palacios and Jermaine Jenas would overpower that of Darron Gibson and Anderson. Oh how you'd be wrong.

A lot of people are comparing Gibson to a young Roy Keane but I tend to disagree. Gibson strikes me as more in the mould of Paul Scholes - brilliant with the long range strike (look at both of his goals against Spurs and one at the end of last season against Hull) and always looking for the ball from the defence.

Anderson reminds me more of Keane with regards to his appetite and tackling but minus the Brazilian style and dribbling of course.

Ritchie de Laet was a surprise choice at left back, and he coped well, at first against the below average David Bentley and then against the menacing Aaron Lennon as the two wingers switched sides in the 77th minute.

The two strikers on show, Danny Welbeck and Federico Macheda, performed their duties well. Welbeck showed a lot of hustle in the first half, closing down the opposition's defenders and providing the assist for the first goal.

Macheda came on and performed well up front by himself, showing some skill in the midfield to retain possession.

A killer instinct is maybe what this boy needs.

I won't be the first to say that Gibson now warrants a place in the United first team squad now. He find himself in Darren Fletcher's situation a few years back - a League Cup player, in and out of the first team. It's only a matter of time before he makes the step up.

Welbeck and Macheda, well, I have always maintained that Welbeck reminds of a young Thierry Henry - his stature, his strength and pace as well as his finishing (check out his FA Cup goal against Derby last season).

Macheda is the one I worry about. His lack of game time is certainly not helping and he rarely finds himself on the bench for a Premier League game, only time will tell if Ferguson has faith in him.

As a matter of fact, time will certainly tell if Sir Alex has faith in any of his new class of United's star potentials.