Nineteen-year-old defender Axel Tuanzebe has been named in José Mourinho's Manchester United starting XI to play Arsenal at the Emirates this evening. 'Who is Axel Tuanzebe?' we hear at least six of you ask. Here's a brief introduction to United's latest academy star.
Who is Axel Tuanzebe?
In 2016, just a week before left-back Cameron Borthwick-Jackson debuted for Louis van Gaal, and a full four months prior to Marcus Rashford's United breakthrough, it was another United teenager who had been plucked from the academy and introduced to the first team.
Per the Manchester Evening News, of the eleven academy graduates to have made United's matchday squad at any stage last season, Tuanzebe was one of the four who never made it onto the pitch. Injury would then hamper his progress.
Now a year older and fully fit, however, the Congolese-born English defender will make his first Premier League start at - of all places - the Emirates, with José Mourinho opting to reshuffle his deck ahead of United's Europa League semi-final second leg with Celta Vigo on Thursday.
The teenager came on as a substitute in Mourinho's first United game, a 2-0 pre-season friendly victory over Wigan back in July. Speaking after the game, Mourinho said of his young defender:
You can play 90 minutes or 1 minute. Sometimes 1 minute is enough.
With Axel, ten minutes is enough! The potential is there, you see it immediately.
You know him better than me because you know him for a few years but if anyone sees him for the first time, ten minutes is enough to see the potential.
Extremely highly regarded by United's reserves manager Nicky Butt, who indeed pointed Tuanzebe out to José Mourinho as one of a handful of future first-teamers in United's youth ranks, the England under-19 international has been training with United's first time since the winter, and was brought into the matchday squad for their EFL Cup semi-final second leg versus Hull. He went on to make his first-team debut against Wigan in the FA Cup.
Standing at six-foot-one, Tuanzebe is renowned for his ability to combine an astute understanding of the game with serious athleticism; he rarely goes to ground in order to make a tackle, but is often one step ahead of attackers on account of his seering pace.
He usually plays at centre-back, but can also operate in a holding midfielder role.
Paul McGuinness, former United youth team coach, explained to MEN how Tuanzebe struck him as a leader as soon as he set foot in Carrington:
It was the first time I'd picked a first-year scholar as captain. I don't think that has happened since Gary Neville was youth-team skipper. Axel did a very good job - on and off the field.
He's in at the deep end today, but it's an acid test for an extremely highly regarded defender within United circles. Perhaps the question will no longer be, 'Who is Axel Tuanzebe?' and instead will be 'Where the hell has he been?'
