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Manchester United’s Under-18s boss Darren Fletcher has given an early verdict on his new position, revealing one of the most satisfying aspects of the job.
Fletcher’s new role
Fletcher was officially named the new lead coach of the Under-18s last month, replacing the departed Adam Lawrence.
Lawrence left Unitd in pursuit of greener pastures after an incredibly successful stint with the youth group.
Before being handed the reins of the Under-18s, Fletcher held a variety of titles at United. He initially returned to the club in 2020 as an Under-16s coach.
The Scot was then promoted to a first-team coach under Ole Gunnar Solskjær in February 2021. He then went on to become technical director alongside football director John Murtough in March 2021.
As technical director, Fletcher was primarily concerned with providing “technical advice across all aspects of the football department”. However, his responsibilities overlapped as he was often spotted on the bench during matchdays.
Erik ten Hag’s appointment saw Fletcher return to first-team coaching duties – a role he continued to serve in during the early days of Ruben Amorim’s tenure. When Lawrence left, United opted to look within and appointed Fletcher, who is believed to harbour ambitions of becoming a manager in future.
Fletcher kicked off his reign as Under-18s gaffer with a 1-0 victory over Everton last weekend at Finch Farm.
The former midfielder spoke to club media and gave his thoughts on the new role and revealed the most pleasing bit about it.
Fletcher’s remarks on new job
He said, “I’ve really enjoyed it. From the first time together in Germany at the adidas headquarters, the boys have been fantastic. We had pre-season games at Carrington and then we went to Zagreb, and the performance levels, the attitude, the application, in every game, they’ve been a real pleasure to work with so I’m really enjoying it.”
“It’s nice to lead, to be in charge of your own team. I was always in a support role before, so I felt that for the next stage of my development as a coach, it was important that I led a group, and with Adam Lawrence leaving, the opportunity became available and it made sense from a number of reasons.”
“I’m really excited to be on the grass every day, working with the team, implementing Manchester United’s style, club ideas alongside some of my own ideas and it’s been really enjoyable.”
“And the most pleasing thing has been the players’ application and buy-in into it and I’m really enjoying seeing them play the United way.”
He added about the win against Everton, “We’ve spoken about training the way we play. We want the jump to the game to be small. We don’t want to go from low intensity to the high intensity of a game and they’ve applied that. They’re fit because they’ve trained really hard, they’re willing — the application and desire is there — and the intensity is there. They’ve worked hard all pre-season.”
“Overall, I thought it was a great performance. In and out of possession, we were fantastic and dominant. It’s only a 1-0 win, but it should have been more. We probably had 70-75% possession, created numerous chances, but we didn’t take them. That’s something we have to learn from.”
The 41-year-old warned against expecting too much from youngsters while they’re still developing and finding their feet in professional football.
Fletcher emphasised that United’s talented starlets shouldn’t be pushed into growing up too quickly as it could ultimately hamper their progress.
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