83% aerial duels won, 4 clearances: Returning United loanee is ray of light in disappointing loss

Manchester United’s Rhys Bennett made a return to the Fleetwood Town line up after a month and a half out of action.

The English defender started his loan well for the League Two side, playing in six out of seven games from the start but this was his first appearance since the 19th of October, away to Port Vale.

He picked up an injury but had been impressing the locals and the BBC reported that the young defender was popular for his “old school” approach to defending.

Fleetwood disappointingly lost 4-2 at home to Doncaster Rovers despite having 63% of the ball.

The Cods also had 11 shots to their opponent’s 10.

Bennett’s performance must be judged in the context that his side conceded four goals and he was one of the two centre backs, however, it was also his first appearance for weeks.

He only received a score of 6.4 on Sofascore but had some good individual statistics for his night’s work at Highbury Stadium.

The youngster made four clearances on the night, completing one interception and one tackle.

The Youth Cup winning captain also battled hard as he won two out of his three ground duels and five out of his six aerial battles.

He had 63 touches of the ball and completed 37 out of 47 passes for a completion rate of 79%.

The 21 year old attempted 10 long balls to launch his team forward but could only connect with four of them.

Whilst the result is far from what Bennett would have hoped for, it is a roadmap back for him and he will hope like his academy teammate, Sonny Aljofree at Accrington Stanley, he can now build up consecutive games in the first team in League Two.

Fleetwood Town will next be in action when they travel to Swindon Town on Saturday afternoon.


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Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.

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