Yet another new era has started at Manchester United with head coach Ruben Amorim taking his first training session at the club on Monday.
Fans were interested in knowing whether the Portuguese would stick to his 3-4-3 system or tweak it due to taking over mid-season with quite a few players new to the style.
On first glance, it seemed that the ex-Sporting Lisbon boss was sticking to his guns and playing with three at the back and utilising wing-backs.
There were interesting positional changes for quite a few players but with all the international stars yet to return from national duty, quite a few academy gems were called up for training.
Training updates
It was 16-year-old Godwill Kukonki who grabbed all the headlines with his presence in senior training but as The Manchester Evening News later revealed, he was not the only player in the same age bracket called up by Amorim.
Jim Thwaites was also part of the session and his progress within the academy has gone under the radar somewhat but coaches have tipped him to enjoy a great career.
Jim Thwaites also took part in first team training today!
Here he’s pictured alongside Godwill Kukonki receiving instructions from Ruben Amorim. pic.twitter.com/NZDX7yCR4v
— SCOOP. (@AcademyScoop) November 18, 2024
“Manchester United youngster Jim Thwaites took part in first-team training on Monday, despite being aged just 16 years old. Thwaites is considered as one of the academy’s leading prospects in his age group,” the report outlined.
Despite being only 16, Thwaites is already a regular for the U18s, playing in all nine league games this term while scoring four and adding two assists.
Thwaites’ rise
The midfielder is also something of a set-piece specialist and he even won the club’s Goal of the Season award for both the U16s and U18s last season.
The youngster has already played twice for the U21s and was even called up to first-team training by former boss Erik ten Hag earlier in the campaign.
Amorim is known to trust youth a lot more than the Dutchman and the academy stars must be on their toes to try and impress the new coach. Who knows, their chance might come sooner than expected.
As per MEN‘s report, the other academy stars to be involved in Amorim’s first session include — Jaydan Kamason, Jack Kingdon, Sam Murray, Finley McAllister, Ruben Curley, Malachi Sharpe, Louis Jackson, and Ethan Williams.
Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
