Experienced Man Utd stars hammered for ‘letting down’ teenage sensation during Fulham debacle

Top Manchester United stars have been heavily criticised for badly letting down teenage striker Omari Forson after the Red Devils starlet struggled on his Premier League debut.

An injury to in-form frontman Rasmus Hojlund represented a huge blow to Erik ten Hag in the build-up to Saturday’s home clash with Fulham, with United’s injury issues showing no signs of slowing down.

Forson, 19, was handed a surprise start against the Cottagers but struggled to make any sort of impression as United slumped to a 2-1 home reverse to end a run of four successive Premier League wins.

Indeed, the teenage attacker was substituted just seven minutes into the second period and was forced to watch on from the bench as Alex Iwobi struck an injury-time winner for Marco Silva’s men.

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And Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson admitted to having real sympathy for the Red Devils youngster.

Speaking after the match, Merson said: “I felt for him. He was getting a little bit frustrated with himself and lost the ball a couple of times.

“When you come into the team and you’re making your full debut you’ve got to rely on your older players, they’ve got to play well as well.

“He didn’t get that today none of the players around him did well and it didn’t help him.

“I felt sorry for him. The older players let him down not giving the ball in proper places and sort of looking after themselves.

“As an experience he should be proud of himself making his debut for Manchester United at a young age so he should remember that.”

Maguire laments key Hojlund absence

Harry Maguire had looked to have rescued a late point for United before he ended up getting exposed in the build-up to Iwobi’s late winner.

The former United skipper, who was probably fortunate to escape a red card for a dangerous challenge earlier in the game, afterwards bemoaned the absence of Hojlund who could also miss the upcoming Manchester derby.

He said: “We got hit by the injury to Rasmus, who has been big focal point for us but it is up to us to find the solutions and the areas we need to improve on.

“He has been our focal point, we can play into him, he holds it up, he starts the press really well, not only that but Marcus has been playing really well on the left.

“It’s the story of our season, we’ve been injury hit – as other teams have – and we need to find a solution quick.”

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