Young convinced struggling United are going in right direction

Manchester United captain Ashley Young has no doubt the club is heading in the right direction, saying: “I know what I see day in, day out at training.”

United host Partizan Belgrade tomorrow night looking to bounce back from another disappointing result in the Premier League with defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday by qualifying for the knockout stages of the Europa League.

And Young is confident things are coming together.

“The boys have been working as hard as possible to go out and get results. Obviously things haven’t gone as well as we’d have liked. But that’s not going to dampen our spirits,” he said.

“We’ve got a good game tomorrow to go and qualify out of the group stages and we’ve got games coming up that we believe are winnable games so I think from tomorrow’s game we go on another run and keep putting points on the board.”

Winning the Europa League, as United did two years ago, offers a route into the Champions League, but Solskjaer is not giving up on the top four.

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He said: “It’s one route. You’re not going to talk about the end league table in November. I don’t think anyone can predict that already. We haven’t got as many points as we’d like but we’ll challenge to get to the top four.”

United will be without defender Victor Lindelof, who played at Bournemouth having been a doubt for the game but is now sidelined once more.

Left-back Luke Shaw, who has been out with a hamstring injury since August, was back on the grass but training away from the squad, while Eric Bailly, Diogo Dalot, Angel Gomes, Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba and Axel Tuanzebe all remain absent.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will again use Europe as a chance to give more of his young players an opportunity, and Matej Kovar and Ethan Laird could both be included in the squad.