He has impressed today against City.
Opportunities have been scarce for Timothy Fosu-Mensah at Manchester United.
Former United boss Louis van Gaal gave him a few chances to impress in the first team in a variety of positions, but since the arrival of José Mourinho, the Dutch defender has unsurprisingly not had much of a look in.
He was consequently loaned out to Crystal Palace. At the time of the loan deal, Palace still had Frank de Boer in charge (remember him?). The Dutch connection seemed to be a good fit for the player’s development as De Boer planned to play 3-4-3 with Fosu-Mensah as a right sided centre-back.
We all know how the De Boer experiment ended, and in came Roy Hodgson to restore order and organisation to struggling Palace.
This involved reverting to 4-4-2 and re-learning the defensive organisation that made Palace so successful under Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce. Fosu-Mensah or ‘Timbo” as he calls himself on social media has clearly benefited from Hodgson’s coaching.
He has been very impressive in Palace’s clash with Manchester City today, making a lot of United fans hope that they recall him in January.
https://twitter.com/Dannyellis1993/status/947452205849808896
https://twitter.com/CynicalLive/status/947452033308688387
Timothy Fosu-Mensah. Get him back.
— Luke Thomas (@LukeThomas89) December 31, 2017
We surely have to get Fosu-Mensah back in January!
— TW (@TonyW_132) December 31, 2017
Fosu Mensah currently got sane in his back pocket. Get him recalled Jose
— Daniel Fletcher (@DanielFletch97) December 31, 2017
United have their own defensive issues to sort out, which Fosu-Mensah could help with, but we are all aware of Mourinho’s record when it comes to bringing through young players.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah should be recalled back to the United squad. He is way better than Shaw. My only problem is that with the current methods by Mourinho, he could come back and end up being like the rest. #bbcfootball
— Eghosa (@daniel_osunbor) December 31, 2017