Jonny Evans showed his class in the two games he played so far this campaign. He was particularly impressive in the Premier League win over Burnley at the weekend.
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Jonny Evans has kick-started his second innings at Manchester United this summer after emerging as an unexpected signing in the recently-concluded transfer window. Evans, who was a free agent in the summer, trained with United and even travelled to the US pre-season Tour on a small contract. After the club and manager Erik ten Hag were impressed with his performances and attitude, his contract was extended and he ended up staying with the team for the season.
It was not clear what to expect from the 35-year-old centre-back for the Manchester United supporters. However, Jonny Evans showed his class in the two games he played so far this campaign. He was particularly impressive in the Premier League win over Burnley at the weekend. Evans had notably set up the winning goal for Bruno Fernandes in the match with a delightful long ball from half way line, leaving the fan base pleasantly surprised.
He has now spoken about his early days at the club after coming through the Manchester United Academy. Evans spoke about the influence and help he had received from the senior players during that period. “Nearly every centre-back I’ve played alongside [I have learned from]. I’ve seen things where I thought ‘I’d like to try that’ or I like the way they do something. So I’ve learnt a lot over the years and your youngest days are probably when you’re most impressionable and I think, you know, obviously Rio [Ferdinand], Wes [Brown], [Nemanja] Vidic – top players,” he told TNT Sports.
He added: “I was always sort of coming in to try to learn as much as I could from them and I remember Wes giving me tips on how to, not necessarily how to head the ball, but how to compete to head the ball. And I used to watch Rio and Rio had an unbelievable skill of getting his leg in front of the centre-forward and nicking the ball. So they were all brilliant, as defenders, to learn off and I’m very fortunate to be able to see that up close and be able to learn from such top players.”
Evans then went on to give a lot of credit to former United defender and legend Rio Ferdinand for helping him off the pitch. “Off the pitch, I’ll have to say Rio, [he was] unbelievable for myself. You know, as a young lad coming in, he really sort of [helped], I kind of felt like he took me under his wing a bit. And I think he did that with all the young lads, all the Academy players coming through. There were a lot of senior players in that squad who really made us feel welcome and really integrated in the squad. And I can only thank him for that. He was he was an amazing player to look up to and have in the dressing room,” he explained.
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