Angelo Hénriquez

Angelo Hénriquez

By now many of you would have heard of or seen Angelo Hénriquez play thanks to his goal for the United 1st team in Sweden. If you’ve seen the match, it was a simple goal that he scored, but the positioning for it, that is commendable. More so when you think about the time it had come (when we were losing 1-0). A pure striker’s goal, you could call it! 

This isn’t something new-for him or for people who have watched him previously. This lad joined us from La “U” last season and went on to have some time with the U21s before he left to Wigan on loan. Coming to the point, from what I have seen of him, he looks like a really good prospect for the future. His assets, according to me are his killer instinct in front of goal, his strength and his work rate. 
He works really hard for the team-holds the ball up field well, likes to get involved in the build up play. This aspect (getting involved in build up play and work rate) of his play is almost comparable to ex-United striker Carlós Tevez. When he signed for us, he was only 18. But he still did alright in his first season in England-he is strong as an ox for a lad of his age, mind! Now, quite a few have asked me who he reminds me the most of. I’d go for Ruud. His play has quite a few similarities to that of Ruud, but, what’s better in him is, unlike Ruud, he can play in a few positions on the pitch. If you haven’t seen the U-20 WC, The Chile coach pushed Gohan (yes, his nickname) wide to the right hand side to accommodate Castillo. He played the 1st match (around 60 minutes) while not fully fit without complaining and did well. Second match there, he bagged an assist while also getting into dangerous attacking positions and putting crosses in. When he did get a chance to play/drift centrally, he scored a good goal. This is what I like the most in him. He might drop back once in a while, he will work extremely hard in the build up play, he will keep running into channels all the time and cause problems for the defenders and when you give him the ball anywhere near the box, there’s a damn good chance of him finishing it-on EITHER foot!
(PS: He has the knack for scoring on his debuts, if you know what I mean-Chile NT, Chile “U” levels, Utd U21s, Utd first team). 

He’s 19 now and looks like the perfect time for him to start getting more 1st team action. There are 3 things that could be done:

1. Real Zaragoza confirmed interest in taking him on a season loan. He’s more than likely to get chances there and as we know, Liga Adelante isn’t the most physical of the leagues. (Not a big fan of this option). OR

2. Find a PL or a Championship club for him and send him on loan and monitor his progress there. Now this is my choice. Why? Because, he’s a player from South America and he needs to learn the culture and playing style of England and get settled ASAP because once he becomes a 1st team regular at United, there wont be many excuses. So, it’s better to loan him to an English club and monitor his progress than to do what happened to Kiko Macheda. OR

3. Make him stay with the U21s and let him fight for the 1st team spot. For now, even Will Keane isn’t fully back, so Angelo will start up front for the U21s. But the thing is, he’a quite good for that level already. If he has to stay at that level and keep waiting for the 1st team spot, it might be a futile move- especially because he already has RvP, Chicha, Welbz and Wazza ahead of him. 

So, keep an eye on this young Chiléan of ours because he’s quite close to making it and he definitely looks destined for big things!