Sekou Kone’s highlights vs Huddersfield Town shows two promising attributes for Man Utd

Sekou Kone came off injured in his full Manchester United U21s debut against Huddersfield Town but made a positive impact during his time on the pitch.

Kone, 18, came off injured for United after 42 minutes following a tackle on his shin after a heavy touch from the Mali-born midfielder.

It came shortly after he was booked in a similar situation, where he had to try and react to a slight miss-control in the middle of the park.

However, despite the slightly shaky end to his first start in United colours, the 18-year-old’s impact was overwhelmingly positive across the first-half.

He had made two appearances beforehand, coming off the bench for the U19s and U21s in recent weeks and received praise for his impact in those games.

After joining the club in the summer for a reported £1 million, many fans have been excited to see what kind of player Kone is.

Kone’s highlights vs Huddersfield showed two promising attributes

The game, which ended 4-1 to the League One outfit, was streamed on Sky Sports+ and highlights of Kone’s game have since been uploaded onto social media.

X account MarcusKnowsBall posted a two-minute video of the midfielder’s actions within the game, which can be watched here.

Two attributes stood out, in particular, for Kone.

He seems to have a good understanding of defensive positioning and his physical profile allows him to swallow the space effectively.

At 1:25 in the video, we can see Kone quickly jumping into a duel after the Huddersfield player took a heavy touch, while the first clip used also shows another instance of him affectively intercepting a pass.

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He won four of his six ground duels throughout the 42 minutes he was on the pitch and also made three interceptions.

Another exciting attribute Kone showcased was his ability to drive with the ball through the middle.

He was able to exploit space on several occasions (00:15, 00:25), once again due to his physical and technical abilities. The 18-year-old completed both of his attempted take-ons in his cameo.

It seems that Kone has good ball manipulation which can help open up space for a pass, or for him to drive into.

United do not have many first-team midfielders who have the capabilities to drive through the midfield and that would be a welcome strength once Kone is ready for the step up.

Of course, we also did see mistakes creep into his game before he was injured and fans must remain patient with a talent who was playing in Mali a matter of months ago.

In the long term, however, it seems like United have a midfield profile that has been missing in the first-team for a while, and there’s no wonder why many are excited about his future.

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