Manchester United’s young prodigy who scored 10 goals in a single match may be on his way out! The reputation is hard to live up to, especially under Amorelin’s management.

Manchester United’s under-21 team faced Athletic Bilbao at Old Trafford this week in the Premier League International Cup opener, winning 2-1. Yet, 17-year-old Danish forward Chido Obi was absent from the lineup, leading to speculation. The Red Devils clarified that because of the U21 team’s busy fixture list this month, the coach opted to give Obi a break.

Last Sunday, in the match where Manchester United U21 defeated Liverpool, Obi played the full 90 minutes. Therefore, coach Travis Binnion felt the young Danish talent needed some rest. This month, Binnion spoke about Obi’s development and urged patience from the public. "It isn’t easy for him because people often treat him like an adult. The key is, he is still very young and learning how to play. He has had chances to train alongside the first team, so naturally fans expect him to perform consistently at a high level. However, very few first-team players nationwide manage to sustain that."

The coach analyzed Obi’s performance against Manchester City: "There are high expectations for him, but he must first complete the basics. From the 30th to the 80th minute after coming on, he worked hard, ran tirelessly, and effectively marked two central defenders, creating space for his teammates to attack. Because of this, we controlled possession. Manchester City will likely claim they weren’t afraid of him, but in reality, the opponents always assigned two players to mark him. I’m glad he scored because sometimes you give your all on the pitch but can’t break through the defense or do much else. His goal opened the door to victory for us."

Last season, due to a shortage of forwards, Obi mostly played with the first team. However, this season, after the arrivals of Cunha, Mbemo, and Szeszko, Amorelin sent Obi back to the reserves to develop further. Although his squad number changed from 56 to the smaller 32, his distance from the first team has grown.

Coach Binnion explained: "I’m very pleased with Obi’s performance, and actually, after working with him, he has only just begun to show his true ability, with much potential still to unlock. It depends on how he views his performances, whether he can keep working hard, and if he recognizes areas needing improvement. Because once you get a chance with the first team, returning to the youth squad means you have to work even harder to improve, which is always a challenge."

The youth coach reminded Obi that improving himself is essential to earning a return to the first team. "Obi must continue pushing himself to get opportunities in the senior squad. Given the number of goals he has scored in his relatively short career, his value is naturally reflected in those goals," Binnion said. "We all know that in the world, probably only two or three forwards can average two goals every three games. If you’re used to scoring two goals every match, then understanding your real role in the team and adapting to that new role does take time."

Binnion concluded: "Obi is very eager to become a true professional. He’s motivated and still learning football—how to play his part, how to work as a team, and how the club’s tactical system operates. So, there’s still a lot for him to do. The key is that he wants to play, wants to achieve good results, and wants to keep training. If possible, he could train every day."

However, former Danish international Mikkel Beckmann believes that Obi, who will turn 18 by the end of the year, might need to leave Manchester United. With Amorelin using a 3-4-3 formation, Obi finds it difficult to become the first team’s central striker choice, and even making the bench is uncertain. This physically strong forward is used to overpowering opponents in youth matches, but when he cannot play that way in the first team, his performance is greatly limited.

Obi’s breakthrough moment was scoring 10 goals in a single youth match for Arsenal against Liverpool, but scoring 10 in youth games is incomparable to scoring even one goal in a senior team match.

"Reserve matches… they’re really uninteresting. That experience is completely different from playing in official first-team games. I just feel Amorelin has little chance to use Obi in the Manchester United first team," Beckmann said. "He still has a long way to go before becoming a first-team player at Manchester United. I want to see him perform at a higher level, not just be a substitute for United."