Thread by @tomhwilliams23

Luke Young is potentially the most underrated player in the league. Wrexham’s number 8 has been an ever present this season

Here’s a thread on the midfielder, covering why he could be the most important #WxmAFC player 🧵👇

Firstly, Young has played 2,451 minutes so far this season. That ranks him 16th for the whole league.

Of #WxmAFC players only Howard (2,638), Tozer (2,638) and Hayden (2,542) have played more minutes. Straight away we can see his importance

Young operates to the right of a midfield 3, playing as the shuttler, providing energy between both boxes

O’Connor plays at the base, while Lee to the left is given a free role. Young therefore has a lot of running and ground to cover

We will come onto his role on the ball later, but first let’s start with his role off of it

We’ve established he’s the runner in midfield, and he leads the press. Here he is the first to act when possession is turned over high up, squeezing up and leading the press

Notice how quickly he reacts here. He beats 3 Maidstone players to the ball, despite starting further away. Not only does it show his desire, but his physical attributes too

Most impressively is his the strength of his awareness and anticipation. Such a clever player

Defensively Young is strong too. He takes up good positions, providing support especially to the RWB.

His awareness is once again strong. He’s constantly scanning, processing the opposition. It’s a sign of a good midfielder; experienced.

He’s also a scrapper. He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty, and he is extremely effective at turning over possession

Young has been involved in 147 defensive duels. Only Hayden has been involved in more, once again showing how active Young is

Off the ball he’s a threat offensively too. His positioning opens up space for others around him, especially down the right where his runs inside can open up space out wide

Here’s another clever run from Young, opening space for a cut back, once again dragging defenders out of place

Also note his starting position. He makes up ground SO quickly here. He goes from the halfway line to the byline in no time, really impressive

When the going gets tough he’s also not one to shy away from the ball. They’re chasing the game here, and he gets on the ball, leading by example

His quality is underrated on the ball. He has a fantastic range of passing, as he displays here

He also possesses a fantastic set piece delivery. Young has 8 assists this season, 7 of which have come from set piece deliveries

People rave about Hayden’s heading, and it is impressive, but Young’s delivery is often overlooked

Young also has that knack of scoring goals, and important ones. That are all almost exclusively screamers

Not only does he have the technique to strike from range, but he has the grit to grab the game by the scruff of its neck and score at important times

Overall, as well as being extremely talented individually, Young is important to the team as a whole; he’s what I’d describe as a facilitator.

He makes those around him perform better. Not only does he work extremely hard, running tirelessly, but he fills gaps too. He’s superb