Anthony Elanga: Manchester United striker's emergence a high point in a tough season

Amid Manchester United's troubled campaign, Anthony Elanga's emergence has been an undoubted high point.

The young striker may not start Wednesday's first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie with Atletico Madrid, but if Ralf Rangnick needs to make changes, the 19-year-old forward is bound to be high on the list of options he will turn to.

Elanga scored his second goal in nine Premier League appearances during Sunday's 4-2 win at Leeds. Including his debut effort at Wolves in the final game of last season, an overall top-flight return of three from 11 games is not bad given he has only completed the full 90 minutes twice.

For a club that prides itself on youth development, Elanga's emergence has provided welcome respite from a series of devastating results, a managerial sacking, coaches departing, rumours of splits in the camp and players taking to social media to challenge statements their interim boss has made about them in press conferences.

It would be wrong to give Rangnick all the credit for Elanga's recent development.

Predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave the Sweden Under-21 striker his debut last season and had promoted him to train with the first-team squad this season.

It is how Rangnick also saw Elanga at first hand the day after United had beaten Arsenal on 2 December, when training on the German's first day in charge was conducted with restricted numbers because of the number of players doing warm-down sessions.

Rangnick was impressed enough to seek out YouTube clips of a player he had monitored previously during his time at RB Leipzig. Until then, the feeling had been that Elanga might benefit from a January loan move.

So impressive was he in those early days the plan was quickly changed. Rangnick even toyed