Former Man City Youngster Enjoying New Role at United

Manchester United youngster Frederic Veseli has revealed how much he is enjoying life as a midfielder having played his entire youth career as a central defender.

The 20-year-old originally caught the eye while playing in defence for the Manchester City youth but it seems United always believed that he would have the ability to play in central midfield.

Veseli had been with Manchester City since 2008 but was snapped up by Sir Alex Ferguson in January 2012 and has since been a regular in various United youth sides.

Having started alongside Brazil international Anderson in the 0-0 draw with Wolves in the Under-21 Premier League earlier this week, it seems he may now continue playing in a more advanced role, something he believes will help him improve.

"I've played in the middle of the park for the last two games," Veseli told ManUtd.com. "It was really good playing with Anderson as he's a class player and I think you can learn a lot from playing alongside him.

"It was good experience, of course, playing in that position and I think I've proved I can play there as well. I can play in many positions to help the team in any way possible.

"I really enjoy it as I get a lot more of the ball. I've got more of a defensive role in midfield so you get to do both sides of the game, which I can always improve on. It's a good learning process because you have a different perspective of the pitch and can see different things and different angles which will help me as a defender as well."

Veseli need only look at the first team squad to see how important it is to be versatile with Phil Jones operating at right-back, centre-back and as a midfielder since making the move to Manchester United in the summer of 2011.

Ferguson has never been afraid of promoting young players to the first team and Veseli will hope that he will soon have that opportunity as he made it clear that this was one of the reasons he had decided to leave Manchester City.

"I am very thankful to Sir Alex Ferguson for bringing me to such a great club," said Veseli when signing last January. "Manchester United has a long history of younger players coming through and hopefully I can follow and do the same."