McGuinness: Ravel had Messi's gift of timing

The attacking midfielder helped McGuinness's side win the FA Youth Cup in 2011, scoring twice in the second leg of the final against Harry Maguire's Sheffield United at Old Trafford.

Playing alongside such excellent prospects like Sam Johnstone, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and the Keane twins (Michael and Will), it was clear Morrison had real star quality with his natural ability on the ball and flair. His two goals at Anfield in the remarkable comeback for the 10-man Reds during the cup run showed why he looked first-team material.

During his UTD Podcast episode, former Under-18s coach McGuinness was asked about the now-Jamaica international's much-discussed ability and argues that his subsequent career deserves to be viewed differently.

He believes Ravel had a way with the ball that was akin to how Argentina great Lionel Messi draws opponents in.

"He was an amazing player," McGuinness told co-hosts Helen Evans and Sam Homewood in our latest episode. "And the best way to coach him was not to coach him.

"The best way was to create a game where his stuff would come out. If you start telling him what to do, he wasn't go to be having it, you know? So he was an amazing player and I've had some really top players so it means that, as a coach, you learn from your players as well.

"So, in the sense that [fellow coach] Jim Ryan had a phrase. He said it's the 'arrogance of timing' and so some coaches in the position thought he was being arrogant. But it was just the way he played.

"It was like Messi," he recalled. "He'd wait for you, wait for you to go closer and closer. Close to the fire, without getting burnt and get close, then he'd just play it. And you'd be like 'oh, you'd better pass it now' and he wouldn't.

"You couldn’t tell him when to play it. No, he was too good for that, in that sense. So, yeah, he was amazing. I remember we won the league and then we won the Youth Cup and we played against Leeds in like the last [league] game, I think, and they didn’t see the ball for 10 minutes.

"And he was unbelievable and then, all of a sudden, the centre-half just kicked him from nowhere and the coach is on the side, Neil Redfearn, and said: ‘About time too!’

"He was like, somebody do something because he was too good! And he could do those things with the first team and a lot of people say: 'Oh yeah but he’s thrown it all away, he’s wasting it and so on'.

"But, actually, if you know the full story from being younger, his background and different things, he may actually be one of the best performing. You know, he might actually have done well despite all the sort of disadvantages he had."

Morrison, who turned 31 in February, left for West Ham United in 2012 and has also represented, among others, Birmingham City, Queens Park Rangers and Derby County.

He has also had experience of playing in MLS with DC United.