Hype must be an incredibly tough beast to deal with; especially if you are one part of the ‘new’ England spine that has taken over the Manchester United team. The Champions have started the season incredibly well. Four wins from four league games, 18 goals scored and just three conceded; all with an insatiably young team.

Danny Welbeck seemed ready to lead the line over a prolonged period for Sir Alex Ferguson’s side only for a hamstring injury to stop him in his tracks. Tom Cleverley, having returned from a season long loan at Wigan, has ousted Michael Carrick from his position in the centre of the park and is quickly looking like a player born to play at the very top of the game. And then there is the eye-wateringly young defence that features David de Gea, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Jonny Evans.

Evans at 23, is only months older than the average age of the team that started the 8-2 demolition of Arsenal; yet next to 21 year-old Smalling and 19 year-old Jones, it could be argued he is an elder statesman of the team. Of course; that’s assuming you even remember he is there, what with his thoroughly lauded defensive partners drawing much attention from the expectant English press.

Questions were rightfully asked about Evans’ future during the summer; a summer that saw the biggest overhaul of the Manchester United playing squad in recent memory. Wes Brown and John O’Shea, stalwarts of the club, departed for Sunderland and with the addition of Phil Jones coming alongside the sublime Smalling and the always-exciting da Silva twins, Rafael and Fabio on both flanks; opportunities were supposed to be few and far between for the Northern Irish centre-back who had endured a torrid time throughout the 2010/11 season.

A dip in form, an obvious loss in confidence of the player and of the manager and the continued growth of Chris Smalling left Evans looking on from the outside. Since his return from a season long loan at Sunderland in 2008, Jonny had been the automatic stand-in for Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. If either of the vastly experienced and supremely capable pairing were unavailable through injury or suspension, Evans was always on call to slot in as though nothing had changed.

That was until November’s 4-0 Carling Cup defeat at the hands of West Ham. Evans, tasked with the job of marking Carlton Cole, didn’t get close to the England striker and was rightfully substituted after 72 minutes. As he trudged off the park and past Sir Alex Ferguson, there were whispers that he was finished in a Manchester United shirt. His performance was embarrassing.

Since then, the centre-back has been tasked with not only rebuilding his own confidence to the point where he can feel confident up against some of the best footballers in the world but also his manager’s confidence in him. Sir Alex Ferguson has shown time and time again that he is ruthless with his team selection. If he has any doubts about a player and their qualities, they aren’t likely to remain at Old Trafford for very long; never mind in the match day squad.

Thankfully for Evans, he responded to that huge setback in the right way and on Saturday, the questions raised about his future were answered; or at least silenced for the time being. The return of Rio Ferdinand from injury saw a reshuffling in the defence, and it was Jones and Smalling who were moved to accommodate the serial Tweeter. Evans retain his place at the heart of defence, Jones was moved to full-back and Smalling, the recently anointed first choice England right-back, found himself on the bench. Arguments can be made about squad rotation and efforts made to keep players fresh ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League clash with Benfica; but if Jonny Evans wasn’t good enough, he wouldn’t be there.

Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have got all the attributes required to go on and become incredible players for club and country and are rightfully the talk of the town; but they won’t have it all their own way at Manchester United. In 2008, Gerard Pique was sold to Barcelona and Sir Alex Ferguson pointed to Jonny Evans as a main reason why the now World Cup winner was allowed to move on. He may be pointed at again if either Smalling or Jones are forced to move from Manchester to find first-team football.

Photo courtesy of frederic jon.