Former Manchester United assistant manager Rene Meulensteen thinks Jesse Lingard still has the ability to be an important player for the club, but must rediscover his confidence.
The 27-year-old has not scored a Premier League goal in over a year and looks a shadow of the player he once was.
He has often been left on the bench by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and has been linked with a move away from the club he first joined when he was seven years old.
But speaking on The Michael Anthony Show podcast, Meulensteen- who used to coach Lingard at youth level- said he believed Lingard could turn his poor form around.
Speaking about his breakthrough at United, Meulensteen said: "Jesse had various loan clubs and then he came back. And I think Louis van Gaal was the manager at the time and Louis was very big on bringing young players back through and Jesse got the chance to suddenly play in the first team and so did (Marcus) Rashford.
"That's the luck you need and certain managers can see it. Jesse always had attributes in his game as (Andres) Iniesta had for Barcelona.
"Jesse in my opinion - and I think he knows it himself, he's a great kid - he's the sort of player that's so difficult for opposition teams to mark. I think it's more a confidence thing, you need to recognise as staff and coaches and say 'okay, when did you have the best games? When did you score the most goals? And why isn't it happening now?'
"Somewhere down that line there's a dent and you need to find that and what you can do to make sure the focus goes back."
It remains to be seen if Lingard has a part to play in United's huge game against Chelsea after the winter break.
