As quoted by BBC Sport, Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has indicated he is not concerned about the number of attacking options he has at his disposal at the moment.
What did he say?
The Red Devils said goodbye to Romelu Lukaku in the summer as he left for Serie A giants Inter, and the club failed to bring in a replacement for the Belgium international. Instead, they have relied upon Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford to fire in the goals for the side, but it has been the emergence of Mason Greenwood that Solskjaer has suggested has really helped out matters up front.
He said: “We always believed Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford were going to score goals but Mason has filled a big void. I’m not worried about goals from centre-forwards. Romelu’s a good striker and he’ll always score goals but it was time for him to move on. We didn’t find the right one outside our club but we had Mason. Mason’s on eight now. Marcus I don’t know – 14 or 15? Anthony has quite a few.”
Vote of confidence
Make no mistake about it, Solskjaer’s public show of faith in Greenwood will not have gone unnoticed by the United starlet. The 18-year-old has featured 15 times in the Premier League alone, whilst recent weeks have seen him play a far more prominent role in terms of either starting the game or coming on for more minutes as a substitute – he played from the off in both of United’s victories over Tottenham and Newcastle in December.
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Still only a teenager, Greenwood may have wondered whether the Red Devils would go into the transfer market for a more senior striker that would no doubt have pushed him further down the pecking order. But Solskjaer’s words act as a sense of reassurance that his manager completely believes in him, and has recognised what he has done in the time that he has been given. The Norwegian’s comments will be music to his ears.
Meanwhile, Manchester United may have proven one thing after grinding out a victory over Burnley.
