Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made a big call when he agreed to sell striker Romelu Lukaku to Inter Milan this summer (Via The Guardian).

The Manchester United boss didn’t bring in a replacement for the Belgian, instead he has decided to place all his trust in young hitmen Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.

Both attackers have the potential to become world class goalscorers but neither have grabbed twenty Premier League goals in one season… Yet!

The duo will argue that they haven’t had enough time playing as a central striker to be judged on their scoring tallies.

It looks like the pair will get their chance this term!

Against Chelsea, Anthony was entrusted in leading the line. He did a good job as he took four shots and made four successful dribbles. Importantly he also managed to score a poachers goal as he tapped in an Andreas Pereira cross to score his first goal of the season.

It also became evident that Ole was keen to see Rashford and Martial rotate roles during the ninety minutes. So at times we saw Frenchman Martial on the left wing as Marcus took over the vacated central position.

The young English international expertly smashed home a penalty in the first-half before he superbly finished off his second which was majestically created by a wonderful pass from Paul Pogba.

Like Martial, Rashford also took four shots at goal as well as making three successful tackles.

In the end Man United thumped Frank Lampard’s Blues by a 4-0 scoreline (Sky Sports Match Report) with the strikers scoring three goals between them.

Solskjaer obviously has faith in his young forwards. He has given Martial his beloved number nine back and as soon as he arrived back at Old Trafford Ole made Rashford his club’s central striker ahead of the more experienced Lukaku.

The Man United gaffer has already stated that the plan is to rotate them throughout this campaign:

“Both Marcus and Anthony can do through the middle and left hand side.”

“Depends on how we see the opposition, and they might just be able to play together as a pair but so far both of them have done very well as a pair.”

Source The Express

What Ole Gunnar Solskjaer should do now is start a friendly wager between his two hungry hitmen.

Who scores the most is the best and will get more game time as the central striker.

You just have to look at Liverpool and see how friendly competition can see two of your forwards can reach over twenty goals a season with both Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane hitting twenty-two league goals each last term.

Solskjaer could take inspiration from his own playing career at Manchester United to see how competition creates the best environment for success.

Under Sir Alex Ferguson the Norwegian had to vie with Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke and Teddy Sheringham to make the starting eleven. During that period United won their illustrious treble in 1999, with all four attackers playing a significant part!

If Ole Gunnar can get the same contribution from Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford then maybe just maybe both can hit at least twenty goals this season and the club could possibly be challenging for silverware once again.

Posted on August 13th, 2019 by scott
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