The manager of Manchester United Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes that the duty of scoring goals should not be left for only the club’s strikers. He wants his midfielders and defenders to get involved in order to lessen the burden on his strikers.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer stressed that he has top players in his midfield and in the defends that can score goals during regular gameplay and not only during set-pieces or penalties.
While acknowledging the number of goals his winter signing Bruno Fernandes contributed since he arrived at the club, Solskjaer stressed that he needed more from him especially during set-plays.
The Norwegian tactician feared that if one of his three main frontmen – Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, and Mason Greenwood gets injured, it could spell doom for the entire team in terms of goalscoring.
Martial, Greenwood and Rashford were the best strikeforce for Manchester United last season. The trio scored a total of 62 goals which helped the club to finish third in the Premier League. It also helped the club to play in the semi-finals of three different competitions last season – FA Cup, Europa League, and EFL Cup.
Besides their input in terms of goals, Scott McTominay and Odion Ighalo are the two forwards at the club that scored up to 5 goals each.
In terms of goals contribution from Manchester United’s midfielders, only Bruno Fernandes who has not spent a full season at the club that scored double-digit of goals last season. He was able to achieve this because Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made him the team’s penalty taker and also takes freekicks.
So far in this summer transfer window, Manchester United has only signed Donny van de Beek who is also a midfielder. The 23-year-old Netherlands international scored a goal in his debut Premier League match and the coach would want to see more of that from him and other non-strikers at the club.
“The front three scored 60-odd goals and then Bruno chipped in with penalties and free-kicks but we need more goals from set-plays,” Solskjaer said.
“Harry (Maguire) is one of the best in the league on the first contact from set plays, so can we get more from that?
“Can we get more from midfield? That can give us extra points. We’ve got players in Donny (van de Beek) and Paul (Pogba) who can definitely chip in with more goals, Jesse (Lingard) and Dan (James) can get in there with a bigger tally as well.”
Manchester United who lost its first Premier League game of the season to Crystal Palace at home will visit Brighton later today for their second league match. A loss could force United’s fans to reactivate the #Oleout hashtag which he started last season with before he regained the fans’ trust especially after the arrival of Fernandes.
