Manchester United coaches have advised their attackers not to spend more time on the left wing in an attempt to improve their attack.
Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood have plundered 56 goals with each other this season and if Greenwood, already on 16 goals, breaks the 20 goal line, it will be the first time since 1964-65 that three United players have done so in one season.
At the beginning of his reign, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer settled on a front three of Martial, Rashford and Jesse Lingard, but this was stopped when Martial and Lingard succumbed to muscle injuries. Daniel James arrived from Swansea in the summer and started in 26 of 34 United Premier League games, mainly on the left or right flank.
Rashford and Martial spent most of their careers with United on the left, but Greenwood with his right hand operated from the opposite wing and Martial recovered the number nine after Romelu Lukaku left.
When it was suggested that United was in the midst of developing a front three like Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar in Barcelona between 2014-17, Solskjaer made it clear: “It’s not new for United. You haven’t seen Rooney , Ronaldo and Tevez when they played when Sir Alex gave them some freedom?
“Within a structure and structure, we work a lot on patterns and positions and where we want the players to be, but within that we understand that you could appear left or right or be in different positions, but we have to fill different positions.
“There has been too much, last year, sometimes this year, players want to gravitate to the left, and go there and play tippy-tappy football. This is something we wanted to get rid of, and we have been more progressive and more disciplined in our positions. “
Greenwood is a far cry from pairing Rooney’s first season 17 count in 2004-05 and the 18-year-old has already scored more than George Best in his first full career campaign.
“I’ve said it many times: it can go all the way and you never know with injuries,” Solskjaer admonished. “But he has the talent to go so far, and he’s creating opportunities himself, he’s creating opportunities.
“Our job is to get him to positions where he can end up hitting the target. He will make the goalkeeper work, so he continues to give him chances and he has the chance to score more.”
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