The Norwegian boss insists the teenage striker has more of a clinical edge to his game than the first choice duo at Old Trafford
Mason Greenwood is “more of a natural finisher” than Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, according to Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The Red Devils sold Belgian centre-forward Romelu Lukaku to Inter earlier this month, leaving Martial, Rashford and Greenwood as the only remaining senior strikers on the books at the Theatre of Dreams.
Greenwood, who signed his first professional contract with United in 2018, scored three goals during the club’s pre-season tour, leading to calls for him to earn a regular spot in Solskjaer’s starting XI.
However, the Norwegian ultimately opted to start Martial through the middle for United’s season opener against Chelsea on August 11, with Rashford pushed out onto the left.
Rashford grabbed a brace and Martial also found the net in a 4-0 victory, but Solskjaer insists that Greenwood has the upper hand on his attacking colleagues in one key area.
The 17-year-old came on as a late substitute against the Blues and will be in contention to retain a place on the bench for United’s trip to Molineux to face Wolves on Monday, with his manager’s latest words of praise likely to fuel his desire to make an impact.
When asked who was the better natural finisher out of Martial and Rashford, Solskjaer told MUTV: “Natural finisher? Well, they’ve still got a way to go, because Mason’s more of a natural finisher than those two.”
The Red Devils head coach also discussed how he plans to rotate his forward line throughout the 2019-20 campaign, adding: “Anthony’s had spells where he’s played No.9 or centre forward under Louis van Gaal. Then he’s played on the left the last few years. I think him and Marcus are both capable of playing both positions.
”Sometimes, it will be Marcus playing through the middle and Anthony on the left, or Dan James on the left and one of them on the right, but, of course, the goals are scored from between the posts and not the worldies that we’ve seen them score, both of them.
“Marcus and Anthony, curlers up in the top corner. I want both of them to score the easy goals. You don’t have to work too hard to score them, just a little bit of movement. It was a great counterattack [against Chelsea], great runs by Anthony.
“I think maybe he felt he should have got the first pass, which went out wide to Jesse [Lingard] and he stopped. But then, he got himself back in a good position and, even though he might have mis-hit it, it went in. So, if he can get five extra goals like this every season, both of them, that’s 10.”
Martial was happy to grab a poachers goal against Chelsea, with his sights now set on reaching a “much higher” scoring total come the end of the season.
He told United’s official website: “I guess I have always tended to score quite nice goals and so, if I managed to score more of this kind of goal, in addition to the more spectacular ones, then I’d end up with a much higher goals total come the end of the season.”
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