Man United’s future may finally have arrived as old faces get new chance in attack

Theirs has been the interrupted alliance, disrupted whenever United signed bigger-name forwards, from Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Romelu Lukaku to Alexis Sanchez to Ronaldo; many were the conventional No. 9s that neither Martial nor Rashford is. Each can cut in at speed from the left flank; neither prefers to operate with his back to goal. Neither is really a target man nor a penalty-box poacher.

Ten Hag has borrowed from Solskjaer’s thinking; at least before Ronaldo’s return complicated it.

The Norwegian began with Rashford as his striker and Martial his left winger, before switching them. The Frenchman averages a goal every 86 minutes this season from the middle; the Englishman can be more lethal from the left. “More often than not I would like to play on the left but if there is a weakness in the middle or a style of player that I can exploit I like to have the freedom to try and move and do that,” Rashford explained.

He is playing with a sense of freedom now, whether in surging 50 yards to score against Burnley or trying to chip Wayne Hennessey against Forest. There is a sense of liberation, of taking advantage of a roving brief to get involved. It renders him a roaming menace.

Ten Hag has voiced his view Rashford can get 20 league goals in a season; as he is on six so far, it is unlikely this will be that campaign. The Mancunian has set his sights on a career-best tally in all competitions. “I think every forward has a number you want to reach,” he said. “For me, it’s to score more than I have ever done in a season so 23, 22; something like that.”

His recent goals have shown a range: a free kick against Wales, an electric solo run versus Burnley, a rasping shot from a well-worked set-piece against Forest. He scores in different ways; just not always those of the professional predator.

The same may be said of Martial, whose best of 23 is similar to Rashford’s. Ibrahimovic, Lukaku and Ronaldo, in his second spell, have all bettered that at United in recent seasons. So, indeed, has Bruno Fernandes. For Rashford and Martial, there is a question of where the appropriate blend of selfishness and selflessness lies, but the Englishman eschewed the chance to shoot when setting up the Frenchman for his goal against Forest. Altruism can work.

For Ten Hag, and perhaps Solskjaer before him, the trade-off of a shared responsibility for scoring is preferable. “For the progress of the team we need to be more clinical, our players can score, you can see that,” he said. “Martial is a goalscorer, Rashford is a goalscorer, Bruno will score goals.”

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Whether Antony can prove as prolific is another matter, but Ten Hag has his first-choice quartet, and has rarely had the chance to select all. “When we can play those front four often together and get more routines in we have more of a goalscoring threat,” he added.

If Ronaldo wanted all the chances to come his way, now there is a broader willingness for them to fall to more players; to the forwards who scored 45 times for United in 2019-20, but just six times last season, to the pair who have been in and out of the side since 2016. Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial were long touted as the future. Almost seven years on, the future may finally be arriving.

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