MANCHESTER UNITED always had an embarrassment of riches in the attacking department during Sir Alex Ferguson’s glory days.
It wasn’t about could they score but who would score with the manager constantly having to choose two from Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole, Teddy Sheringham and current boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s fab four up frontCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford are two of Solskjaer’s forward optionsCredit: Reuters
They fired the club to a treble and now Solskjaer believes he has his own fab four that can put United on top again.
Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood and Edinson Cavani have lifted the club to the number one spot in the Premier League.
This weekend it is the FA Cup with the visit of Liverpool to Old Trafford on Sunday the highlight of the fourth round draws.
And despite it finishing goalless in their league encounter last weekend Solskjaer feels very comfortable about the ability in his side to fire them through to the next round.
Solskjaer said: “I’m very happy with my forwards. You’ve got talents like Marcus, Mason and Anthony, the experience of Edinson.
“It’s great to see them every day in training and in the games they complement each other. They’ve all got different attributes.
“I used to play in a decent team and the gaffer had at least four centre-forwards to choose from.
“I think with the four front men we’ve got players there to choose from who can get us goals from any game against any opposition.
“I’m very pleased with the ones I’ve got and we’re working hard to get the relationships with all of them, that we can use them all in different ways. Sometimes maybe all four of them will play.
“This season Marcus has scored about 14 or 15. Anthony, Mason and Edi will definitely chip in and score goals.
“Last season Mason, Marcus and Anthony scored I don’t know how many – 60ish?
“We’ve got those three for many, many years anyway and Edi can help with his experience for the time that he’s here.”
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Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood complete Solskjaer’s own fab fourCredit: EPA
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It was actually 62 the three shared between them with Martial getting 23, Rashford 22, and Greenwood 17.
Their ages mean that there is plenty more to come as well with Greenwood still only 19, Rashford, 23, and Martial, 25.
Cavani, 33, is certainly adding his experience to the team although none of them could make a breakthrough at Anfield last weekend.
But Solskjaer denied they were negative as the biggest TV audience ever for a Premier League game was left flat by the lack of action.
He said: “We attacked every time we got the ball, maybe too much. We kept giving it away, that was the challenge. We went forward too quickly. The thought that we weren’t attacking, for me, I don’t understand that one.
“It’s the quality of what we did, we need to do better. We tried to press them high. It’s not easy, they played well, they played their way out of our press. We didn’t go out there to drop deep and try to soak up the pressure.
“They had five midfielders out there to play out plus a ‘keeper who is very capable. When you look back at it, I think it was a good game by the two teams. We played against a top Liverpool team.
“Yeah, Van Dijk is not there but everyone’s got an injury or two here or there. I was very pleased with the performance when I looked at it after.”
United got back to winning ways with a 2-1 midweek win away to Fulham which has left them two points clear of neighbours Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
While United reached three Cup semi-finals last season it is their third place finish in the league which acted as a barometer for Solskjaer as to how far they have come.
Now he wants that finish to be another few places better to bring the Premier League trophy back to Old Trafford for the first time in eight years.
Solskjaer said: “Of course you want to get your hands on that first trophy, but it’s always the league position that’s the measure of how far you have come. Anyone can have an easy cup run, I’m not one of those. I never get an easy cup run!
“I’m never going to watch a draw ever again because we always seem to pick out the difficult opponents. In a cup run, sometimes you can get to a final without really playing any of the top ones.
“This time around, we’ve picked one of the favourites and we know this is a big one if you want to go all the way.”
The fixture will bring back memories for Solskjaer of when the two clubs met at this stage in the treble season.
United were 1-0 down with two minutes to go when Dwight Yorke equalised and then Solskjaer himself got the winner.
He said: “We know in that season we were close to going out against Liverpool.
“Then Peter Schmeichel saved a penalty from Dennis Bergkamp in the semi-final in injury time.
“Those moments, I think they gave us the mental advantage, especially in the semi-final.
“But against Liverpool as well in that fourth round, when you get that boost of turning 1-0 down to a 2-1 win against a big team it’s massive.
“The FA Cup is a run we’ve got to enjoy as long as it lasts. We got to the semis last year and, we’re going to make a few changes but we’ll put a team out there that I hope can go through.”
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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer reacts to Man Utd returning to the top of the Prem after beating Fulham 2-1
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
