Fergie was right (again)... everybody will know Greenwood

IT WAS at a League Managers Association lunch three or four years ago that Sir Alex Ferguson first mentioned Mason Greenwood to those at his table. ‘I think we have found one,’ said Ferguson.

The way Greenwood’s career trajectory has gone in the last 12 months, it will not be long before the whole world knows his name.

Marcus Rashford’s introduction at United was notable. He scored twice on his debut in the Europa League four years ago. But Rashford’s progress, at least the speed of it, from that point surprised people a little. The summer before he arrived in the first team, he had not even been taken on the club’s pre-season tour by manager Louis van Gaal.

Greenwood is a little different. His star has been burning so brightly and for so long just below first-team level that the rate at which he has shot to prominence over the last year has shocked absolutely nobody.

It is early in the 18-year- old’s career to make rash predictions. Things can get in the way. But it is a while since we have seen such a natural-looking young English goalscorer. No wonder England manager Gareth Southgate is interested already.

In scoring his team’s first goal at the Amex last night, we saw most of what we need to know about Greenwood. A lot of his 13 goals —six in the Premier League — this season have looked a like this one. A direct run, a shot taken early and delivered low and with accuracy.

So many of this teenager’s shots are struck along the ground. So many seem to creep in by the foot of a post and by just a couple of inches. That cannot be a coincidence.

Confidence means so much to a forward — Rashford seems short of it at the moment, for example — and Greenwood seems to have been born with it.

Already at Old Trafford they say he reminds them of Robin van Persie in terms of the way he backs up defenders with straight, direct running towards goal.

If that sounds like a burden for a young player, it doesn’t show. He has a habit of shooting through defenders’ legs, too, and his manager used to be quite good at that.

For Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Greenwood’s progress is fundamental to his team’s improving fortunes.

The way attacking midfielder Bruno Fernandes has improved United’s play has been much discussed, but currently Solskjaer’s line-up has a front three who carry a threat, too. It will be a while

before anthony martial can be trusted fully. The Frenchman came into this game off a hat-trick against Sheffield united and has talent. But he is inconsistent.

When Solskjaer warned before the game that his forwards should take nothing for granted, it was hard not to think that martial may have the most to lose in the long run.

Certainly, rashford must improve his goal return. He is still only 22 and does not look match fit after a period of injury prior to the suspension of the Premier League back in march. Nevertheless, development will still need to come if he is to be a regular united player for the peak years of his career.

rashford is part of a confident united side at the moment and that will help. many more games against opposition as compliant as Brighton were here and nothing about that will change.

Brighton are the only team towards the bottom of the table to have resumed their season with any kind of positivity, having beaten arsenal at home and drawn at Leicester. But graham Potter’s team were awful here. Having argued so strongly against the proposed use of neutral venues, Brighton did not look like the home team on this occasion.

Passive and lacking energy from the first minute, the only signs of improvement they showed came in the early minutes of the second half. That momentum was soon halted by a third united goal and greenwood was involved in that, too. His lofted cross to Fernandes at the back post was superbly played.

it seems Ferguson was right all those years ago. He usually is.