UNITED Rom brace sees critics fall silent...
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer believes Romelu Lukaku responded in the perfect manner to recent criticism with another matchwinning performance for United.
Lukaku scored twice in the wins against Southampton and Crystal Palace last week, having gone nine games without a goal to take his tally for the season up to 13.
In both victories, Lukaku wasted gilt-edged opportunities and the Belgian audibly exasperated United supporters during a careless firsthalf against Southampton at Old Trafford on Saturday.
However, Lukaku atoned with two superbly taken right-footed goals in the second-half to seal a stirring 3-2 comeback and to take United back up to fourth in the Premier League table. Paul Pogba is still United’s top scorer with 14 goals but Lukaku has overtaken Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford in the last week and Solskjaer feels Lukaku’s training performances are bearing fruit in matches.
“He is a bright boy,” Solskjaer said. “And he knows what his strengths are – going towards goal, finishing, running in behind. And, of course, when we get him too deep in the pitch maybe that doesn’t suit him at times.
“But he has responded fantastically to everyone who wants to criticise him because there is no one who practices finishing as much as he does. And he scores so many goals in training. I have said it so many times in the press as well, if we should do a score chart in training, he is the one that scores the most by a mile.”
Lukaku’s brace at Palace meant the returning Rashford was accommodated on the right flank against Southampton in what was a struggling afternoon for the 21-year-old.
Rashford is without a goal in his last five but Solskjaer is not concerned by his lean spell,
“He worked fantastically tonight,” Solskjaer added. “You can see he is going to be a top, top striker.
“Of course today we asked him to play wide, him and Rom to start with and we changed it and I thought they were better, the two of them.”