Ighalo earning himself a new deal with Reds
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer has suggested United would be open to making Odion Ighalo’s loan a permanent deal.
The 30-year-old scored his fourth goal in eight Reds appearances in a 5-0 dismantling of LASK Linz in their Europa League round-of-16 first leg.
Ighalo has so far started three times for United and scored in all but one of them and he has already tallied as many goals as Radamel Falcao did in 2014-15.
The Nigeria international is on loan at United from Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua until the end of the season and Ighalo has offered not just goals but rotation, with the Reds able to rest centre forward Anthony Martial while Marcus Rashford recovers from a double stress fracture to the back.
Martial missed the LASK tie with a shin injury sustained in the derby and Ighalo could be in line for his first Premier League start for United at Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday – provided the game goes ahead.
“Odion has done really well since he came in and he’s enjoying himself,” Solskjaer said.
“And he will improve and get better but he has qualities we saw in him and we needed and we will still need those qualities for next season, so let’s see what we will do.
“He’s a goalscorer and a striker, he doesn’t worry too much about all that nonsense; build-up play – that’s a joke, obviously.
“He knows his job and what his role in the team is, and he’s very good with his back to goal, great link player, but maybe the best thing about him is his personality, so he’s got the whole lot really.
“He had three touches before his fourth was the finish.
“All the touches were high quality but he had to make them to create space for himself.
“But the strike is on the halfvolley, great timing, no one would have saved that one, anyone would have been proud of that finish.”
Ighalo scored United’s first on a night Daniel James ended his six-and-a-half month goal drought before Juan Mata, Mason Greenwood, and Andreas Pereira chipped in with late goals. Solskjaer was ‘proud’ of United’s performance.
“The boys were fantastic, they deserve a lot of credit and praise for the way they went about the job,” Solskjaer added.
“There was loads of quality in our finishing, some fantastic goals and some football we should be proud of.”