You win nowt with kids; time for United duo to come of age

MANCHESTER CITY will win the Premier League comfortably this season, with Liverpool offering their biggest threat.

Then it’s four into two, with Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal and Manchester United chasing the coveted last two Champions League slots.

And the next five or six games will give us a good idea of who might take them because we will find out in that time whether United are really up for the challenge or not.

I had Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s boys missing out on the top four before a ball had been kicked this season.

But their start – a thumping 4-0 win over Chelsea, along with the performances of Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Harry Maguire in particular – did hint that they might just surprise one or two of us.

I’m not going to get carried away by one result and say they are now nailed on for the top four.

Momentum

But if they can run with the confidence that win will have given them then we might just be looking at the team who can finish third.

Winning at least five of their next six games would give United huge momentum and we will get a very good idea of what t hey are all about at Molineux tomorrow.

Last season Wolves beat United twice – including an FA Cup win – and if you want a better campaign than the last one you have to right your wrongs.

A United win against Wolves, especially if they can get a clean sheet to keep Maguire and David De Gea happy, would be another big positive

And if they can score twos and threes in most, if not all, of those coming games then maybe I will start to get a little excited for them.

If it’s a little bumpy and inconsistent in that period then we’ll all be back to asking whether or not they can finish the right side of that Champions League line.

The game against Wolves will be a bellwether to all of that.

Success or failure for United this season will depend on their big characters – Pogba, Maguire and De Gea. But also to a certain A GREAT atmosphere at Bramall Lane and a special day for United manager Chris Wilder (right) and his newly-promoted Blades, it has all the hallmarks of being an entertaining draw. extent on Rashford and Martial. A couple of seasons ago I wrote that Manchester City’s England forward Raheem Sterling needed to start producing the sort of football we knew he was capable of far more consistently.

Now it’s time to send the same message to the United frontmen.

We still think of Rashford and Martial as kids but they are 23 now.

It’s as if they have been locked in some CHELSEA at home will be a joy to watch this season, but they will still concede goals as well. Even after that gutting result in Istanbul, Frank Lampard (right) should get his first Blues win. sort of potential bubble for a few years while United have been struggling for consistency.

Confidence

But manager Solskjaer is looking for players he can put his money on, players he knows he can rely on, and those two need to step up to the plate.

They will be full of confidence after their goals against Chelsea last weekend and I I’M not quite joining Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s happy-clappy “United are back” brigade yet. It will be a hard-fought draw against Nuno Espirito Santo (right) and his snarling Wolves. want to see both of them going north of 15 goals. Last season in the league it was 10 apiece – and that’s not going to help United get to the sort of areas in the table they really should be.

Ideally, both should be looking at 20 league goals as a minimum in a 38-game season, which is the benchmark for all top strikers.

Both have the ability – now they need to add the reliability as well.