UNITED UP FRONT
Solskjaer says Martial and Rashford won’t get selfish in fight to be top scorer
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER believes the race between Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial to end the season as Manchester United’s top goalscorer can only be good for business.
Solskjaer insists the contest between his two main marksmen to claim Old Trafford’s ‘Golden Boot’ will never be allowed to damage United’s quest for success.
Martial has scored 23 goals in all competitions so far this season, while strike partner Rashford has 22.
And as United head out to Germany for the Europa League last-16 tournament, Solskjaer said: “There’s no ‘ battle’ between them.
“You can see how Anthony and Marcus play together and they are always willing to give each other the gift or present of an open goal. They always look to assist each other.
“For me, there can never be a battle between players within a team. We all have one common cause – to win.
“If I ever sense players playing for themselves, their own accolades and personal awards, I won’t have them in the team.
“It’s as straight, simple and as plain as that. I don’t want egos. I don’t want players thinking about themselves before the team.
“It can’t be about one player thinking he is going to score more than someone else. No.
“If you win as a team it doesn’t matter if you have scored 30, 25 or 15 goals. It only matters that you have contributed.”
Solskjaer was a master marksman himself for United, scoring 126 goals in an 11- year period which brought six
Premier League t i t l es, th e Champions
League and two
FA Cups.
He shared the
Old Trafford dressing room with many lethal finishers including Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Teddy Sheringham, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wayne
Rooney and Cristiano
Ronaldo. Solskjaer said: “You support your team-mates all of the time – and I know more than anyone how important that attitude is.
“Ruud van Nistelrooy was very focused on his goals, but he was a team player.
“He would come off after a 4-0 win being miserable if he hadn’t scored.
“You always want that in a team. But you never saw
Ruud take on a shot when he should have passed.”
Solskjaer is busy building a formidable goalscoring force of his own.
Teenage tyro Mason Greenwood has scored 18 times during his breakthrough season. And midfielder Bruno Fernandes is already in double f i gures fol lowing his £ 46.5million arrival from Sporting Lisbon in January.
Solskjaer added: “Decisionmaking is going to become a big, big thing for those lads as we move forward, because we are always going to create overloads, two-against-ones and big chances.
“Finishers, goalscorers also have to think, ‘ Is there is a better chance that we will score here if I pass it?’.
“I was the same. Sometimes you look at a video and you wonder why you didn’t pass it.
“But the reason I didn’t pass
was because I genuinely thought we had a better chance of scoring if I took the shot. That’s what I want with Anthony, Marcus, Mason and Bruno.”
United face Copenhagen in Cologne tomorrow night, with Wolves or Sevilla awaiting them in the semi-finals.
Solskjaer believes his team can really attack the Europa tournament after booking their return to the Champions League with a third- place finish in the Premier League.
He added: “That was a weight off the boys’ shoulders, finishing in the top four.
“It means we can go into this tournament with more freedom, knowing what next season will bring anyway.
“But we go knowing we have to work hard to win, 100 per cent – because as soon as you drop those percentages, you are bang-average.”