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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Richard Fay

Christian Eriksen reveals key role Manchester United coach played in Marcus Rashford goal

Christian Eriksen has hailed the brains of Manchester United set-piece coach Eric Ramsay for the key role he played in Marcus Rashford's goal against Nottingham Forest.

United scored the first of their three goals on Tuesday night, courtesy of a clever corner routine that they had been practicing on the training ground a day before the match.

Danish midfielder Eriksen played an inswinging corner short to the near-post before Rashford ran, met the ball unmarked, and fired past Wayne Hennessey in the Forest net.

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It was a moment of brilliance that carved open the opposition's defence and exploited a key weakness that United had spotted in the build-up to the match.

While it was down to Eriksen and Rashford to execute the move on the day, it was all the brain child of coach Ramsay, who arrived at the club during Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's reign and was tasked with overseeing set-piece routines and technical skills.

"I didn't think that much, we trained it yesterday. It was planned," Eriksen told reporters after the match. "We saw that coming and lucky it went a lot better today than it did in training.

When asked how many times they had tried it in training, he added: "Twice, but different pitch, it wasn't as wet. It is always different with opposition." Whose ideas? "Set-piece coach, Eric, I think it's from him. Yeah, (Rashford was part of the routine in training) It came off perfect."

United had fought hard to keep Ramsay as part of their coaching set-up last summer when he was named as one of the favourites to takeover at Barnsley.

United were aware of the interest in the 30-year-old, who is considered one of the most promising young coaches in the game, but he stayed at the club after Erik ten Hag made it clear he wanted to keep him.

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