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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Samuel Luckhurst

Manchester United manager Solskjaer reacts to Marcus Rashford performance

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admits Marcus Rashford still needs to hone his goalscoring instincts if he is to become a reliable marksman for Manchester United.

Rashford, 21, came in for widespread criticism following a woeful performance in the 1-1 Premier League draw with Southampton, where several United crosses flashed across the hosts' six-yard area.

The absence of Anthony Martial through injury meant Rashford started in the centre forward role but he failed to regain the form from the opening weekend win over Chelsea, when Rashford scored twice.

Rashford missed a penalty in the 2-1 defeat by Crystal Palace last month and is already under pressure to justify his freer role in the United attack. The England international has repeatedly stressed he does not regard himself as a number nine and Solskjaer reiterated Martial is the designated striker when fit.

"He'll get it," Solskjaer said. "He's getting there, so we keep on practising them finishes and crosses and if we can build the pressure as we did today I'm sure we'll be okay.

"He wants to have the full array of armoury. He wants to play on the left, he wants to play through the middle, as a 10, as a right winger, because he knows both for England and for us, he's got great teammates.

"When Harry Kane's the number nine for England, when Anthony [Martial]'s for us, he knows he'll have to play sometimes off the left."

Solskjaer has previously encouraged the United forward to score scrappier goals when some are renowned for their stylish strikes.

United forced Southampton goalkeeper Angus Gunn into making seven stops at St Mary's but failed to fashion clear-cut chances and were mainly restricted to speculative shots.

"Today clearly we should win a game," Solskjaer added. "Wolverhampton, clearly we should have won that game because we do create chances, we do create pressure, it's about those scrappy goals now.

"We do have, as I said, young players, but they've got to learn to score those nasty little tap-ins that I did. They're nice, they count just as much."

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