Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes that Bruno Fernandes will not have to carry the goalscoring ‘burden’ for Manchester United this season, in comments made after the ace’s hat-trick against Leeds.
The Red Devils boss was questioned as to whether he’s expecting another campaign in which Fernandes will be tasked with being a primary goal threat for the Manchester outfit.
Solskjaer insisted that he doesn’t think that the attacking midfielder will need to carry that ‘burden’ this season, as he noted that there are ‘loads of forwards who can chip in’, Paul Pogba and of course Fred…
The Norwegian name-dropped Anthony Martial, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford, Edinson Cavani and Paul Pogba as players that contribute with goals, before reeling off his joke about Fred.
Solskjaer exclaimed after the brilliant 5-1 victory over Leeds that ‘when Fred scores goals, we know everyone can score’, that was certainly the case this afternoon.
“You know, Bruno will always score on penalties, but when he gets goals like this – timing his runs… It doesn’t really matter who scores, we’ve definitely got loads of forwards who can chip in.”
“Anthony’s (Martial) going to score goals, Jadon’s (Sancho) going to score goals, Marcus (Rashford) is coming back, Edinson (Cavani) will score goals.”
“So he don’t think he’ll (Fernandes) have to have that burden on himself. Paul’s (Pogba) is going to score to goals.”
“We’ve got players who can run into the box – when Fred scores goals, we know everyone can score.”
Fernandes scored a remarkable 28 goals across all competitions for United last season, with 13 of those coming from the penalty spot for the hop-skip specialist.
The Portuguese midfielder silenced critics at Old Trafford today by notching a hat-trick without the need of converting from the spot.
Whilst Fernandes’ first effort was bundled into the back of the net after striking Ilan Meslier, the playmaker ensured his rout today wasn’t a case of luck with with his second coming after he tricked a Leeds defender and the strike that sealed the hat-trick being a wonderful first-time finish.
In the midst of the question and reeling off the players than can hit the back of the net for United, Solskjaer of course forgot to mention Mason Greenwood, who was on on the scoresheet as well after an exceptional individual performance for the wonderkid today.
The main issue for United this season will be crafting the chances for these gifted attacking players to capitalise on, everyone will be waiting to see Pogba especially can find some consistency.