Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag believes Rasmus Hojlund and Anthony Martial can play together.
When it comes to scoring goals, Manchester United have not taken the desired big leap forward this season.
In nine Premier League games, United have scored only 11 goals, and have a negative goal difference of -2.
It’s a disappointing return for any team, let alone one which has invested so much resources into the attack.
Hojlund and Martial not together
Erik ten Hag only has two strikers in the squad, Rasmus Hojlund and Anthony Martial.
And a central part to the goalscoring conundrum is that neither player have scored a Premier League goal this season.
There are mitigating factors for both players, and each of them have scored in the cups, but work clearly needs to be done to get each of them firing.
Ten Hag says he is confident Hojlund will produce goals, and at his pre-match press conference, he was asked whether both players could start games together.
So far it has been a case of Hojlund or Martial, never both at once, aside from a few minutes in injury time in the defeat to Galatasaray.
Ten Hag backing
Erik ten Hag was asked in his pre-Copenhagen press conference about whether Rasmus Hojlund and Anthony Martial could play together.
He said he believes they can, commenting: “It’s possible, they can play together, so far we haven’t done this in games, but I can see they can play together because Anthony Martial can play from the side.”
These comments suggest Ten Hag isn’t open to changing his formation to go to 4-4-2 any time soon.
Martial hasn’t been used as a wide player for some time now, with Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho competing for the role.
It is unlikely the manager will be starting Hojlund and Martial together, however, it may be an option later on in games, if United are desperate for goals.
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