Scott McTominay scored Manchester United’s winning goal in Saturday’s FA Cup win over Watford.
The midfielder’s early header was enough to earn a 1-0 victory. While the ensuing performance was a laboured one, United kept the clean sheet and did enough to move into the next round.
The goal was McTominay’s fourth of the season. This ties him level on goals with Edinson Cavani, and he is just one behind Anthony Martial.
It’s not bad going for the midfielder, who was making his first ever start as United captain on the night.
Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told the club’s official website he was pleased with McTominay’s goalscoring contribution, and has repeatedly told him he needs to score more.
Solskjaer said: “We’ve always trusted our young men coming through and Scott’s one of them that we really believe has got the DNA of Man United in him, and he knows what it is to be a Man United player.
“Should he be scoring more goals? We’ve said that to him so many times!
“He’s strong, he’s quick, he can leap, [he has] good timing, so he should get more goals.”
McTominay played as a striker for the reserves on a number of occasions when he was coming through, due to the height advantage he had, and his sharpness inside the penalty area.
Nowadays he is more likely to be played in defence than up front, but his predatory header against Watford was a goal a centre-forward would have been proud of.
With United’s strikers struggling to recapture the electric form of last season, getting more goals from midfield is vital.
Bruno Fernandes is the club’s top scorer with 15, and having another midfielder who is chipping in with increasing regularity is useful too.
McTominay scored five goals last season in a campaign hampered by injury and he is close to now surpassing that.
- Who is reported Manchester United target Facundo Medina?
- Three reasons for Manchester United to be wary of Fulham
- Anthony Elanga vows ‘I’ll be back’ after injury
- Solskjaer praises Diallo’s training performances once again
- After Phil Neville lands Inter Miami job, son Harvey provides first United u23 assist
- Hannibal Mejbri shows a touch of class in under-23s defeat
- United fans hope Diallo could feature this week after u23 absence
- Three players Manchester United were lucky to avoid in the summer
- United fans react to Anthony Elanga’s impressive under-23 performance
- Manchester United must fix right wing problem, says Gary Neville