Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has encouraged Marcus Rashford to maintain his impressive scoring form urging his team to show consistency in Saturday’s Manchester derby against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
The Red Devils will make the trip to the Etihad Stadium with renewed belief following their 2-1 midweek win over Tottenham Hotspur but will once again be without the injured French midfielder Paul Pogba, who has not played for the club since September.
French forward Anthony Martial will be available for the derby, albeit potentially from the bench, as United seek to make another massive dent in Manchester City’s title aspirations who are 11 points behind Liverpool.
The 22-year-old Rashford scored both goals against Spurs and has now been directly involved in 14 goals in his past 13 games for club and country, having found the net on a regular basis since mid-October.
Rashford’s pace on the counter will be imperative to United’s hopes of breaking down a side that has not kept a clean sheet in eight games, and Norwegian manager Solskjaer has backed the England international to continue blossoming as a reliable goalscorer for his boyhood club.
And while speaking to reporters, the 46-year-old Solskjaer is hoping that Rashford continues his good form and carries it into the derby, “He’s doing that at the moment, how he didn’t get the goal against Aston Villa is beyond me but he’s consistently scoring now. It’s not like four in one and two or three without. It’s not just in spurts and that’s encouraging. He’s consistently getting chances and getting into better positions. On Wednesday he was unbelievable and we want to see that again.”