When Manchester United appointed Olé Gunnar Solksjær to become their new manager and a replacement to the sacked José Mourinho, it was almost immediately evident that the former Cardiff City manager did not see striker Romelu Lukaku as an integral part of his team. The Belgian striker was huge trouble to contend with for Premier League defenders and he was also scoring goals wiring his time at Old Trafford but Solskjær felt he wanted a more ball-playing striker, something Lukaku really wasn’t.
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After a few games in charge of United, Solksjær started dropping Lukaku to the substitute’s bench and was using Anthony Martial ahead of the Belgian striker. Martial, on the other hand, fit perfectly into Solksjær’s playing style and he did not need to be found with incessant crosses into the opponent’s box, something the team would easily do if Lukaku was on the pitch.
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In both of those games, Marcus Rashford and Alexis Sanchez fared much better in terms of their movement and link-up play despite failing to score and Ferdinand feels Lukaku may need to bring much more than his goalscoring to cement the striker’s position for the long-term, he told BT Sport: “You look at Lukaku. Lukaku’s goalscoring record is up there, it’s fantastic, he scores goals.
Speaking after the game, Young admitted that the club struggled to find creativity in the attack front and was bitterly disappointed with the loss, he told MUTV: “It wasn’t good enough, especially in the first half as we weren’t at the races. In the first half they had the better chances and we didn’t create as much as we should have. We put the pressure on in the last 20 minutes, but the goal wasn’t meant to be and we are disappointed. I am not sure what was wrong, we just weren’t good enough, that is the honest truth.”