After Manchester United opened their preseason tour with a 5-2 win at the L.A. Galaxy, manager Jose Mourinho said he was open to the idea of playing strikers Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford at the same time. Here’s a link to what he had to say a month ago about this idea.
Yesterday saw United completely dominate West Ham in a total team effort where numerous players showed extremely high quality. The Red Devils destroyed the Hammers 4-0, with Lukaku bagging a brace, and Rashford assisted on the big Belgian’s first goal. After the game, Lukaku described his working with Rashford as “something special.”
At Old Trafford, as well as every other stadium United play, the goal net hanging on the posts is going to get quite a workout from these two. That’s because the pair will be filling up the nets with footballs coming in fast and furious all season long on scoring strikes. United will no doubt be a higher scoring team than they were last year.
He told the club’s official online video channel, MUTV: “With me and Marcus, there’s something special. Hopefully we can produce even more than we did today.”
“We clicked from the first day that I arrived, and I knew that he would help me settle in at the club. I knew Jesse [Lingard] from before, and Paul, they’re probably my closest friends in the dressing room, but I get on with everybody in the team.”
It was a very lopsided game, but it could have easily been a much more one-sided scoreline. Lukaku himself admits that he could have added on to his scoring total.
“I wish it was three goals and a hat trick to be fair. I was thinking about. I’m a striker so I’m always thinking about scoring goals,” the £75 million summer acquisition from Everton added.
“Strikers are there to score goals and, if you stick to your job, you’re going to do well. But, at the end, of the day I want to win and the team wants to win. So I’m really happy that everybody performed well and that we’ve set a high standard.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube.