Manchester United made a positive start to life without Cristiano Ronaldo as Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial stepped out from the Portuguese’s shadow to score in a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.
But manager Erik ten Hag is still targeting a striker to replace Ronaldo in the transfer market to make the Red Devils more clinical in the final third.
Ronaldo’s rollercoaster second spell at Old Trafford ended during the World Cup break after an explosive interview in which he took aim at Ten Hag and the club’s owners.
His influence had already waned on the field since the Dutch coach took charge at the start of the season.
Rashford has been a player transformed under Ten Hag and carried his fine form for England at the World Cup into the Premier League’s return.
“Our players performed really well in the World Cup, I was happy to see that and now they continue,” Ten Hag told Amazon Prime. “They have to stay on that level, keep going and progress from game to game.”
A brilliantly worked corner opened the floodgates for United as Christian Eriksen picked out an unmarked Rashford inside the area to sweep into the top corner.
Forest were without their first-choice goalkeeper Dean Henderson as he is on loan from United and his understudy Wayne Hennessey was culpable when the home side doubled their lead just three minutes later.
Rashford’s burst down the left and teed up Martial at the edge of the box, but the Frenchman’s strike should not have had enough power to beat the Welsh international goalkeeper.
United were also short-handed at the back with Lisandro Martinez absent following Argentina’s World Cup celebrations, Diogo Dalot injured and Harry Maguire still feeling the aftereffects of an illness.
As a result Raphael Varane was forced into starting just nine days after playing 113 minutes for France in the World Cup final, while Luke Shaw lined up as a center-back in a back four for the first time.
But Forest did little to test a makeshift backline as they remain with just one goal away from home in the league all season.
Steve Cooper’s men did have the ball in the net shortly before half-time, but Willy Boly’s effort was ruled out for offside after a lengthy VAR check.
