Man Utd coach names Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood as England’s “best homegrown strikers”
Manchester United academy coach Colin Little has named Red Devils duo Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood as the “best homegrown strikers in the country”.
Having made his breakthrough in 2016 under Louis van Gaal, Rashford has established himself as a regular in the England international set-up and one of the most feared forwards in the Premier League.
How good are Rashford and Greenwood? Five things to know…
- Rashford has scored a career-high 19 goals across all competitions this season.
- Greenwood, meanwhile, has 12 despite being just 18 years old.
- Little has described the pair as the “best homegrown strikers in the country”.
- He places them ahead of the likes of Harry Kane and Tammy Abraham.
- Kane has scored 17 goals in all competitions this season, while Abraham has 15.
Before injury curtailed the 22-year-old’s campaign, Rashford managed 14 goals in 22 Premier League appearances and 19 overall — both career highs.
Greenwood, meanwhile, has scored an impressive 12 goals for United in all competitions this season and has been described as the club’s best finisher in the past by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ahead of the likes of Rashford and Anthony Martial, despite being just 18 years old.
That said, the likes of Harry Kane, Tammy Abraham and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have all had fine individual spells, but Little maintains that Rashford and Greenwood top the list of homegrown talents in England, highlighting just how remarkable it is for United to have two of them at the same club.
“I honestly think you can’t look at any team and think there are any two better homegrown strikers in the country,” he told MUTV. “Tammy Abraham and Harry Kane are really good strikers but we’ve got two on our books right now.
“Without blowing our own trumpet, that’s just incredible isn’t it? Both are still young, both are Manchester United kids from an early age. It’s why, but for anything else, if they were the two people who come out of this academy, you would be like ‘wow’. I mean what are forwards worth nowadays? People who score goals – at that age?
“You’re looking at it, thinking what an incredible asset to have, and you’ve got the other ones like Brandon Williams and James Garner, and others, behind them.
“It’s a testament to everybody and, let’s be honest with you, from all the way down with Eamon Mulvey’s group, all the way through, those players have gone through every single age group. From Tony Whelan, and everybody is where they are now. I mean, they could be in our first team for nearly 20 years. It can be a 20-year career from 18 to 38.”