The creation of Manchester United’s thrilling forward line was not achieved by accident.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is reaping the benefits of his vision and determination to see it through, with Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood firing United towards a glorious climax to the season – and sparking hopes that this is the beginning of something special.
The fluidity of that front three is like nothing the club has seen since the glory days of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez. And while its inspiration comes from Sir Alex Ferguson’s last great team, it feels very modern.
United’s answer to Liverpool’s attacking trio of Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino – transforming a side that looked so stunted earlier this season to an expansive and fluid team, capable of hurting defences from all over the pitch.
“You can see our players,” said Solskjaer. “(Rashford) suddenly pops up on the right, left, and you want that rotation between them.”
With a combined age of 64 – compared to Liverpool’s trio, 74 – all three are well below their peak years. The rapid development they’ve made after just a season with Solskjaer also bodes well for the future.
With 56 goals between them, they have also outscored Liverpool’s forwards by two.
That alone is justification for Solskjaer’s decision to show the door to Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez last summer after deciding they didn't fit into the vision of how he wanted his United attack to look.
“It’s not new for United,” he said. “Did you not watch Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez when they were playing? When Sir Alex gave them some freedom, but within a framework and structure.
“So we do work a lot on patterns and positions and where we want the players to be, but within that we understand that you might pop up on the right or the left or be in different positions, but we have to fill different positions.
“There has been too much, last year, sometimes this year, players want to gravitate over to the left, and go on there and play tippy-tappy football.
“That is something we wanted to get rid of, and we have been more progressive and more disciplined in our positions.”
Solskjaer always planned to give Greenwood opportunities this season – but even he couldn’t have expected such rapid progress from the 18-year-old, who has 16 goals already.
He saw Paulo Dybala as being an ideal fit for his fluid frontline.
Mario Mandzukic was another target last summer who would provide the experience he wanted that would have been so helpful as United struggled in the first half of the campaign.
Erling Braut Haaland is the type of poacher he still craves – though Odion Ighalo has gone some way to addressing that issue in the short-term.
And in Jadon Sancho – primary transfer target – he sees a dynamic, modern forward who will fit perfectly into his system.
The Borussia Dortmund winger is capable of rotating in the manner of Rashford, Martial and Greenwood and would be a natural complement to that trio.
His arrival would provide an immediate threat to Greenwood on the right. But such is the potential of the academy graduate that he may find himself used as an alternative to Martial at the point of attack, while he is equally comfortable playing wide left as he is right.
By the time Ighalo’s loan is up in January, Solskjaer may well have abandoned plans to move for competition in the central striking role.
“I have said it many times, he can go as far as he wants to,” said the United manager. “He has the talent to go so far, and he is creating chances himself, he is creating chances.
“Our job is to get him into positions where he can finish because he does hit the target. He will make the goalkeeper have to work, so keep on giving him chances and he has got a chance to score more.
“We know what he's capable of and always trusted him to be a part of this squad and chip in with performances and goals. We've seen it every day.
“I've seen it since I came to the club. He's just a natural footballer and when you put natural good footballers with better footballers that gives him more opportunities to show their qualities.
“The club know what they're doing when they're educating players.”
Increasingly Solskjaer is proving he knows what he’s doing to, with his devastating forward line a testament to that.
