Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho says that the "goals will arrive" for young striker Marcus Rashford after he drew another blank in the 3-1 victory over Middlesbrough.
A different player to Zlatan
After an excellent burst onto the scene last season anticipation was high to see what Mourinho could do with the striker, but he has failed to kick on as many would have expected with only eight goals so far in the current campaign.
The 19-year-old was expected to step up ahead of their trip to the Riverside, with the absence of Zlatan Ibrahimović and Wayne Rooney and the lack of fitness of Anthony Martial.
Though he didn't score he put in a excellent performance as he terrified the Boro defence with his pace and skill.
Rashford played a major part as United collected all three points on Teesside and Mourinho praised the frontman's performance and insisted that the goals will come for the youngster.
"Marcus is a completely different player than Zlatan," Mourinho stated to his post-match press conference. "And we have to try to play and adapt to his qualities."
"Rashford is in trouble to score a goal it is really difficult to score a goal for him but his movements top class his dynamic is second to none.” the coach admitted to the press.
He added: "So intelligent, so sharp and the first touch to put the ball in the best positions to attack the space to attack the goal for me he played phenomenal.”
"Goals will arrive, goals will arrive no problem at all," the Portuguese coach stressed. "But of course no Zlatan, no [Paul] Pogba, no [Henrikh] Mkhitaryan people who want the ball that has the ball that want to control the game by having the ball.
"Today we played different, more of the ball to the opponents we dropped the line a little bit back we attacked spaces and first half should be 3-0," the 54-year-old said about the game's tactics. "They are a good team, they have good team, they have a solid midfield."
Can't delete what he did
The clash at the Riverside saw the first game since the sacking of Aitor Karanka during the week, with Steve Agnew stepping up to take over Boro ahead of this clash.
Though goals from Marouane Fellaini, Jesse Lingard and Antonio Valencia saw them sink to another defeat, Boro put in a decent performance and pushed United close as Rudy Gestede managed to get a goal back and turned on the pressure late on.
It was a sad end to what was a generally successful spell under Karanka, who came in having been the assistant under Mourinho at Real Madrid, and when asked if the victory was revenge for his friend Mourinho stated that it is the work he did on Teesside that will define him.
"Justice for Karanka is the work he did here people can not delete he good things we do in clubs it doesn’t what happened," Mourinho said about the situation. "I was sacked by Chelsea people now they don’t like but nobody can go there and delete what I did.”
"He come here, 8,000 10,000 people in the stadium almost going into league one then killed the division goes to the play-off final could leave the club," Mourinho said.
He added: "[He] decides to stay, [gains] promotion, could leave the club because I know what Im saying when I say could leave the club I know what I’m saying. Could leave for better and I know what I'm saying. But he stays, he stays for the fans, he stays for the owner, he stays for the players."
"He lost a good opportunity to go to bigger club, I repeat I know what I'm saying," Mourinho explained. "In the end he loses his job but that it is football and I'm sure he wants this team to stay in the division, he wants the fans to stay in the premier league."