Erik ten Hag backs Marcus Rashford to become more clinical for Manchester United

Erik ten Hag is confident Manchester United will start being more clinical in front of goal and backed Marcus Rashford to quickly put a fruitless night against Omonia Nicosia behind him.

It took until the 34th and final shot of the evening for the Red Devils to beat inspired goalkeeper Francis Uzoho on Thursday as substitute Scott McTominay sealed a 1-0 stoppage-time victory.

United’s ineffectiveness in front of goal was a concern on a night when the Europa League triumph extended United’s winning response to the 6-3 mauling at Manchester City to a third game in all competitions.

Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick that day and already sits on 15 Premier League goals – two more than United’s players combined have managed in their first eight top-flight games of the season.

Asked after the game if he was confident he had players who can score 20 goals this season, Ten Hag said: “Yes, I’m confident, mostly. In my teams, there are the players who will score.

“They come into the position so finally in the last part it’s also about the freedom from the player – the intuition, the space they have to take.

“And when they have that feeling, then you will see players when they have the talent, when they have the potential, they will score that number of goals.

“I think we have in our squad players who can score that number of goals, but you can also divide it because we have many goalscorers across the whole offensive department.

“But I think also we need something from midfield and the defensive department.”

United’s top scorer right now is Rashford, who has five goals in all competitions and should have increased that tally on Thursday given he had 10 attempts against Omonia.

“He did a lot of things well but finally he knows that