Erik ten Hag has shown his greatest strength at Manchester United with two players

The last time Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial were on the scoresheet in the same game before Thursday night Manchester United ended up hitting nine, thrashing a bedraggled Southampton at an empty Old Trafford in February 2021.

Since then it's United who have tended to be on the wrong end of hidings, a trait that hasn't yet been extinguished by Erik ten Hag, who in his first 10 games in charge has overseen a 4-0 defeat at Brentford and a 6-3 loss at Manchester City.

Ten Hag has won six and lost four of his matches so far and his record offers encouragement rather than a cast-iron guarantee of success. But if there's an area where his impact is being felt it is on the training ground.

READ MORE: Ten Hag gives verdict on Ronaldo performance in United win

United knew they were appointing a hands-on manager when it came to the nitty gritty at Carrington, in contrast to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick. Ten Hag has a track record of improving players and Rashford and Martial have probably been the biggest beneficiaries at Old Trafford.

There was a time when their partnership looked like being the future for United. They scored in the same game six times during lockdown football but the failure to then transport that form when crowds returned summed up the team.

Having finished second in a season played in empty stadiums, United regressed drastically when the crowds returned. By this summer Martial's United career looked all but done and Rashford was questioning his own future.

Martial's loan to Sevilla in the second half of last season went so poorly there wasn't really a market for him in the summer window. Rashford's form had fallen off a cliff to such a dramatic extent that he has been exiled by England