Manchester United have a chance of matching Sir Alex Ferguson's season scoring record

For one of the most accomplished defensive midfielders of his generation, Casemiro was also one of Manchester United's chief attacking assets last season.

Despite a testing start to his second season at the club, Casemiro's impact in the final third has been more profound. The Brazilian is currently United's highest scorer with four goals.

Three have been headers and his first against Bayern Munich was a canny piece of improvisation as he flicked the ball in whilst prone on the turf. Ruud van Nistelrooy would approve of Casemiro's predatory instinct in front of goal, be it connecting with Bruno Fernandes' free-kick in the Allianz Arena or minding the offside trap to equalise against Nottingham Forest.

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Casemiro is one of nine different scorers already for United this season - their joint-most after eight games in the last 10 seasons. United ended last season with 16 separate goalscorers and they are more than halfway to matching that number.

That will be particularly pleasing for Erik ten Hag amid the pressure on the £72million signing Rasmus Hojlund. The striker has one goal in five games and teammates were always going to have to alleviate the goalscoring burden on the 20-year-old. Few would have expected Casemiro to be the most potent at this juncture.

Nine players struck within the first eight games in 2020-21 but United had the benefit of playing two League Cup games due to the crammed schedule amid the Covid-19 pandemic, so manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had more flexibility to rotate. Juan Mata, Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford, Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba got off the mark against Luton Town and