How United's homegrown hitmen can make history
Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard, Andreas Pereira... the list of homegrown hitmen who've scored for Manchester United grew this week, when Scott McTominay bagged his first goal for the club on Tuesday.
27 GOALS BY GRADUATES
That's how many of our 61 Premier League goals were bagged by former Academy players this season. Among the other remarkable statistics to date is that at least one graduate scored in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first nine Premier League matches as boss, and there have only been three fixtures from his 15 (Liverpool, Crystal Palace, Arsenal) that haven’t featured in-house scorers.
Here’s how they’ve fared so far:
Paul Pogba = 11 goals
Marcus Rashford = 10 goals
Jesse Lingard = 4 goals
Andreas Pereira = 1 goal
Scott McTominay = 1 goal
United have scored 61 Premier League goals so far this season, and 27 of those were netted by players who graduated from the Academy.
The 2018/19 Premier League campaign so far has comfortably housed United’s highest ever ratio for homegrown goals. Of the 61, the 27 scored by Pogba, Rashford, Lingard, Andreas and McTominay comprises just over 44 per cent of the Reds’ total; the second highest was just over 41 per cent in 1995/96, the campaign most famous for the collective arrival of the Class of ’92 in senior football.
1: 2018/19: 27 of 61 = 44.26%
2: 1995/96: 30 of 73 = 41.10%
3: 1997/98: 29 of 73 = 39.73%
4: 2002/03: 29 of 74 = 39.19%
5: 1992/93: 24 of 67 = 35.82%
The 27 goals scored by Academy graduates this season equates to 44 per cent of the total so far. Our club record for a full campaign currently stands at 41 per cent in 1995/96.
Two current first-team players are in the all-time mix of Premier League scorers, and both men could rise up the rankings before the end of this season.
Ryan Giggs = 109
Paul Scholes = 107
David Beckham = 62
Mark Hughes = 35
Marcus Rashford = 27
Paul Pogba = 22
Nicky Butt = 21
Danny Welbeck = 20
Darren Fletcher = 18
Jesse Lingard = 17
An Academy graduate netted in 12 straight games earlier this season, beating the 10 in a row set by Sir Alex Ferguson’s Reds at the end of the 2002/03 and start of 2003/03 terms.
12 GAME SCORING SPREE
In the three games prior to Solskjaer’s arrival and the nine after, an Academy graduate netted for United in every single one. That was 12 straight games, beating the 10 in a row set by Sir Alex Ferguson’s Reds over the end of the 2002/03 campaign and the start of the 2003/03 term. No other season in the last 27 years has been able to top half as many games as that recent run.
The equation is simple: homegrown talents in key attacking roles, but those players are now functioning with astonishing productivity under Solskjaer. The Norwegian laid down clear ambitions in his early press conference after arriving back in Manchester, saying: “I want the players to be the kids that love to play football. We need young players coming through.”
The result is what we are currently seeing.
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