Marcus Rashford is fit, firing and having fun. Yet his impressive recent form also shows why he is not the answer to Manchester United's need for a new striker, according to two former England forwards.
Rashford led United to a dominant 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, but Alan Shearer and Michael Owen say they must buy a 'number nine' to complement the 25-year-old's quality.
Against Forest, Rashford scored United's first goal after sweeping in a well-worked corner routine initiated by Christian Eriksen and then teed up Anthony Martial to fire in the second midway through the first half.
With Martial operating as the main striker, the England international played a little deeper on the left, which enabled him to cause problems for the Forest defence with his movement.
"I think Marcus enjoys it more, he looks better certainly, in the position we saw tonight," Shearer said on Amazon Prime.
"He's been given a little bit of freedom - if he wants to go down the middle at times, he can.
"But when he's got all that space to run into from out wide, he's a better player in doing that and he's very, very good at doing that.
"In terms of him being a centre-forward, he lacks that killer instinct, that natural ability to think 'yeah, I'm going to get in there, I'm going to get the two or three yarders'.
"But there's no doubting his ability, he's a fantastic player."
Owen, also working at Old Trafford as a television pundit, agreed with his former England strike partner.
"I do feel that Rashford is better on the left, he will contribute a decent number of goals each year," said the former Liverpool and Real Madrid forward.
"But he's not going to be the Ruud van Nistelrooy, the Robin van Persie, the Wayne Rooney who scores 30-plus goals a season.
"Obviously he is a huge asset to this football club, gives them something different, gives them pace, gives them directness."
United's need for a new 'out and out' striker has long been apparent and the search has been accelerated by Cristiano Ronaldo's departure by mutual consent before the World Cup.
Frenchman Martial, 27, staked his claim to be manager Erik ten Hag's regular striker with a decent showing against Forest, but there remains the feeling he has already had enough chances to prove his worth to United over eight seasons without ever being fully convincing.
PSV Eindhoven's Cody Gakpo was a long-time attacking target - even though the Dutchman, like Rashford, is seen as being more productive behind a frontman - but United appear to have been beaten to his signing by Liverpool.
After beating Forest, Ten Hag admitted it would be "good" to get another forward but only if United's "sporting and financial criteria" were met.
"I'd certainly look to go into the market to see if they could find a centre-forward," added Shearer.
"But that's easier said than done as that many clubs are looking for that guy that can go out and get you 25 goals a season."
Owen, who also had a spell at Old Trafford, added: "Rashford should be getting 20 a season if you include all the cups. In terms of the league, if he gets 15 that would be a very good return.
"But I think Manchester United need that number nine - whether it's Martial or another player."
Rashford suffered a dip in form under United interim boss Ralf Rangnick last season, scoring just twice in 23 appearances and rarely playing a full 90 minutes.
This season, looking reinvigorated under Ten Hag and playing with a smile again, he has netted 10 times in 21 games for his club.
"I don't know if it is as good as I've ever been playing but I'm definitely enjoying it," Rashford told Amazon Prime.
"We're winning a lot more football games and our level has been a lot higher. I'm happy with how were developing and hope we can keep kicking on.
"It's a completely different mindset to last season, a different team playing different football.
"For me, when you're not in the team and coming on, there is a different mindset and you have to think about making an impact and you're not sure when you get another chance or another goal.
"But I'm enjoying what I'm doing at the minute."
Marcus Rashford scored one and created another as Manchester United overcame illness issues to beat Nottingham Forest and move to within a point of the top four.
Rashford converted a superb opener after 19 minutes when he was picked out by Christian Eriksen in a pre-planned corner routine, allowing the striker to exploit Forest's failure to track his run by sweeping a first-time shot past Wayne Hennessey.
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The England forward turned provider three minutes later, cutting in from the left wing and rolling a pass to Antony Martial, whose low finish from the edge of the area found the net after Hennessey failed to hold.
Forest's keeper denied Antony, Martial and Rashford before substitute Fred profited from an excellent through ball from fellow Brazilian Casemiro to find the bottom corner three minutes from time.
Forest never recovered from that first-half double blow, although they did have a goal ruled out by VAR just before the break.
Steve Cooper's men have not scored a league goal away from the City Ground since 20 August and remain second bottom.
For United, it completed a fourth successive victory in all competitions and underlined the theory that the exit of Cristiano Ronaldo will not have a negative effect on the remainder of their season.
Can Rashford and Martial solve Man Utd's striker problems?
There has been a lot of talk of strikers at United since Ronaldo's contract was terminated last month.
PSV Eindhoven's Cody Gakpo was certainly on their radar before he agreed a move to Liverpool, even if the likely transfer fee would have priced him out of a move to Old Trafford, given the significant spending last summer that manager Erik ten Hag demanded.
Unless the situation changes, the best Ten Hag can hope for is a loan signing.
However, on nights like this, it is not obvious that he actually needs reinforcements.
Injuries have limited Martial's involvement this season but the Frenchman now has five goals to his name and is effective in the number nine role, even if he prefers to attack from wider positions.
And Ten Hag said before the game 25-year-old Rashford was capable of scoring 20 league goals.
Had substitute Alejandro Garnacho picked out the England man with a cut-back deep into the second half, Rashford would have doubled his tally for the night, which, as it is, takes him into double figures for the season in all competitions.
With Garnacho and Anthony Elanga making decent contributions off the bench, Ten Hag will need to look hard to find someone who is both good enough and within the club's budget.
VAR denies Forest a rare away goal
At the start of the month, former World Cup final referee Howard Webb took over the management of elite officials in England.
He has vowed to speed up the VAR process and try to iron out some of the issues still being experienced with it within the English game.
Yet, speaking to BBC Sport last week, Webb said incidents that involved multiple issues would always cause a problem and Forest were on the wrong end of one just before the break that took three minutes for Andy Madley and his colleagues at Stockley Park to solve.
Ryan Yates appeared to have headed in at the far post. However, there was a potential handball which needed to be checked. Once those replays had been studied, it became apparent Willy Boly had actually diverted the ball home.
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As it turned out, Yates didn't handle. But Boly was offside and what would have been Forest's first Premier League away goal since Brennan Johnson scored in a 1-1 draw at Everton was ruled out.
Chelsea boosted their top-four hopes as they resumed their Premier League season with a comfortable victory over Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge.
Having failed to score in three consecutive matches prior to the break for the World Cup it took Chelsea less than 16 minutes to get up and running with Kai Havertz sliding in an effort at the back post from Raheem Sterling's low cross.
With the hosts dominant, Mason Mount celebrated his 150th appearance for Chelsea in style, curling a superb effort into the bottom right corner of the Bournemouth net from the edge of the penalty area.
It drew a nod of satisfaction from manager Graham Potter, who will have been delighted by the slick performance his side delivered, particularly during the first half.
Christian Pulisic saw an effort ruled out after Havertz was judged to have fouled Adam Smith, while the German also spurned a second-half opportunity to extend Chelsea's lead.
The result sees Chelsea move up to eighth in the table, six points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham with Bournemouth remaining in 14th.
The only negative in Potter's and Chelsea's evening came with the earlier-than-planned withdrawal of Reece James, seven minutes into the second period, on his return from the knee injury that ruled him out of the England squad for Qatar.
The 23-year-old lay on the turf with his hands on his head before receiving treatment and eventually walking off unaided.
While the Cherries improved after the break, and substitute Ryan Christie forced home goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga into a good save, they rarely looked capable of applying any late pressure to the hosts.
Chelsea take step forward
Chelsea had come into the contest with question marks over their direction of travel under Potter after a damaging sequence of three consecutive top-flight defeats prior to the World Cup.
However, they appeared galvanised and looked as though the opportunity to reset had worked in their favour.
There was a notable fluency to their play, particularly via the combinations that Sterling, James, Mount and Italian playmaker Jorginho provided, while Havertz and Pulisic worked tirelessly up front to offer an outlet.
And until he was forced off, everything that right-back James produced oozed class.
His marauding runs down the right gave Chelsea an added dimension in attack, with only a good save from visiting goalkeeper Mark Travers denying him a goal just before the break.
Sluggish start dents Bournemouth
Dominic Solanke's driving run and an early Philip Billing free-kick suggested Bournemouth felt capable of taking the game to Chelsea on their own patch.
However, while Gary O'Neil will take positives from the way his team prevented the scoreline from going away from them further in the second period, he will be disappointed by their passive first 45 minutes.
In that period they conceded their 33rd and 34th goals of the campaign, with 26 of those now coming away from home.
Chelsea's opener came from a series of straight passes down the right, with Havertz unchallenged as he opened the scoring, while Mount was given time and space to take aim as four Bournemouth players backed off.