WHAT IS OLE LIKE IN THE SHOOTING DRILLS?

Manchester United keeper Lee Grant has discussed facing manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in training and his friendly rivalry with Anthony Martial.

The boss was one of the most predatory strikers in Premier League history and occasionally joins in the shooting drills at the Aon Training Complex.

However, the man who scored 126 times for the Reds is no longer as fearsome as the current young hitmen in the first team.

“The gaffer loves it,“ revealed Grant in the latest episode of UTD Podcast, which is out now on all the usual platforms.

“The trouble is that they are striking the ball ridiculously. Rashy [Marcus Rashford], Mason [Greenwood], these guys, they are hitting the ball so hard, the gaffer can’t live with them now. His accuracy is still there, though.

“Occasionally, the ball will pop out and he will just rattle one in the bottom corner and he’ll give you the eyes."

When the practice sessions are in full swing, everybody is keen to have a pot-shot with Grant suggesting even the defenders fancy having a crack at goal.

“We have got about 25-30 lads, when shooting starts happening, all of a sudden we have got 30 strikers at the club,” he laughed.
“People like Victor Lindelof are at the back of the queue and I’m thinking, ‘I’m sure you are not a striker, I’m pretty sure you are a centre-half’. The gaffer doesn’t even get a look in now when it comes to the shooting drills but it’s still there, you get a sense that it is still there.”

Lee also suggested he is engaged in a running contest with Martial, with our leading goalscorer for 2020/21 taking up the challenge whenever the opportunity presents itself.

“We have a nice little battle actually,” said the keeper. “I'm always on at him in training, always digging at him in training to try to do better.

“I'll always try to get the upper hand whenever he's shooting and, if we're doing drills, and it might be really normal. We might be running a phase and passively shooting into the goal - the phase finishes in the middle third and the shot is not really full tempo. If Anthony shoots and I save it, I go: '1-0, Anto'. Then he'll get this glint in his eye and the next one, it won't matter if the gaffer says don't worry about the shot in the end, he'll come through and want to shoot in a one-on-one.

“He won't even say anything, he'll just do that [1-1], and then the next one, and we'll do that all day. So a lovely little rivalry goes on between us.

“You might have caught it with the goal he scored at home against Bournemouth. He cuts inside and hits an unbelievable strike, then looks up in the stands at me, like that. I'm stood up giving applause, it's the type of thing to do, but he'd have loved to score that goal against me, probably more than he would do against Bournemouth!”