Odion Ighalo identified a solid goalkeeping display by Dean Henderson and the impact of substitutes Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood as crucial to Manchester United’s 3-0 win over Luton.
United wrapped up a comfortable Carabao Cup victory at Kenilworth Road, despite being made to work hard for much of the evening.
Ighalo made a rare start up front but laboured like many of his United teammates.
Juan Mata’s penalty separated the sides until Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made a triple substitution, bringing on Rashford, Greenwood and Bruno Fernandes, who all had a hand in the two late goals, which sealed the win.
“It was a very tough game,” Ighalo told MUTV. “We knew, from the start, that we were coming to play a tough side. We are happy we are going through to the next round – that is the most important thing.
“We’ve not started the league very well, but we’ve won today and I think it’s a boost for this weekend’s game against Brighton. We’ll go there and try to win and start the Premier League [again].
“We were disappointed at the weekend because we didn’t win the game against Crystal Palace.
“We only had one week to prepare for that game; I think they had been preparing for four weeks. So it can tell a bit. But, now we’ve won this game, I think it’s a boost for us. Hopefully we’ll win this weekend and start on a good note in the Premier League.”
Ighalo then gave his verdict on the performances of forwards Rashford and Greenwood, as well as Henderson who made one vital save on his competitive United debut.
“He’s a good goalkeeper and he made that save and gave us the confidence to keep pushing,” added Ighalo.
“Like the gaffer said, we have to score more goals to finish the game, because 1-0 is never a [guaranteed] win. So that’ why we were pushing to get more goals.
“You see when Mason came in, and Rashford, you see that we had more speed up there, because they were a bit tired back there. So the goals came in. We are very happy we are through to the next round.
“You can see we are getting fitter and everybody’s getting the sharpness. Everyone’s getting the game-time, getting fitter and fitter in every game. Now we go to the next game and have some minutes again and keep getting better and better.”