Man Utd boss Erik ten Hag uses ketchup analogy while discussing Marcus Rashford after Southampton win

It was Rashford's first goal for United since March, with the England international celebrating enthusiastically in the aftermath of his effort.

Speaking to the BBC, Ten Hag has now hailed the forward - while also using a ketchup bottle analogy to make his feelings clear.

"It's very important. For every striker, they want to be on the scoring list," he said.

"Once the first is in, more is coming. Once a striker was talking about a ketchup bottle, once it's going, it's coming more."

In a separate interview with TNT Sports, he added: "We spoke before the game and it is so huge for him, for every striker, when the season starts you want to be on the scoring list.

"Now he has his first, I'm sure more will come.

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"We had the chances to kill the game off, we had the chances, I don't know how many. We had several to go to 3 or 4-0."

Another player who impressed for United was De Ligt.

The Netherlands international struggled in midweek, with Ronald Koeman substituting him at half time during a 2-2 draw with Germany.

De Ligt was outstanding today, however, with the former Juventus and Bayern Munich star's goal capping off a brilliant individual display.

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When asked about De Ligt, Ten Hag said he wasn't surprised by the centre-back's top performance.

"I'm not surprised. At this moment he is not fit, he's not at 100 per cent speed," added the 54-year-old.

"He needs the games to go up to it. We see glimpses now and once he's there he will do much better.

"We are happy with him and especially today with his game."

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De Ligt himself, meanwhile, opted to praise Andre Onana.

United looked destined to fall behind when Cameron Archer stepped up to take a penalty following a foul from Diogo Dalot inside the box.

But Onana dived to his right to deny Archer, with De Ligt then opening the scoring just moments later.

The centre-back said: "The win was obviously really important.

"I think if you get three points from three games it's not enough so there was some pressure but I think today we played very well.

"A big credit to Andre Onana who saved a really important penalty, he changed the game for us."