Things aren't going according to plan for Jose Mourinho and Manchester United right now.

December hasn't been the best month for the Red Devils. Since losing to Manchester City, they have been knocked out of the Caraboa Cup to Bristol City and drawn three Premier League games in a row against Leicester, Burnley and Southampton.

That's not the form of title challengers and United now find themselves 14 points behind City having played one game more and now Chelsea have leapfrogged them into second for the first time this season.

To make matters worse, Zlatan Ibrahimovic looks set to miss a month of action through injury and Romelu Lukaku was stretchered off early in the first half with a worrying head injury against Southampton.

That leaves 20-year-old Marcus Rashford and 22-year-old Anthony Martial as the only options Mourinho has to lead his attack.

Neither man has really been deployed down the middle this term, but Rashford was given the nod to replace Lukaku on Saturday at Old Trafford.

However, he failed to make a real impression on the game and Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer - who also happens to be the Premier League's record goalscorer with 260 strikes - had some advice for the England international.

"He's an outstanding talent with great potential, but, and I've got sympathy with him because he's got to learn the hard way in the centre-forward role," Shearer told Gary Lineker and Ian Wright. "He's had to play left, he's had to play right, down the middle, coming off an on as a substitute and it is difficult that way, but his movement has to be a little bit better.

"You have to take a step forward there to go back or step back to go forward; that's what you have to do. No movement at all again. And this is not a criticism of him at all, I'm only giving him a little bit of advice that I hope he can take on because you have to be prepared to gamble in the box.

"When these balls are coming into the box, you've got to gamble and you've got to be a split second quicker than the defender, but by the time he realises, he's a split second too late.

"As I said, I have got sympathy for him and I do think he will be a very, very good player. But he has to learn quickly."

If there is one man Rashford should listen to, it's probably Shearer.