Under-18s coach Paul McGuinness hopes United's young strike duo, Danny Welbeck and Federico Macheda, can fire the Reds to FA Youth Cup success this season.
The pair have scored 15 of Uniteds 36 goals this season in league and cup matches, and will hope to fire the Reds past Carlisle in the Youth Cup fourth round on Wednesday (KO 19:00 GMT).
Italian youth international Macheda is the U18s' top scorer this term with eight goals, including his strike in the 2-1 third round victory over Brighton & Hove Albion. Welbeck, an England U17 international, has scored seven goals this term. Together, they form a formidable partnership up.
They are both very good players, McGuinness told PA Sport. Danny is still only young and has another year at this level. Hes a very talented player and all the other players respond to that.
Federico is a very good technical player. Hes a good finisher, makes good decisions and some very clever runs. In some ways he has a style like Dimitar Berbatov. His touch is very good.
Rome-born Macheda has made a strong impression on and off the pitch since arriving in the summer from Italy, where he was on Lazios books. His English is coming on, hes a bright boy, added McGuinness. He understands what were after and he has fitted in well with the culture of the club.
Federico and Danny are on a really good wavelength. That is what you want, good partnerships. When you see them in training and you look at the likes of Rooney and Tevez and the way they link up, those two lads are capable of doing similar sorts of combinations."
United reached the final of the FA Youth Cup last season, losing on penalties to Liverpool. But with experienced players like goalkeeper Ben Amos and midfielders Danny Drinkwater, Corry Evans and Magnus Eikrem (Welbeck also played last season) still in the side, United are hopeful of being strong challengers again.
It would be nice to go one better this year, said McGuinness. Were missing some of the players we had last year but those who remain have that extra experience. For them, there is a big motivation to go the next step.
And if you look at the history of the FA Cup and FA Youth Cup, a lot of teams who get to the final get there again the following year. They know how much it means and have the experience of going through each round.
There have been 13 occasions where teams have reached consecutive finals since the inception of the Youth Cup in 1953. United will hope this time it means a tenth success for the club, but McGuinness says the Reds arent getting too ahead of themselves yet.
You take it round-by-round. Once you get through a couple of rounds, you start to get a feel for it. You get through one game and handle the pressure, then it can become a snowball effect.
