We will need about another 30 than we got last year to push for a top 2 spot and yet we don't seem to have done much to remedy this, particularly with Lukaku potentially leaving.
How do we resolve this ?
How do we resolve this ?
Where do we find more goals ?
- Thread starter Raoul
- Start date
By doing something that none of our attacking players have done in the last decade - becoming better than they were the season before.
id imagine 2nd isn't the clubs target, 4th is
I see 4th as a baseline for what is acceptable, not a target. A target would be top two imo.
Basically this. Martial, Rashford and Lukaku need to hit 15+ goals in all competitions. 1 of them preferably 20+.
Top two? That’s reserved for city and Liverpool this season. No one will be within ten points of 2nd place
Fully agree with you. Clear as day the priority for the owners and Ed now is to qualify for Champions league football. We finished 30 points off the top last season and have only signed one player a RB who will improve our starting line up. Club is following the Arsenal model.
Bruno Fernandes can bang a goal in. Him replacing Lingard in the team would be a nice upgrade.
Invest money in top players who can score and create goals...?
Get a defensive midfielder. Our midfield is constantly overrun. Even by the likes of Newcastle. This means the attacking players are starved of any pases as the midfield are fighting for thier lives and they also have to drop deep to get the ball. See how Man Cities attack falters without Fernandinio. Sorting out defence by getting a CB will also help. Of course there are so many problems with our Front three that it won't solve everything. We need a much higher goal to game ratio by all of them especially Lindgard. Partey and Pepe might do it.
I think we need another attacking player (as well as a midfielder that can score goals) but good coaching and positive tactics can remedy this. Scoring goals has been the biggest issue since Ferguson retired, which is usually forgotten amongst those who cry for defenders.
Rashford and Martial have the biggest seasons of their lives coming up, too. They need to take the responsibility and sink or swim.
Rashford and Martial have the biggest seasons of their lives coming up, too. They need to take the responsibility and sink or swim.
- Rashford and Martial go from the 10-15 range theyve been regularly getting the last few years to the 15-20 range with more important and consistent roles, along with progressing as players.
- Greenwood gets 10-15 (honestly this is a conservative prediction from me, the guy looks like scoring every time he steps on the pitch).
- Lingard stays at ~10.
- Other youngsters and James get 5-10 between them.
- Mata stays at 5-10.
- Pogba stays at ~15.
- Sanchez stays at ~5
- Rest of midfielders get ~5-10 between them
- Defence gets ~5 between them
depending on how far we go.
Theres a solid amount of goals in this team. The creativity and attack was far from the biggest problem last season, over the year our attacking stats were on the same level as Spurs/arsenal/Chelsea's. The problem was our defence was in the bottom half of the league. Wan Bissaka will be a big boost, especially as we can have 2 fullbacks who can shut down wingers 1v1. Problem is still the 2nd CB, and defensive cover from midfield.
Somehow I doubt that. Literally anything can happen after seeing what Leicester did.
Our best bet would be seeing a lot more goal production out of Alexis imo
It was the issue under Van Gaal, not under Mourinho or Ole. Our attacking stats, both in actual goals and in xG last season showed a very similar number to the rest of the big 6 after city/liverpool who are a level above. It was our defense that was rated as being in the bottom half of the league. Without fixing our defence and control from midfield, the attack will be capped by the lack of control and dominance shown by our midfield/defense.
I dont see it really. 5 goals out of Sanchez is a riskier bet than any of the other numbers I put tbh. Think the rest of the numbers is very doable and that's not a bad goal total at all. Defence will dictate how far we go as those are all pretty normal goal totals for the players.
I believe city and Liverpool will be untouchable again this season. We can get third if we perform well every game, but then again so can chelsea or spurs.
They will be good but certainly not untouchable. I expect one of the other clubs outside the top two to make a serious push next year.
That's definitely a concern imo. We still haven't addressed the fundamental problem at striker and have been sorely lacking in that department since Fergie left (spare the one good year Ibra had).
Rashford being the main CF needs to have a 20+ goals season. Needs to. Pogba and Martial should get 15 each. Lingard(considering we dont get a RW and he is a starter) can chip in with 10. The likes of Mata, James, Greenwood and Sanchez should have goals in them.
this feels like best case scenario
we could also help ourselves by adding Bruno Fernandes
It was the issue under Mourinho, too. Last season was a debacle and the goals conceded wasn’t reflective of the quality of defenders - even though they needed improving. The team just collapsed because Mourinho made it so.
We’ve been miles behind City and Liverpool in attacking terms for years now, even when the gap wasn’t so big.
Alternate scenario, we keep Lukaku and he knocks in 30 plus.
For the upcoming season? Targets need to be achievable imo. Top 2 and challenging for the title is pure fantasy.
We need to play on the front foot with the high press and go with it whatever. We need to trust the youth as well, give them a run rather than sticking with the same old. Hopefully the fact we should be able to attack from the right as well will make a big difference. Who knows we may even buy another player or three.
Martial Rashford Greenwood
Pogba Fernandes
Longstaff
That 6 are all regular goalscorers.
Pogba Fernandes
Longstaff
That 6 are all regular goalscorers.
Realistically I don't see us making up those goals . We'll lose Lukaku most likely, possibly Pogba too. I'm afraid I've no faith in Rashford to blossom into a player able to consistently score or make good decisions, from what I've seen anyway. Lingard will play most of our games this season and won't score many, Martial will likely be in and out again but doesn't seem to have that clinical eye either.
It's concerning but I honestly think the only player we have who could conceivably start "banging them in" is Greenwood and he's far too young to rely on.
The realistic way I could think of would be if we properly replace Lukaku, but I suspect Ole will think Rashford can do this.
It's concerning but I honestly think the only player we have who could conceivably start "banging them in" is Greenwood and he's far too young to rely on.
The realistic way I could think of would be if we properly replace Lukaku, but I suspect Ole will think Rashford can do this.
We could perhaps consider renegotiating with Ole to become our player manager.
More ideally, Lukaku is sold for a healthy whack and then we use that money to sign a proven goalscorer who is hungry and ambitious enough to play for the biggest team in England.
More ideally, Lukaku is sold for a healthy whack and then we use that money to sign a proven goalscorer who is hungry and ambitious enough to play for the biggest team in England.
Longstaff is a regular goalscorer?
yep, full clear window and havnt even replaced Herrera with a few weeks to go
If we look only at the 'forwards' from last season (Goals/Assists):
1. Pogba 16/11
2. Lukaku 15/3
3. Rashford 13/7
4. Martial 12/2
5. Mata 6/2
6. Lingard 5/2
7. Sanchez 2/4
Realistically, Pogba probably shouldn't even be on this list as when we have 6-7 'forwards', they should IMO all be expected to contribute at least similar if not more numbers in every term of final product (goals or assists). However, I think because of how good Pogba can be and how much our team is likely to be tailored to getting good output from him, he has to be part of our list of players who are expected to produce an end product. If we assume Lukaku leaves, that's technically 18 goals gone. Now, if we played more to Lukaku's strengths then he would more than likely be a 25-30 total contribution on this list, but that's probably another debate. My expectation would be something like this, needing certain players to improve quite a lot:
1. Rashford 20/5 (+5)
2. Pogba 15/10 (-2)
3. Martial 15/5 (+6)
4. Sanchez 15/5 (+14)
5. Lingard 5/5 (+3)
6. Mata 5/5 (+2)
7. James 5/5
This is kind of my expectation from the attacking players I expect to feature enough for us. For the most-part, I'm only expecting marginal gains in overall contribution bar Sanchez who, if he stays fit and manages to up/adapt his game, should give us a huge improvement in his contribution to the team. 80 Goals from 7 attacking players might just be good enough if the rest of the squad pulls their weight. You'd have to think that the rest of the central midfield players and all the defenders could give us 10 each, for a further 20 goals to get us into the triple-digit territory. Then, you have your youngsters and deeper squad players chipping in for another five or 10 in total. This starts to look at what we'd expect to be a minimum goal total over 50+ games at Manchester United, but I think if we could add Bruno Fernandes to the squad if Lukaku is gone... He might just take us to that level of adding another 20+ goals/assists and making the real difference, getting us closer to the numbers that City and Liverpool manage to hit (well in excess of 120+ goals).
It's going to come down to if Ole's way of playing gets us forward more than we have under the previous managers. I think our forwards are good enough to hit those numbers over a full season with enough game-time in a more attacking side. We should be soaring past 100 goals for sure, especially if we sign Fernandes.
There's also the hope that Greenwood manages to get into the side and has a few stormers, but I won't be expecting that just yet.
1. Pogba 16/11
2. Lukaku 15/3
3. Rashford 13/7
4. Martial 12/2
5. Mata 6/2
6. Lingard 5/2
7. Sanchez 2/4
Realistically, Pogba probably shouldn't even be on this list as when we have 6-7 'forwards', they should IMO all be expected to contribute at least similar if not more numbers in every term of final product (goals or assists). However, I think because of how good Pogba can be and how much our team is likely to be tailored to getting good output from him, he has to be part of our list of players who are expected to produce an end product. If we assume Lukaku leaves, that's technically 18 goals gone. Now, if we played more to Lukaku's strengths then he would more than likely be a 25-30 total contribution on this list, but that's probably another debate. My expectation would be something like this, needing certain players to improve quite a lot:
1. Rashford 20/5 (+5)
2. Pogba 15/10 (-2)
3. Martial 15/5 (+6)
4. Sanchez 15/5 (+14)
5. Lingard 5/5 (+3)
6. Mata 5/5 (+2)
7. James 5/5
This is kind of my expectation from the attacking players I expect to feature enough for us. For the most-part, I'm only expecting marginal gains in overall contribution bar Sanchez who, if he stays fit and manages to up/adapt his game, should give us a huge improvement in his contribution to the team. 80 Goals from 7 attacking players might just be good enough if the rest of the squad pulls their weight. You'd have to think that the rest of the central midfield players and all the defenders could give us 10 each, for a further 20 goals to get us into the triple-digit territory. Then, you have your youngsters and deeper squad players chipping in for another five or 10 in total. This starts to look at what we'd expect to be a minimum goal total over 50+ games at Manchester United, but I think if we could add Bruno Fernandes to the squad if Lukaku is gone... He might just take us to that level of adding another 20+ goals/assists and making the real difference, getting us closer to the numbers that City and Liverpool manage to hit (well in excess of 120+ goals).
It's going to come down to if Ole's way of playing gets us forward more than we have under the previous managers. I think our forwards are good enough to hit those numbers over a full season with enough game-time in a more attacking side. We should be soaring past 100 goals for sure, especially if we sign Fernandes.
There's also the hope that Greenwood manages to get into the side and has a few stormers, but I won't be expecting that just yet.
Yes, shooting is a big part of his game. He pops up with plenty of goals.
---‐---------Rashford/Greenwood
Martial/James Bruno Pepe
Pogba Longstaff
Shaw Maguire Lindelof AWB
De Gea
IF we successfully got Bruno and Maguire, we would add a lot of set piece goals, both corners and free kicks, and distance goals. Pepe would also add a bunch from the right that we normally don't get. Greenwood would chip in when Rashford loses form. Longstaff or McTominay might get a handful too. Would expect Rashford to get more than he has due to our new attacking style.
Martial/James Bruno Pepe
Pogba Longstaff
Shaw Maguire Lindelof AWB
De Gea
IF we successfully got Bruno and Maguire, we would add a lot of set piece goals, both corners and free kicks, and distance goals. Pepe would also add a bunch from the right that we normally don't get. Greenwood would chip in when Rashford loses form. Longstaff or McTominay might get a handful too. Would expect Rashford to get more than he has due to our new attacking style.
If we play with a balanced attack, every attacking player will perform better, our team will perform better. That's the key.
Do we have world class players up front? No. But do we we have very good players? Yes, in my opinion. A proper coaching staff could get us in 80+ goals a season with one or two additions in midfield and attack.
Greenwood 
Sort out the midfield and we'll score heaps. plenty of talent in the team
Martial - Rashford - Pepe
That's an example of a balanced front 3 and each of them is capable of scoring 15 goals+ each if that was our settled front 3 for most of the season.
In addition we might have Bruno and Pogba adding goals from midfield.
That's an example of a balanced front 3 and each of them is capable of scoring 15 goals+ each if that was our settled front 3 for most of the season.
In addition we might have Bruno and Pogba adding goals from midfield.
I know that this is wishful thinking first and foremost but I doubt that Liverpool will replicate their last season’s form. Although the CL last season was a huge morale boost. They’re still huge favorites for the second place, of course, but it’s not a given.
Hard to see City slowing down though.
Another creative midfielder to take the burden off Pogba would be nice. A right winger would really improve us, having a completely new right side of Wan Bissaka and a new winger would transform us. We are so predictable always attacking from the left side, having presence and threat from the right would make us less predictable and open up space for our other forwards.
Which is why it is so baffling that a signing a RW is not a priority.
Which is why it is so baffling that a signing a RW is not a priority.