46 shots, 2 scored - both from penalties

[R77]

Our forwards are good at nippy interplay with the ball on the floor, or creating chances fror themselves, but there's no one adept at sniffing out space in the box, pulling defenders around.

Not that I'm advocating hoof-ball either, but the ball rarely leaves the floor. Having someone that could: A; pop the ball on someone's head, and: B; someone comfortable with nodding it in would help now and then. Change it up a bit when needed.

Comments from Scholes and suchlike about #9 do make sense, in hindsight.

We're dependant on dribbles, medium-range shots, and almost walking it in. Even a Hernandez level and type in the squad would be helpful if Ighalo's not it. The situation with the latter slightly more puzzling considering a bit of extra guile and experience could be key in games such as yesterday's.

 

[Josep Dowling]

We haven’t got a world class finisher. Everyone raves about Martial with his dribbling skills but the end product after he dribbles isn’t there. Yes he has improved but there is still question marks over his 1 on 1 finishing.

The only striker post Fergie who was clinical was Zlatan. Can’t remember many 1 on 1 chances he missed.

 

[He'sRaldo]

I remember a few seasons ago when City would score the same tap in over and over.

I think we need to start creating those sorts of goals from cutbacks as those seem to be very high quality chances

 

[DomesticTadpole]

I remember a few seasons ago when City would score the same tap in over and over.

I think we need to start creating those sorts of goals from cutbacks as those seem to be very high quality chances

Been saying that for ages, if only we had somebody capable of cutting the ball back. It is a dangerous tool to have, if your player doesn't get to it, there is a chance of an opposition player putting it in their own net or giving you the ball back.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

A lot of our goals are shots from players coming inside from out wide. It would be nice to have one who can pick up the rebounds and blocked shots and get them on target.

Certainly, and I think that's Ole should be looking for when we do sign a striker. Actually, I think the loan signing of Ighalo suggests he will want that poacher option from the bench.

 

[Zoo]

Buy a quality RW and use Greenwood more as a CF. Rashford on the left needs to recover his form and contribute with the goals too.

 

[Sandikan]

Truly incredible stat!

It can't always be the keeper having a worldie, that we like to put it down to!

 

[Leftback99]

We haven’t got a world class finisher. Everyone raves about Martial with his dribbling skills but the end product after he dribbles isn’t there. Yes he has improved but there is still question marks over his 1 on 1 finishing.

The only striker post Fergie who was clinical was Zlatan. Can’t remember many 1 on 1 chances he missed.

Zlatan missed a lot of big chances. It was one of the reasons we were off the pace in the league in 16/17.

 

[Rozay]

The cynic in me says there's more to it than just luck, you can go back further than the Copenhagen game as well

1-3 v Chelsea - penalty
1-1 v West Ham
0-2 v Leicester - penalty
2-1 v Lask
1-0 v Copenhagen - penalty
2-1 v Seville - penalty

4 of our last 6 goals for the regular XI have been pens

We didn’t create 20 chances in those games.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

We haven’t got a world class finisher. Everyone raves about Martial with his dribbling skills but the end product after he dribbles isn’t there. Yes he has improved but there is still question marks over his 1 on 1 finishing.

The only striker post Fergie who was clinical was Zlatan. Can’t remember many 1 on 1 chances he missed.

Martial has one of the best conversion rates in the Prem.

This is silly. He is extremely clinical overall.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

The question is how good are our chances?

For Sevilla's, De Gea basically had no chance of saving them. Were ours of the same quality? If so, chalk it up to luck and move on.

Are you telling me those one on one chances weren't the same quality?

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Certainly, and I think that's Ole should be looking for when we do sign a striker. Actually, I think the loan signing of Ighalo suggests he will want that poacher option from the bench.

You wonder if he had used Ighalo a bit more we might have scored a few more goals.

 

[bosnian_red]

Literally all it is, is a 2 game sample size that isn't representative of us overall. Our finishing was right on xG all season in the league (66 goals, 66.19 xG), but now these 2 games we scored 1 from 3.5 xG against Copenhagen and 1 from 2.7 xG against Sevilla. Shit happens.

 

[always_hoping]

The question is how good are our chances?

For Sevilla's, De Gea basically had no chance of saving them. Were ours of the same quality? If so, chalk it up to luck and move on.

Was some outstanding last ditch blocks and goalkeeping saves by Copenhagen, Sevilla.

I'd be more worried if little was created in games that was the case earlier in the season when Pereira, Lingard was starting games.

 

[2 man midfield]

Well it was the Palace game, even against Villa we needed a penalty to get us on our way

I don’t even remember the palace game tbh. I remember us not playing well against Villa and going a goal up with a penalty but we created chances after that. That’s when the rot started to set in again to my mind anyway.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Literally all it is, is a 2 game sample size that isn't representative of us overall. Our finishing was right on xG all season in the league (66 goals, 66.19 xG), but now these 2 games we scored 1 from 3.5 xG against Copenhagen and 1 from 2.7 xG against Sevilla. Shit happens.

Still not enough goals for a team like Manchester United. It improved once Bruno joined and it gave the team a lift. If he hadn't come then goodness knows what our goals would be like.

 

[bosnian_red]

The question is how good are our chances?

For Sevilla's, De Gea basically had no chance of saving them. Were ours of the same quality? If so, chalk it up to luck and move on.

Good thing there's a stat for this!
Xg for United vs Copenhagen: 3.5 - 0.6
Xg for United vs Sevilla: 2.7 - 1.2

** keep in mind that 1v1's that don't end in a shot, like Martial yesterday once, don't register on here.

 

[wolvored]

We simply aren't ruthless enough.

Compare this to Sevilla's stats yesterday: 3 shots on target, two goals. We're missing a world class finisher, and someone that won't simply blast the ball straight at the keeper. A lot of our shots on target yesterday were literally straight at the keeper.

Hit the nail on the head. I would even try Greenwood as the striker as Martial misses more one v one chances than a top class striker would.

 

[bosnian_red]

Still not enough goals for a team like Manchester United. It improved once Bruno joined and it gave the team a lift. If he hadn't come then goodness knows what our goals would be like.

Oh for sure, needs to be higher. From January 31st til seasons end, we were 4th, basically level on Liverpool in xG (24 each) and 3 behind Chelsea in 2nd and City top. Over the season we were also 4th, however 9 behind Liverpool in 3rd, 10 behind Chelsea, 36 behind City. Needs to improve.

 

[Green_Red]

Take nothing away from both oppositiin keepers. Both had the games of their lives. I think the Copenhagen keeper created a record for saves in a single European game. It is what it is. They had great keepers.

 

[bosnian_red]

Hit the nail on the head. I would even try Greenwood as the striker as Martial misses more one v one chances than a top class striker would.

Recency bias. All stats over the years point to Martial being very clinical. Bad finishing run is all. Greenwood has been on a hot finishing run, but he'll go through a slump as well inevitably. Literally all players perform pretty close to their xG over a long enough period. Lewandowski and Ronaldo are pretty much dead on if I remember correctly. Messi surpasses his by like 20% but... he's messi.

Just checked. Lewandowski scored 96% of his xG since 14/15. Ronaldo scored 103%. Messi at 121%.
For comparison, Martial is at 122%, Rashford is at 96%.
Greenwood is at 239% so thats gonna normalize

 

[Ram1fy]

In all honesty, it’s probably just variance as much as anything. To paraphrase an old saying, you should concern yourself with the things you can control, accept the things you cannot control, and try to be able to distinguish between the two. Our finishing was good on the run in, but for whatever reason we left about 4.0 non-pen xG out there across those two games.

I’d probably focus more on addressing the soft chances given away at the other end.

Very well said. Problem with cherry-picking statistics. We gave away two goals from open play in a semi-final against a not so great attack

 

[He'sRaldo]

Are you telling me those one on one chances weren't the same quality?

They may not be the very best quality.

I think the best quality is a tap in from 6 yards out, as opposed to a 1v1 where the keeper can set himself. In De Gea's case, hecouldn't even set himself because that cutback can be so dangerous. Whereas the 1v1 gives a keeper more time, as well as a striker more time to overthink.

In Ole's term's, a goal from a cutback would be the 'strikers goal' he's always looking for.

 

[He'sRaldo]

Good thing there's a stat for this!
Xg for United vs Copenhagen: 3.5 - 0.6
Xg for United vs Sevilla: 2.7 - 1.2

** keep in mind that 1v1's that don't end in a shot, like Martial yesterday once, don't register on here.

Thanks for that!

I do know xG has different models with differing levels of sophistication, so we do need to take that into account as well.

 

[He'sRaldo]

Was some outstanding last ditch blocks and goalkeeping saves by Copenhagen, Sevilla.

I'd be more worried if little was created in games that was the case earlier in the season when Pereira, Lingard was starting games.

Agreed. I'd like us to improve the quality of the chances, but the amount being created is much better than before.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

You wonder if he had used Ighalo a bit more we might have scored a few more goals.

If I'm honest, I was very surprised to see Ighalo introduced so late into the game yesterday.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

If I'm honest, I was very surprised to see Ighalo introduced so late into the game yesterday.

It was completely pointless. Funny since he has extended the lads loan he has barely used him.

 

[Jibbs]

This is clear as day we need a proper striker.

 

[lsd]

We need a proper number 9 . It's not rocket science . You can't have a number 9 that can't win headers or be in a position to score tap ins when needed

 

[Fitchett]

Disgraceful stat. We'll never win anything with strikers as wasteful as that. How many of the 46 shots would have been put away by the likes of Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie or Solskjaer? We need clinical finishers, not nearly men.

 

[Chicharo]

Speaking of which I was thinking how much goals we have actually score from corners or headers. It seems we are not posing any threat after crosses

 

[Crashoutcassius]

hard to care tbh, things like this happen in the extreme short term, especially in knock out games where you have nerves and some exceptional performances from goalkeepers.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

Disgraceful stat. We'll never win anything with strikers as wasteful as that. How many of the 46 shots would have been put away by the likes of Van Nistelrooy, Van Persie or Solskjaer? We need clinical finishers, not nearly men.

One clinical striker with the lads we already have would be good. We have got used to having someone who can score 25-30 goals in the PL nevermind in all competitions.

 

[Valencia Shin Crosses]

Nothings wrong. We had some bad finishes as well as some great saves. It happens, same way we’ve had games where we score our only good chances of the game.

 

[Syphon Wallet]

We simply aren't ruthless enough.

Compare this to Sevilla's stats yesterday: 3 shots on target, two goals. We're missing a world class finisher, and someone that won't simply blast the ball straight at the keeper. A lot of our shots on target yesterday were literally straight at the keeper.

Luuk de Jong hadn't scored in about 11 games, so sevilla didn't score 2 out of 3 shots because they had a world class finisher.

Martial has a bit of an issue with the easy chances, he can be a good finisher but he's not clinical.

 

[bosnian_red]

We simply aren't ruthless enough.

Compare this to Sevilla's stats yesterday: 3 shots on target, two goals. We're missing a world class finisher, and someone that won't simply blast the ball straight at the keeper. A lot of our shots on target yesterday were literally straight at the keeper.

I'll refer you to my other post. World class finisher you probably mean Ronaldo or Lewandowski right? Its just a bad finishing day, Martial is already a brilliant finisher, Rashford pretty much average finisher, Greenwood obviously excellent but even he missed a 1v1. Here are the stats of league games since 14/15:

Lewandowski scored 96% of his xG since 14/15. Ronaldo scored 103%. Messi at 121%.
For comparison, Martial is at 122%, Rashford is at 96%.
Greenwood is at 239% so thats gonna normalize

To add on:

• Salah is at 114%
• Firmino at 94%
• Aguero at 105%
• Aubameyang at 99%
• Griezmann at 129%
• Lukaku at 106%
• Mbappe at 115%
• Neymar at 97%
• Benzema at 96%

You get the point... we need to create better chances on a more regular basis, which we have been doing more and more and definitely did in the last 2 games. Unfortunately, the finishing let us down in those 2.

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

It was completely pointless. Funny since he has extended the lads loan he has barely used him.

Yeah. I guess the form our front three have been in, especially since lockdown, has made it really hard for Ole to rotate. We've been a team that, even when we haven't played well, can still score bags of goals. Didn't happen, but I can see why he hasn't rotated that much. That being said, I'd have just stuck Bruno into a two-man midfield with Pogba and gone with a 442, with Ighalo up top with Martial. It wasn't to be, but I'd certainly agree that when Ighalo goes, we need to find a box player to replace him.

 

[Bebestation]

A 4231 is a very unnecessarily defensive tactic in comparison to a 433.

Everyone talks about why Bruno has been playing almost as a second striker. Why Rashford cant dribble and take his man on - usually playing too deep and wide to interlink with Martial like he usually does.
Pogba is too deep almost to be this player who dictates our game from deep when he his much better playing with a freedom in the middle of the park to play deep but also having the ability to get forward.

The 4231 is very crap - it's so irritating because it's so close to the 433 as a line up shape that Ole doesnt seem to make the changes to the team tactics to ever consider it or make it work - when it does it seems it's the players doing it by themselves ie Bruno dropping deep, Rashford Martial and Greenwood playing closer together and allowing space for the fullbacks to overlap etc..

 

[HackeyC]

We simply aren't ruthless enough.

Compare this to Sevilla's stats yesterday: 3 shots on target, two goals. We're missing a world class finisher, and someone that won't simply blast the ball straight at the keeper. A lot of our shots on target yesterday were literally straight at the keeper.

And they had a world class finisher in De Jong? It was a freak result. Play like that and 95/100 games you win.

 

[Fitchett]

It was Ole who recently said "there's no such thing as a good save, only a bad miss". We've had 44 of them in the last two games. Really frustrating watching Lukaku bagging two for Inter tonight, when you consider how shite he was for us. But he could always score the scruffy goals that are beneath the likes of Martial.