Rate this attack from 0-10

[antohan]

Looks midtable with no guaranteed performers. Don't mind it much tbh, would rather that and bank on development than bank on Lukaku, which leads us nowhere. Would happily get shot of Sanchez too.

For a moment there it reminded me of "where will the goals come from?" when RvN left, only then it was about the edge needed to win a league and now it's scraping top 4.

Again, don't mind, loads of potential there that I'd rather see come through or we move on.

More worried about midfield depth and creativity to be honest.

Probably a 4-5 right now, but capable of developing into a 7-8. Fine by me, by season end we will hopefully know where and who to add to make it a consistent 8.

 

[UnitedObsession99]

Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) Tweeted:
Best minutes-per-goal ratio in #PL for Manchester Utd since the signing of Romelu Lukaku in July 2017:

Anthony Martial 168.7 (3,205 mins/19 goals)
ROMELU LUKAKU 178.5 (4,999 mins/28 goals)
Marcus Rashford 244.1 (4,149 mins/17 goals)

#DeadlineDay #MUFC https://t.co/cXOB9PTYPV

Tweet

— Twitter API (@user) date

Heavily misleading as Lukaku has only played as a striker, but it does raise concerns! We don't have any prolific proven strikers and we have a midfield full of grandads or unproven players

 

[El-Manos]

A feckin joke/10

 

[Raven]

I prefer our attack this season than last. Much more fluid than our last few seasons.

 

[Irwin99]

Too many unknowns. This whole season feels like a ridiculous gamble on everything turning out right. Probably was the same feeling going into the 95-96 season....except that team had Big Pete, Bruce, Pally, Irwin, Keano, and Cantona in it.

 

[Halal Jalal]

3/10. Not a single proven goalscorer, we're gambling on inconsistent attackers to carry us and on teenage academy kids to provide depth/rotation. Worst attack in Top 6, and you can find better offences in some midtable clubs too.

 

[ottosec]

United's worst set of attackers since I can remember.

We need Martial or Rashford to step up or we're fecked.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I'd be much more confident about this approach if Mata and Sanchez were the kind of experienced heads we could rely on for 15 goals each and to dig us out of trouble when necessary.

They kind of almost are. On paper.

 

[Powderfinger]

Pretty bad.

Ole seems to be gambling not only on Rashford and Martial taking big steps forward and growing into top level players (I can see this with Rashford, less so with Martial) but also that the two of them will be able to play massive amounts of minutes across multiple competitions and stay injury free.

Relying on teenage players like Greenwood and Chong who have never played first team football is folly and, ultimately, unfair to them. That's not the way to break in youth players. A good manager would give these players chances but also put them into positions to succeed without placing too much undue pressure on them. Greenwood has played only six career matches even at the U23 level. He's just not going to be prepared for the speed and physicality of the Premier League game.

 

[Idxomer]

Is that worse than Depay, Rooney, Martial and Mata from LVG's second season?

 

[IrishMcD]

Gonna be a long, long frustrating season. And have a feeling Angel Gomes will be leaving on a free due to lack of game time. Yay football. Maybe it's just me sitting in a hospital waiting room that she putting me in such a negative head space but I reckon this is going to be the worst season yet since Sir Alex left.

 

[Fahad Jawaid]

I would give them 4 at best. Reason is simple they are unproven and inconsistent.

We always used to have proven strikers in Rooney, Berba, Yorke, Cole, Ruud and Rvp. The strikers who could score 20+ goals for you.

Similarly compare our striker force with competitors Spurs have Son and Kane, Arsenal have Auba and Lacazette. City have Aguero, Jesus and Sterling, Liverpool have Salah, Firmino and Mane. I think only Chelsea have weaker strike force than us.

Our problem is further compounded by a weaker midfield, if a team has a stronger midfield which will maintain control of the match and will continue to create chances we might have done alright with this strike force. However, with this setup we will mostly play on the counter because we don't have a midfield which can dominate. A team can only dominate when it has players who are comfortable on the ball and technical enough to surpass press and find passes through the lines and only Pogba from our midfield three is capable of doing that.

It might result in us maybe winning tougher away games in which our counter attacking abilities will come into play like spurs away last season. However, if a team sets up defensively we don't have a guile in midfield and attack to open up their side. I think we should all be prepared for another top 6 fight.

In some matches where we will score early we might end up scoring flurry of goals on counter, however against 90% teams which are setup defensively we will struggle to break them down.

All top teams have a mixture of players midfielders who can control the match and keeps on creating openings and strikers who are deadly and score consistently.

Spurs have Lo Celso, Eriksen and Dombele to control and Kane and Son to finish.

City have Kdb, David silva and Bernado Silva to create and Sterling, Aguero and Sane to finish and create.

Likewise others teams, i could go on and on about all top europeon teams. Point is with Herrera and Lukaku. We have lost one part which was essential in obtaining control of midfield and Lukaku which was still able to score goals. Now we are expecting Greenwood to score 15. Which is totally stupid and unrealistic for a 17 year old.

 

[Paxi]

Remember the time when people were assuring us that Dan James was being brought in for the future and a relatively inexpensive gamble and more talented/experienced winger was to come in too. Ah well, guess that didn’t work out.

 

[Zexstream]

ZERO

Because Last year Rashford got 2 goals less than Lukaku with more games played,
Martial Scored the same as Rashford.

Lingard got 4.

The others are unknowns and are unlikely to do any better.

So our attack for this season managed 24 or so goals between them last year.

 

[Jacob]

People have to accept that Rashford and Martial aren't that good. They are very clear examples of home bias.

 

[red_de_pologne]

shocking/10

 

[Crashoutcassius]

Weren't about 8 of them over a 2 month period where he turned into some kind of wizard and scored every time he touched the ball? I'd say 5 is realistic if he gets games. Mata is probably similar but im not sure he'll play that often. Rashford and Martial have been about 10 goals last couple seasons, 15 is realistic. Sanchez could be 0 or 20, probably a lot closer to 0. Greenwood and James, who knows? 5-10 goals each would frankly be great under any normal circumstances.
I'd say thats about 50 goals

Lots of players goals come in patches, including lukaku whose goals we are lamenting losing and especially pogba who scored and assisted almost everything over 10-12 games

 

[ManRed]

Comparing it with the league our attack and midfield is at best 8th slightly behind Everton and Wolves.

 

[DoomSlayer]

Currently it's a 6 out of 10, average. But if all players reach and play to their potential, it could be an 8 or 9. I have faith in Martial, Rashford, Greenwood, James and Gomes to be worthy of playing for our club.

 

[meamth]

I hate to repeat this again:

"This will be the season when Rashford and Martial will mature and scoring for fun. Just like Ronaldo and Rooney did in 2007"

We go again...

 

[Halal Jalal]

Currently it's a 6 out of 10, average. But if all players reach and play to their potential, it could be an 8 or 9. I have faith in Martial, Rashford, Greenwood, James and Gomes to be worthy of playing for our club.

That's lovely... but as things stand, none of those players are good enough for Top 4 club, let alone Manchester f*cking United! Martial and Rashford should be rotation players fighting for their place at the club, not starters on 250k/w contracts. James should be on loan in Champioship, judging by his preseason friendlies. Kids like Greenwood and Gomes should be playing in U23s with occasional senior cameos.

Idiotic planning is a nice way of putting it, more like criminal negligence.

 

[DoomSlayer]

That's lovely... but as things stand, none of those players are good enough for Top 4 club, let alone Manchester f*cking United! Martial and Rashford should be rotation players fighting for their place at the club, not starters on 250k/w contracts. James should be on loan in Champioship, judging by his preseason friendlies. Kids like Greenwood and Gomes should be playing in U23s with occasional senior cameos.

Idiotic planning is a nice way of putting it, more like criminal negligence.

That's just your opinion. Mine is different and I will support Ole and the players during the season. Being positive brings me more enjoyment out of football, the end of Mourinho's tenure was too much to handle.

 

[nyanza]

Haha/10.

 

[bosnian_red]

It's much more likely going to be a 4231 with this:
ST: Martial, Rashford, Greenwood, Sanchez
LW: Rashford, Martial, James, Chong, Sanchez
#10: Lingard, Mata, Gomes
RW: James, Greenwood, Lingard, Mata

5 or 6/10 though. Potential for 7 or 8/10 this season. Potentially perfect long term and we just get rid of Mata and Sanchez as youngsters get bigger roles. Its just a risk, but one that I understand and if we trust our players, a risk that we were going to have to take eventually to see if Martial and or Rashford can step up. Plus with Greenwood, Chong and Gomes, have 3 of those 4 attacking positions in terms of long term massive potential who can be squad players now.

 

[Halal Jalal]

That's just your opinion. Mine is different and I will support Ole and the players during the season. Being positive brings me more enjoyment out of football, the end of Mourinho's tenure was too much to handle.

It's opinion based on performances of those players so far, while yours is naive faith. Our attackers don't have the stats to warrant such faith - and also there's no other top club in the world gambling on bunch of unproven kids as starters. Youth development is fine and admirable, but you need proven and consistent performers first and foremost.

Then again, do we even have the ambition to reclaim our "top club" status? Ole's generic PR phrases like "Youth, courage, success" seem to be enough for some of our fans.

 

[passing-wind]

Absolutely disgraceful

 

[Lee565]

I think the most potential would probably be

Martial--sanchez-greenwood

But that is a huuuuuge if for Sanchez to magically to rediscover his arsenal form, martial to stop being so inconsistent and not so lazy with his off the ball movement when we are attacking and trying to win the ball back and Greenwood to handle the step up because they would probably be the 3 most technically gifted players on the ball we have in attack and to find ways through tight spaces when the opposition sit back.

Then to have the energy of James, rashford and lingard as impact subs I guess.

 

[Lee565]

This is a better way of looking at it. Rashford will be playing from the left, Martial through the middle and then the dreaded RW could be anyone of Lingard, James or Greenwood depending on who takes the shirt. You also have to factor in the number 10 position as we wont be playing with a 3 man attack but 4

In terms of what history says to us then yes it's the weakest of the top 6 bar Chelsea (theirs is worse) but then if we look at history history also tells us that Rashford and Martial have always been made to battle for their opportunities, always playing second fiddle to the likes of Zlatan, Lukaku and Sanchez. This is their chance to step up. In Martial's case this is his chance to prove Martial FC right which is what they've wanted all along

I said in another thread if Rashford and Martial can cover Lukaku's league goals from last season (which means they both need to score 6 more goals each) then we'll certainly be no worse off than last season

Right now I'd rate it as a 6/10 i.e. it's ok. My only concern not having Lukaku around is that we have games where Rashford and Martial's inconsistencies show and neither can hit a barn door, it's then that you need someone proven and that's what we're now lacking. Time will tell whether that concern is justified because if Rashford and Martial seize their opportunity this season then we could easily be sitting here in 12 months saying it's a 7 out of 10 attack with the potential of adding someone like Sancho to it....

But that is compared to last season in which we was poor in front of goal, dont we need to make up more goals from last than just what lukaku had scored?

 

[amolbhatia50k]

6.5

 

[Jim Beam]

It is what it is. Kids will probably have a chance to step up, so that's something I can definitely look forward to.

 

[stepic]

piss poor tbh.

 

[AJ10]

Time to step up.

 

[Hawks2008]

Possibly the worst of the top 6, maybe better than Chelsea. People are going to disappointed when Rash and Tony continue to not be regular performers in their 5th season as first teamers.

 

[K13]

We have 2 young potentially world class players on our books and the last time that happened was with Rooney/Ronaldo. I think most people expected Rooney to be the world class talent so it just shows that without the benefit of hindsight no one really knows what the future holds hence why the word potential is there. Martial was outstanding in his first season and despite 2 seasons where things have not gone to plan he was still the most clinical striker in the league last season. Rashford for a 21 year old is fantastic and he has a great head on his shoulders. I personally am really looking forward to watching them both play more games this season and Lingard appears to be the player who they gel with best. They are far fitter than last season, that much is clear already so they are capable of greater intensity.

I rate that strike force as 7/10 and believe that Martial and Rashford in particular will eventually be a 10/10 if they can stay injury free and continue to develop.

Sanchez - the copa america might have done him some good. if he is happier then he will play far better. If he plays better then as a team we have our experienced and consistent lead. I don't doubt his desire - just worry about the niggles he keeps getting so 5/10 but he could be a 10/10 if he hits the form we all know he is capable of.

Greenwood, James, Chong and Gomes are unproven at this level.

 

[Kostur]

From the top 6 we have the weakest attack, don't want to analyse whether it reaches beyond the 6.

 

[Stookie]

Probably the weakest United attack, on paper, of the last 30 years. Let's hope they step up because it's not obvious where the goals are going to come from.

This is worrying. Ok the defence looks better but to state the bleedin obvious- you need to score to win games! I’m not enthused about this season at all. Could be a lot of 0-0 draws.

 

[Dumbstar]

This might be the first time Liverpool fans actually genuinely give a higher score than Utd fans.

 

[reddevil702]

This attack will be defined by our tactics. If we play a high temp, press, committing players forward then they can be very good.

 

[Toad]

3.

 

[KristianMackle]

Right lets compare and see where we stand.....

City: Sterling, Aguero, Jesus, Bernardo Silva, Sane (injured), Mahrez

'Pool: Mane, Salah, Firmino, Origi, Shaqiri

Arsenal: Auba, Laca, Pepe, Ozil

Spurs: Son, Kane, Lucas, Delli

United: Rashford, Martial, Lingard, Sanchez, James

And we need at least one of them to hit at least 20 goals to have any chance of staying in top 6.

Roll on Sunday!