Scoring goals is the most important thing

[Footyislife]

Our success has always been tied to scoring goals:

SAF: Lots of goals, okay defense -> Trophies galore
Moyes: Few goals, okay defense -> Sacked
LVG: Few goals, good defense -> Sacked
Mourinho: Few goals, great defense -> Outside top 4

You can see the correlation here. Football style and tactics are irrelevant, if you score goals fans will be happy and you will win games. Zlatan and Pogba have had more than 50% of our scoring chances and have a 13% and 5% conversion rate. You won't win the title, let alone make the top 4 if you can't score goals.

What should Mourinho do differently? I personally think he should be challenging the team to score 3+ goals every game against a weaker side and consider anything else a failure. No more, "every match is difficult and we only need to score 1 more than the other team" BS.

 

[Raw]

You win more games if you score more goals? Never knew this.

 

[Raees]

When you look at the table this is true. Arsenal and Liverpool and City all have worse defences than us yet are comfortably been ahead all season until recently

 

[AndyJ1985]

There's no getting away from the fact we don't score enough goals. I'm sure Mourinho will do all he can to rectify this in the summer.

 

[Snow]

A lot of those 1-1's should have bee clean sheets. Too many missed points because of stupid individual mistakes that cost us goals. Leicester won the league on the back of 1-0 wins last season. SAF usually had plenty of those as well.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Sometimes in football you have to score goals.

 

[DomesticTadpole]

There's no getting away from the fact we don't score enough goals. I'm sure Mourinho will do all he can to rectify this in the summer.

I would imagine he is horrified at the number of goals we score. He would have been told by the club how fantastic Martial and Rashford are and that Rooney can still offer something. Then I would think he was expecting a whole lot more from Pogba. He must be really disappointed. The position we are in is mainly down to lack to goalscoring. Defences concede the odd goal, but Manchester United should always be able to outscore most opposition.

 

[Footyislife]

You win more games if you score more goals? Never knew this.

If scoring goals is so important why do we have 3 managers in a row who can't seem to do so? The challenge for Mourinho is that his top two players in Zlatan and Pogba have terrible shot to goal ratios of 13% and 5%. When over 50% of you chances get converted by these two players at an average of 9%, it means we need about 20 shots a game to score 2 goals.

I just don't think the good defense, score 1 or 2 goals approach is sustainable anymore. Even the weaker teams have enough talent to be an attacking threat. Relying on your defense to be perfect every game is hard to do with the increased level of competition. You have to really set up your team to go for the jugular every game and try to score 3+ goals.

 

[Massive Spanner]

Had no idea Michael Owen was on the Caf.

 

[2 man midfield]

Such insight. It turns out, scoring goals wins you games.

 

[NJM78]

Had no idea Michael Owen was on the Caf.

 

[paulscholes18]

How has Jose won 3 PL then? His Chelsea winning sides were never outright top scores, always conceded the least

Think Rio, Vidic, Bruce, Evra, Pallister, Neville, Irwin & Stam are a bit better then ok

 

[Lentwood]

The people who blame our defence/defending for our league position need locking up for their own safety!

One goal in three games at home against Burnley, Hull and Bournemouth (10 men!) is woeful

 

[Strachans Cigar]

Scoring goals is the most important thing? Maybe it is, but you also have to consider why aren't the Scousers, the PL top scorers, topping the league then?

A good attack coupled with a shit defence will win feck all, as they are proving.

 

[sunama]

Scoring goals is the most important thing
I've been saying this for some time now. Where some fans get excited when a player does a dribble, I say, "What about the goals?"
the aim of the game is to score goals. Dribbling is nice and all...but goals are what win you games.

 

[JPRouve]

How has Jose won 3 PL then? His Chelsea winning sides were never outright top scores, always conceded the least

Think Rio, Vidic, Bruce, Evra, Pallister, Neville, Irwin & Stam are a bit better then ok

Chelsea were at worst the second best scorers in those three titles.

 

[Raw]

The teams above us have scored at least 53 league goals. We've scored 39.

 

[JON.B]

You score two, we'll score three four and five has always been the mentality, do everything to get the win. Now it's more like, we've scored a goal that will do. Those days of a Scholes or a Rooney of old smashing one in from 30yrds or so have long gone sadly.

 

[JON.B]

The teams above us have scored at least 53 league goals. We've scored 39.

I just made this point in another thread, pathetic stats that tells you just how awful we've been.

 

[MadMike]

Sometimes in football you have to score goals.

Underrated comment

 

[Earthquake]

Score goals you say, not to worry, Jose has top men on the case.

Top men.

 

[Paxi]

SAF: Lots of goals, okay defense -> Trophies galore

Hmm, I'm not sure about that. We were defensively excellent. A big part of that was, of course, due to having unbelievable defenders. Vida, Rio, Evra, Brown, Neville. Heck even Evans looked like a world beater under Ferguson.
In fact, the fact that teams were able to 'play' against us was probably due to Sir Alex trusting our defence to come through it.

With Jose, it's clear to see that he will sort it out by next season but I can't see us becoming anything like we used to be. Those days are long gone.

 

[Kostur]

feck me Caf likes being controversial recently.

 

[Footyislife]

Hmm, I'm not sure about that. We were defensively excellent. A big part of that was, of course, due to having unbelievable defenders. Vida, Rio, Evra, Brown, Neville. Heck even Evans looked like a world beater under Ferguson.
In fact, the fact that teams were able to 'play' against us was probably due to Sir Alex trusting our defence to come through it.

With Jose, it's clear to see that he will sort it out by next season but I can't see us becoming anything like we used to be. Those days are long gone.

I was trying to average out all his teams. But you are right he's had some pretty great defensive teams. Still though if you look at the average goals his teams have scored we aren't even close to matching that. 39 goals is pretty sad. We don't deserve to be in the top 4. My personal opinion is we'll never win a major title with Zlatan and Pogba running the show. Pogba has never been an efficient player even at Juve. Pogba and Zlatan are flair players who are flashy, but always have been statistically terrible at converting chances to goals. Would be a different story if Jose was willing to sub Zlatan after 45 mins or when he's playing bad. But that is never happening.

 

[R300k]

We should seriously consider signing this striker

 

[CS@SG]

Top 5 teams all have scored more than 50 goals, even Everton scored more than 40 goals. We are still sub 40.

 

[Ludens the Red]

Did you also know "scoring more than the opposition wins you the game"

 

[sosolid4u09]

Rubbish.

Goals win games. Defence wins championships. Our defence is not GREAT. At all.

Obviously we should be scoring more goals than we have been but we're making chances at least. Next step is to put them away.

 

[MadMike]

Rubbish.

Goals win games. Defence wins championships. Our defence is not GREAT. At all.

Obviously we should be scoring more goals than we have been but we're making chances at least. Next step is to put them away.

Whether through luck or quality defending we have the 3rd best defence in the league. 2 goals conceded more than Tottenham and 3 more than Chelsea. So our defence has actually been good enough to challenge for the title (again, luck might be invloved) However we have scored 14 and 16 goals less than either team respectively and find our selves 6th in the table.

I always found lines like "Goals win games. Defence wins championships" both tacky and removed from reality. You need both loads of goals and good defending to win titles. A defence alone won't do it, we are the current living example of this.

 

[vivaronaldo]

A lot of those 1-1's should have bee clean sheets. Too many missed points because of stupid individual mistakes that cost us goals. Leicester won the league on the back of 1-0 wins last season. SAF usually had plenty of those as well.

100% spot on...phil jones flying in like a clown on Saturday is a classic point ....first rule as a defender is to stay on your feet ...brain snaps have cost us this year no doubt

 

[criticalanalysis]

We need to win more games. If we win more games, we would be higher up the league.

 

[Ashley R1+O]

SAF: Lots of goals, okay defense -> Trophies galore

I understand what you're going for here, but arguably SAF's defense was top quality for large portions of his time here. So I don't really agree there.

If I can get slightly philosophical, in my opinion we don't make football "look easy" at the moment. Maybe it is an individual eye test type of thing. Scoring goals is an important aspect but there are two other aspects that one could argue are equality or (maybe even) more important. How easily you create 'easy goal scoring chances' (not really a quantifiable metric) and how likely you are to be able to score a goal when you want/need to.

Those are two aspects that SAF's team had in spades. In the mid-late 90's every time I watched United I knew and understood that his team could score if they wanted to go up the field and score. It was from that confidence they had which made football for United look easy at times under SAF. I am not sure if it is a natural phase of where football in general is at right at this very moment in time? But I definitely think we make creating chances look tough at times. I don't feel when I am watching us that we could just go up field and rain down a hail of goal-fire even if we tried.

That will take time and patience, Jose will definitely get us there.

 

[Florida Man]

We should seriously consider signing this striker

Didn't realize who that was until watching it a second time.

 

[legball]

The level of insight in this thread is elite, Geoff Shreeves would be proud. I mean, who would have thought scoring goals in the football game is the most important thing?

 

[AgentP]

All Fergie teams had good backup strikers who could come in and score the crucial goal whenever needed. From Solskaer to Chicharito, we could always count on someone to make a difference from the bench. This team is entirely dependent on Zlatan for goals. Players like Martial, Pogba, Rashford and Rooney have also not scored as many as was expected from them. Only Mata has been a consistent goal threat. Mkhi has scored some crucial goals for us but he has played too few games. I think signing Greizmann would solve a lot of problems for us. I'm also expecting Martial, Mkhi and Pogba to really up their goal tally next season.

 

[CS@SG]

All Fergie teams had good backup strikers who could come in and score the crucial goal whenever needed. From Solskaer to Chicharito, we could always count on someone to make a difference from the bench. This team is entirely dependent on Zlatan for goals. Players like Martial, Pogba, Rashford and Rooney have also not scored as many as was expected from them. Only Mata has been a consistent goal threat. Mkhi has scored some crucial goals for us but he has played too few games. I think signing Greizmann would solve a lot of problems for us. I'm also expecting Martial, Mkhi and Pogba to really up their goal tally next season.

Genuine question, since I never really follow Fergie since he started as manager. Who was his good backup striker when he was with St Mirren and Aberdeen? And who was the good backup striker that we had before Ole came onboard?

Just curious.

 

[Rockets Redglare]

Fergie- ok defence

 

[ROFLUTION]

I love the solution suggested in the OP. As if Jose doesn't want to score goals

 

[sosolid4u09]

Whether through luck or quality defending we have the 3rd best defence in the league. 2 goals conceded more than Tottenham and 3 more than Chelsea. So our defence has actually been good enough to challenge for the title (again, luck might be invloved) However we have scored 14 and 16 goals less than either team respectively and find our selves 6th in the table.

I always found lines like "Goals win games. Defence wins championships" both tacky and removed from reality. You need both loads of goals and good defending to win titles. A defence alone won't do it, we are the current living example of this.

The logic behind that is that in order to go on a string of wins and to get consistency, you need to be able to rely on having a great defence. Every team goes through phases where they find it difficult to score, or luck isn't quite with them, or attackers are tired/injured. In those moments if your defence is class you can still keep winning.

Now obviously you need a good attack too otherwise you're not winning anything. But i do feel there's some truth to the defence winning championships statement

 

[MadMike]

The logic behind that is that in order to go on a string of wins and to get consistency, you need to be able to rely on having a great defence. Every team goes through phases where they find it difficult to score, or luck isn't quite with them, or attackers are tired/injured. In those moments if your defence is class you can still keep winning.

Now obviously you need a good attack too otherwise you're not winning anything. But i do feel there's some truth to the defence winning championships statement

In the same way that good attacks will go on barren runs, good defences will leak goals. It's all about the relative strength of each.

For example Real Madrid, have a worse defence than us. 4 more goals conceded in 1 less game. Yet they are at the top. Why? Because having Ronaldo, Bale, Benzema, Isco, James Rodriguez and Morata gets you shitloads of goals (almost double our total), that's why.

If you have that level of quality up front, you don't need the best defence in the world. It's all relative, it's not rocket science.