Scoring Goals

[Suedesi]

Seems to be a problem, since the Chelsea game. Since that, we've had Wolves, Crystal Palace, Southampton, Leicester and FC Borat Astana and we haven't managed to score more than 1 gpg.

We can be great on counters, but how's the team prepared to deal with teams defend on a low block or park the proverbial bus?

 

[Irwin99]

Seems to have been a persistent problem for years except maybe Jose's second season (???). Very little creativity in midfield, and, other than maybe Martial, we don't have a senior striker with a killer instinct (see Rashford tonight). Greenwood is 17 and shouldn't be expected to be a miracle worker.

Defence looks miles better this season but I think a lack of goals could be a massive problem this year, especially later in the season when the games come think and fast. I think we could do better by moving away from the 4-2-3-1 formation.

 

[littlepeasoup]

You can see what we were trying to do tonight for example, start fast and try to blitz a goal in the first 20 minutes. It would have been a completely different game if Rashford for example had taken one of his chances early; it would have opened things up and I would have rated us to get a few more.

Our biggest problem currently is that we don't have a player who you'd bank on when we get these chances early on. We have some good attacking players, but they're far too inconsistent.

 

[bosnian_red]

Itll sort itself out over time. We've been very wasteful of course, but it's to be expected with such a young attack. We'l have really good periods of attacking play then some sloppy play, but again, that's expected with a younger group. The hope is that as the season goes on, they rise to the expectations and improve with bigger roles.

 

[Kag]

This has been a long-standing problem ever since Ferguson retired and plenty of us have been banging on about it over the years. It’s the result of many issues but I’d attempt to boil it down to two main reasons.

1) Successive managers that don’t/didn’t place attacking football as a priority.
2) Terrible recruitment in attacking areas.

I think Ole is trying to fix the first issue - something that will take time. The second issue remains to be seen. We need the likes of Martial, Greenwood and James to kick on and we need to be buying energetic wide men that can score goals and scare defences. Sancho is the sort of player we need to break records to get in.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Our biggest problem since SAF retired.

Doesn't seem it'll be better this season.

 

[VeevaVee]

Major issue (for years) and why I disagreed that CB was the priority over summer. We seriously lack creativity, dynamism and firepower.

 

[haram]

Well what did people expect.

 

[adexkola]

Well what did people expect.

I personally expected that we would get to see all the chances that Lukaku killed when he was here. I’m still waiting to see those manifest.

 

[kouroux]

A massive issue since SAF left. We don't have a single player who has goals about him on a consistent manner.

 

[Greck]

Not just scoring goals, looking like scoring from open play has been unconvincing since PSG long before Lukaku and Sanchez left

 

[Aouer-United]

This is the moment where I realized Ole has a long way to be top coaches. Against Astana, he failed to identify the obvious sign that we get in behind their fullback many time where we should aim for low cross or cutback passes, that is just easy stuff. So he didn't identify the sign and keeps instructing fullback to cross over the penalty box when we're very poor in ariel and it won't work like that.

Hopefully Ole can learn from this.

There were many moments like this all games so far in PL but they all went for a shot which could be easily saved rather than passing square or cutback pass in the penalty box. An example of Mata against Leicester, he was in the penalty box after nice play with Periera and others that allowed Mata to get in behind. Mata had an option to pass it to Rashford to finish chance with one touch but no, he went for a shot. There were many moments like this, it's just wasted opportunity.

Look like Ole has system issues, he can't figure out our creativity problem and where we can supply goal from.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

One side of it is that we haven't really had a quality attacking manager post SAF, and hence have never had the aid of a system that promotes chance creating in a major way. This involves a lot of tactical reasons I'm sure. Then of course it's the players. We haven't had quality fullbacks post SAF. We havent had quality wingers. Or a settled and reliable number 9.

On the tactical point, I often watch us and our fullback will have the ball on the wing with everybody else bunched together in the box. That's not modern football. We don't have a Drogba or RvP and excellent crossers. Surely systemically we have to be stronger than that.

So yeah, reasons.

 

[R'hllor]

There is absolutely nothing when it comes to play in final third, sometimes it looks clueless, sometimes it looks forced. Maybe we lack quality but watching them it makes me wonder do they even train and practice this. I dont remember last time when we scored from clean cut back situation.

 

[Dec9003]

Is there any team that doesn't score less goals against a low block? There's a reason why teams sit deep, plus none of the teams using a low block have kept a clean sheet against us so far.
We could and should be scoring more, but we're scoring more consistently than last season, which is a start.
The teams a work in progress, we're not going to regularly blow teams away like City do.

 

[SaintMuppet]

One-nil to the Arsen.... oh damn it’s us!!!

 

[meamth]

The team is crying for the RVP, Ruud, Rooney, Ronaldo, Saha, etc..

Fergie always have at least one goal machine in each of his team, at the moment we don't have one.

For me this season finally buried the idea of Rashford as a striker, he was always a forward with no goal scoring instinct. Pretty sure he isn't a natural at that, but some would argue his debut season proven he could be a goal poacher, but seems like that was just a purple patch.

Rashford is always going to be reckless in front of goal, Martial still can prove himself this season and Greenwood seems like a kid in that body frame, still so young.

We're going to struggle up front, and it might hurt our chances of finishing top 4 this season.

 

[passing-wind]

There is absolutely nothing when it comes to play in final third, sometimes it looks clueless, sometimes it looks forced. Maybe we lack quality but watching them it makes me wonder do they even train and practice this. I dont remember last time when we scored from clean cut back situation.

It's very apparent at the Leicester game there was nothing to be seen by our attack running to create spaces or dragging opposition players out of positional shape. Players intuatively cannot pull apart defensive blocks on their own nowadays, maybe prime Messi of this generation capable of doing so, it comes down from the impetus of the coaches.

Ole / management need to get over this hurdle because it's almost a guaranteed blueprint to cause us to struggle and potentially lose fixtures. We've won all of our games when having less possession and have struggled with the games when we have maintained possession of the ball. That's quite telling regarding the efficiency towards our pattern of play. Michael Owen is a useless pundit but Hargreaves made a good collective point that while we have no identity as a team it's solely on Ole to rectify this with the time he has available. I don't think it's a simple buy three players and expect us to break down defences routine, it's going to take tactical acumen on top of personnel changes, they go hand in hand.

 

[kouroux]

Is there any team that doesn't score less goals against a low block? There's a reason why teams sit deep, plus none of the teams using a low block have kept a clean sheet against us so far.
We could and should be scoring more, but we're scoring more consistently than last season, which is a start.
The teams a work in progress, we're not going to regularly blow teams away like City do.

Low block or not, we just don't score a lot.

 

[Hawks2008]

Well we persisted with our forwards who have never been prolific and added nothing to a midfield desperate for some creativity. So no surprises we're here now.

 

[11101]

We have always had at least one absolutely world class striker, usually 2 or 3. Someone who can score a goal from nothing. Right now we have nobody. Martial looks like he could be good but that's all. Rashford is hopeless in that role and the rest are kids.

Same goes for creativity in midfield. If it's not Pogba, we have nobody who is going to pull off anything but the most obvious passes.

 

[Leftback99]

We've not got the players. Our best forward is always injured.

 

[Raw]

How many of our goals this season have been the result of a well worked passing move, and not a penalty or just individual brilliance?

It's not like we're not creating the chances from good passing moves, it's just our players seem incapable of finding that final pass or pulling off the easy finishes. So frustrating. Ole made a point about wanting to score the ugly goals so I hope it's something we're working towards.

 

[Judas]

We're toothless, have been for years. It's not a recent thing. Our team lacks creativity and skill, we're clearly not very well drilled in attacking areas, it looks like we never work on it. We are so predictable to watch its crazy.

 

[Skills]

It's great that we chose to spunk 80m on a CB. Ball playing CBs will allow us to bang in goals.

 

[Andycoleno9]

If you score one goal more than oppo you will win the game. Who scores first, takes a lead. Without scoring a goal you can't win a game.
Did i miss something?

 

[VeevaVee]

It's great that we chose to spunk 80m on a CB. Ball playing CBs will allow us to bang in goals.

I remember a few people actually saying that

Don't get me wrong, we needed it, but we needed a whole lot more to actually look good.

 

[VeevaVee]

How many of our goals this season have been the result of a well worked passing move, and not a penalty or just individual brilliance?

It's not like we're not creating the chances from good passing moves, it's just our players seem incapable of finding that final pass or pulling off the easy finishes. So frustrating. Ole made a point about wanting to score the ugly goals so I hope it's something we're working towards.

Yeah, sometimes we don't even seem to get anything together, it's just nothing football, other times it's like they just lack the quality to do things quickly and sharply enough. A misplaced pass, an overhit ball, holding on to it for too long, a shot going just wide for the millionth time.

 

[AJ10]

I personally expected that we would get to see all the chances that Lukaku killed when he was here. I’m still waiting to see those manifest.

you two miss him? Heard he's been a revelation with inter, playing like messi.

 

[settembrini]

We've definitely been a bit wasteful since the Chelsea game. I don't know what the xG was last night but looking at the chances it should have been more than 1-0 for sure.

edit: Apparently our xG was 2.79 so 3-0 would have been more reflective of the game.

 

[R.N7]

United is truly missing a proper 20+ goals striker, there hasn't been one at the club since Zlatan's first season and there's no coincidence that no silverware has been won since.

 

[red4ever 79]

United is truly missing a proper 20+ goals striker, there hasn't been one at the club since Zlatan's first season and there's no coincidence that no silverware has been won since.

Fully agree. Criminal by the board not to replace Lukaku when they knew all summer he was going.

 

[Striker10]

We're so sloppy and so the players need to straighten their games up. They need to get serious. Because sometimes I watch them and they're like strangers. However yesterday, I just think we were too slow. We don't take enough risk. We're not inventive enough. You have to keep teams guessing. We had a corner second half and 10/15 seconds later it's back with out goalkeeper. They need to work hard for the right to believe in themselves and once we let them sit back, we just need to try to be a bit more unpredictable in our patterns of play. That said we should have maybe won 3-4 nil but even with their limited breaks forward, they put in better crosses then we did with all our possession.

 

[Tom Cato]

Major issue (for years) and why I disagreed that CB was the priority over summer. We seriously lack creativity, dynamism and firepower.

You saw Phil Jones last night and don't think a CB upgrade was a priority? My man.

 

[FootyGirl88]

You saw Phil Jones last night and don't think a CB upgrade was a priority? My man.

It's so true

Very pleased we got Maguire, it's been long overdue. Next window we focus on midfield and attack.

 

[Skills]

Fully agree. Criminal by the board not to replace Lukaku when they knew all summer he was going.

He was dead wood though

 

[roonster09]

When we concede, we miss Smalling. When we don't score, we miss Lukaku and Sanchez, when we don't lump the ball into the box, we miss Fellaini.

 

[Noc-Z]

We just don't have a decent striker in our squad. I'd like to see us sign Timo Werner, but that's probably just another pipe dream!

 

[VeevaVee]

You saw Phil Jones last night and don't think a CB upgrade was a priority? My man.

Smalling and Lindelof were the partnership. Obviously wasn't great and we needed an upgrade, but more than in attack? Nope.

 

[Vault Dweller]

We've been hopeless at scoring goals for years.