The obvious truth - Our goalscoring problem

ole@thewheel

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Dec 9, 2020
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We can talk about Onana’s passing drills, the defence’s occasional comedy routines, or last season’s injuries, but let’s be honest—the biggest issue is staring us in the face.

We simply don’t score enough goals.

Last season, we managed 57 league goals, and this season, we’re on track for even fewer. In the past decade, only two teams have scraped into the top four with fewer than 60 goals. Our response? Sign four defensive players (five if you count Dorgu) and bring in Zirkzee as a backup striker. Then, for good measure, we start losing Rashford and Antony with no replacements. Because why not make an already weak attack even weaker?

I back Højlund, but let’s not act surprised that he’s struggling. Even if every player in the squad hit their best-ever goal tally, we still wouldn’t reach 60 goals. Did we really plan for Garnacho, Amad, and Mainoo to cover the shortfall? That’s not a strategy—that’s blind faith.

And what’s with every attack somehow finding its way back to Bruno? No matter where we start, we always hit the reset button. Players like Garnacho and Amad thrive on direct play, yet we’re forcing them into a never-ending game of “pass it back to Bruno” instead of letting them cause chaos.
 
We are just so incohesive in attack. I think there are a number of reasons for this:

  1. Bruno always going for the Hollywood pass even when there are simpler options
  2. Wingbacks who don't get forward forces our AMs to take wider positions
  3. We don't have a striker who can hold up the play
Maybe I'm naive but I think if we got two good attacking WBs and a decent striker the side would be transformed. I still feel long term Bruno is a problem we need to try and solve.
 
We've made a lot of mistakes over the last decade.
But ending up with Garnacho, Amad, Hojlund and Zirkzee as the star attackers in our squad is just too criminal for words.
The first 3 should be promising squad players in a healthy squad and Zirkzee, it's anyone's guess who thought he was the right profile.
 
Was obvious pre season but we threw £100m on CBs who didn't improve the starting XI instead.
 
I think we’ll beat LvG’s record low at this rate (just 49 goals in his second season).

This was a problem everyone saw in the summer. We put a lot of faith in the players we had, that Rashford would rediscover his old form, that Hojlund would kick on, that Mount wouldn’t be injured. Other than Amad, nothing has really gone right.

Terrible planning.
 
We need attacking wingbacks. The way we're trying to play simply doesn't allow us to create overloads without them.

Dorgu might make an impact but we're on for a tough remaining half season.
 
We’ve got 150m worth of wingers out on loan, are about to loan out are highest earning attacker and have 100m worth of strikers who wouldn’t have started for Palace. I’d say neither of those two would be a nailed on starter for any Premier a league team other than Southampton.

A quarter of a billion spent on just those players and now we are left dependent on Garnacho and Amad. Not being able to score goals gives us no chance, we had the same problem last year and we need 3 or 4 attacking players.
 
The system doesn't help we just don't create enough chances. Too often our attacks are just far too slow
 
I think we’ll beat LvG’s record low at this rate (just 49 goals in his second season).

This was a problem everyone saw in the summer. We put a lot of faith in the players we had, that Rashford would rediscover his old form, that Hojlund would kick on, that Mount wouldn’t be injured. Other than Amad, nothing has really gone right.

Terrible planning.
It’s what pisses me off most

We always used to prioritise getting prime forwards in, having a deadly frontline can mask a lot of issues. The last prime striker we signed was Lukaku. Coming up 10 years ago.

Been saying for a good 3 years that we need to sort out the attack but the windows will start and they get defenders or players like Mount and keep ignoring the problem. I don’t know why EVERYONE can see it except the club itself.
 
We need some good wingbacks and a prolific forward first and foremost.

It's a fecking disgrace how much we've thrown away on trash like Hojlund and Zirkzee.
 
One thing is for sure, not a penny should be spent on CB's in the summer.

Likewise do not sign another unproven 20 year old forward. That has to stop.

I don’t care who they play for,in what league but get the manager some forwards who are very near or at their best.
 
Of course it's by far the biggest issue. Our attackers are all young and inconsistent and not proven goalscorers. We don't score when we're on top of games and that leads to us losing confidence/composure, become more desperate, and others teams eventually break on us. Your defence as a team will look worse without a functioning attack to be an actual threat to opponents. Garnacho and Amad are excellent talents, but they're young and can't carry attacks. Hojlund and Zirkzee are mostly useless in all aspects of play as well. Zirkzee at least can link a bit and hold up, but they provide 0 goal threat.

Fix the attack with a reliable goalscorer who teams fear, and a lot will improve quickly. You even see our players losing faith in our attackers and hesitate on passes, or just altogether ignore the attackers who have proven that they can't do anything when they try to pick them out. Bruno put in plenty of dangerous balls today, buy Palace got to all of them before our attackers, so he stops putting in the cross when he should and switches to just a shot from range or forcing it to Amad. We have a learned helplessness and loss of belief throughout the team in our attackers and I don't know how that changes without new faces up there.
 
I think we’ll beat LvG’s record low at this rate (just 49 goals in his second season).

This was a problem everyone saw in the summer. We put a lot of faith in the players we had, that Rashford would rediscover his old form, that Hojlund would kick on, that Mount wouldn’t be injured. Other than Amad, nothing has really gone right.

Terrible planning.
Yup. We spent around 90-100m combined on Yoro and Zirkzee rather than just getting someone like Osimhen in. The people in charge just don't understand how to build a squad.
 
We are just so incohesive in attack. I think there are a number of reasons for this:

  1. Bruno always going for the Hollywood pass even when there are simpler options
  2. Wingbacks who don't get forward forces our AMs to take wider positions
  3. We don't have a striker who can hold up the play
Maybe I'm naive but I think if we got two good attacking WBs and a decent striker the side would be transformed. I still feel long term Bruno is a problem we need to try and solve.

I think its just 2 and 3 that's the issue. That WB role is very demanding in this formation.

Quenda and Gyökeres in the summer would fix these issues.
 
I am old enough to have seen games with strikers (plural) and wide players who were able to cross the ball. Fullbacks who were not wingbacks, who managed to quickly cross the ball. I am struggling with modern football with inverted wingers who have to cutback every time and pass the ball back to the defenders. Every now and again I see teams with zero strikers, just a bunch of midfielders and defenders passing to each other.
Today, I couldn't see where a goal would come from. Manchester United have a duty to entertain, they should never ever be taking to the field without any strikers.
 
The issue has been the same for a decade: there’s no clear pattern to our attacking play. I have no idea what we do on the training pitch because during games, everything looks like it happens at random.

Other teams have clear patterns with one-touch passing, playing on the third man, darting runs in behind. We pass the ball around until one of our players does something on his own or we lose the ball.
 
It’s what pisses me off most

We always used to prioritise getting prime forwards in, having a deadly frontline can mask a lot of issues. The last prime striker we signed was Lukaku. Coming up 10 years ago.

Been saying for a good 3 years that we need to sort out the attack but the windows will start and they get defenders or players like Mount and keep ignoring the problem. I don’t know why EVERYONE can see it except the club itself.
The problem with that is that United can’t currently attract high calibre forwards or strikers in their prime. Such players would essentially have to sacrifice short term success, at the very least, for little reward beyond a substantial wage. So why would they move to the club?

United had to go for forwards/strikers who had the potential to be prolific and great, but they got their recruitment wrong with Højlund imo. I have a lot of sympathy for him but he lacks the basic touch and technique to be that player. Zirkzee doesn’t really come in to that equation because he was never touted as that player, so he’s just another waste of money.
 
A bit of a Michael Owenism but if you score first you have a good chance of winning.

Our inability to convert chances efficiently is killing us as we never get confidence and momentum with something to hold onto while the opposition leaves more space to exploit as they push for an equaliser.

The front line is way too young and unproven to carry a club with expectations like United. It's rough on the players that they are having to step up before their time, but the hope is that they kick on at some point.
 
Our forwards are shit, but this stupid system exasperates the issue massively.
 
We've made a lot of mistakes over the last decade.
But ending up with Garnacho, Amad, Hojlund and Zirkzee as the star attackers in our squad is just too criminal for words.
The first 3 should be promising squad players in a healthy squad and Zirkzee, it's anyone's guess who thought he was the right profile.

This. Just reading these namens give you an idea about the quality of our attack
 
You take a team that was creating chances earlier in the season, and not converting those chances, then take an attacker out and add in an extra defender, and then wonder why the attack is even worse than it was before.

The tactics are just as at fault as the players are.
 
Zirkzee was likely signed to get the best out of Rashford and Garnacho and it's not panned out.

I think he was signed when it looked uncertain if Bruno was going to sign a new contract. Board shit the bed with that one. Annoyingly, had we held off on buying an attacker we could have been in for Osimhen on loan, or even one of Solanke or Toney. Solanke would have been an excellent move in hindsight.
 
It’s what pisses me off most

We always used to prioritise getting prime forwards in, having a deadly frontline can mask a lot of issues. The last prime striker we signed was Lukaku. Coming up 10 years ago.

Been saying for a good 3 years that we need to sort out the attack but the windows will start and they get defenders or players like Mount and keep ignoring the problem. I don’t know why EVERYONE can see it except the club itself.
Totally agree!
When SAF was here, he would always insist on having the best strikers that he could bring in.
And he would pay big money for those strikers.
Now, we seem to target strikers who would struggle to start for a team in the bottom half of the league.

I do hope that Amorim targets a top class, proven, big name striker, because spending big money on these low profile strikers isn't working.
Goals are what win games and high-profile strikers tend to score the goals.

To think that we are now relying on Zirksee and Hojlund is insane.
 
We have a lot of problems but as I see it we have two glaring problems:
  1. We cannot score goals.
  2. We concede on set pieces far too often.
 
Our forwards are shit, but this stupid system exasperates the issue massively.
This system is one of those that when it’s bad like it is now, it’s really bad. The main issue is both forwards were giving us shit returns before it was implemented, now in this system their lack of usefulness is laid bare. Particularly Højlund, he’s genuinely been a 12th man for the opposition in the league.
 
To be frank, we haven’t been set up for scorers, certainly since ETH commenced and adopted a a system that didn’t employ any creative wingers or midfielders. It’s not got a lot better since he departed, until the club signed players that support and create chances, wouldn’t make much difference if we had Haaland up front, said it before, Hojlund was a regular scorer prior to joining and being stuck in a moribund ETH system .He’s now lacking any confidence at all and snatching at even half chances and it’s depressing to watch other clubs, move swiftly through their midfield and push passes into the box for a decent striker, haven’t seen that at Utd for a while.

Need younger quicker legs in midfield and real wingers, fcuk how much damage did ETH create in the club, with unnecessary signings with an old squad bloated by Woodwards insistence on balance sheet control with nonsense extensions and wages. Remember who played when we had scoring under control, have a look at the midfield and wingers, even Andy Cole scored freely and his first touch was less than sublime, not forgetting the smaller Dwight York. Memories eh!
 
Its been the same story for multiple managers. These players don't fit together and/or they're not good enough. The only time last they looked like a dangerous team to play against was the brief stretch early under ETH when Cassemiro, Erickson and Fernandez were in mid-field playing well. Then that fell on its face and it was back to the same pass-it-around-and-hope-for-a-defender-to-fall-down crap and when that doesn't happen pass it back to the keeper. Need to start wondering why they look the same under every manager. Laborious build-up and can't score, poor passing, fragile defense in transition, cant defend set pieces and continually spending too much money on players not worth it. Its been this way for what 5-6 managers now? I lose track. Far as I can tell the vaunted Sir Jim making little or no impact. This team needs a flush and reset, not rinse and repeat. Mainoo, Diallo and Yoro. Maybe Collyers (sp?). The rest can go.
 
On the positive side, we do seem to have fixed that lack of control (from under ETH) where we were being carved open every 2 minutes by the opposition.
 
I think we’ll beat LvG’s record low at this rate (just 49 goals in his second season).

This was a problem everyone saw in the summer. We put a lot of faith in the players we had, that Rashford would rediscover his old form, that Hojlund would kick on, that Mount wouldn’t be injured. Other than Amad, nothing has really gone right.

Terrible planning.

It was obvious when Ronaldo left that we needed a 100M+ striker to replace his goalscoring. Say what you will about him and his impact, but he scored goals. We replaced that by overpaying for a winger in Antony, overpaying for a project in Hojlund and then throwing a hail Mary in there with 40M for Zirkzee.

200M for those three instead of 190-220M for Kane as the main man and Hojlund/Ferguson as his understudy (and then we overpay for the understudy btw) is an utterly ridiculous decision.
 
Sign Nkunku, Bailey and Tel on loan and give the team half a chance to turn it round in the second half of the season. We sign no one else then it will be the same tired story for another few months.
 
We simply don’t create and score enough and it’s been our biggest issue for a decade. At the same time I don’t think simply adding a better goal scorer changes everything. The creative engine of the team isn’t that good either nor is it’s physicality.

On the positive side, we do seem to have fixed that lack of control (from under ETH) where we were being carved open every 2 minutes by the opposition.
yes but now we just post 0-1 rather than 2-3
 
We simply don’t create and score enough and it’s been our biggest issue for a decade. At the same time I don’t think simply adding a better goal scorer changes everything. The creative engine of the team isn’t that good either nor is it’s physicality.


yes but now we just post 0-1 rather than 2-3

Get better on set piece plays and that 0-1 can become 0-0.
 
For a club that use to have very clinical and solid ST. This needs addressing and quick.
 
It doesnt help that Hojlund and Zirkzee are both abysmal, but to add to that, playing Dalot and Mazraoui as wingbacks just does not work. They dont attack enough, dont push forward enough (understandibly still have a FB mentality) and both have very limited dribbling ability and consequently, are awfully easy to defend against. Dalot has marginally more in his locker than Maz but its still not enough.
Our 2 number 10s then need to play wider and our striker is the only player within the width of the 6 yard box, where 90% of goals are scored.

We are currently attacking like this

CAM...........ST...........CAM
...LWB......................RWB
..............CM....CM

When it should look more like this

...................ST
LWB....CAM....CAM....RWB
.................CM
.................CM

So we attack with another 2, maybe 3 if a CM pushes on, within the width of the 6 yard box

I like Amorim and have a lot of faith that he will get us cooking with the right players but he simply cannot continue with Maz and Dalot as wing backs. I would like to think he knows this! With more bodies around the striker - with the 2 CAMS being more central, we should see better performances from the chuckle brothers upfront. Though i dont think either will ultimately be good enough but we can still get more output from them until we can afford an upgrade.
 
This is the simple truth and has been for a long time - we can play as dominating or controlling football as we want, but we need 2 players who are proficient goal scorers, who could create their own chances at the slightest space available. We have currently got none. Such players aren't easy to get and given where United are, we need to take punt at potential players but also break bank for one player during the summer.