What is wrong with our attacking players?

They are young and having trouble adjusting to a new coach, new system, and the pressures of being perfect because that’s what our fans expect.
 
So how many of those six positions listed are we going to be addressing this summer do you think?
I think 5. The one I think we may not is CB unless there is a free agent or young talent we can get on the cheap
 
They are young and having trouble adjusting to a new coach, new system, and the pressures of being perfect because that’s what our fans expect.
And also some are not good enough young or not
 
Do we even have attacking talent
Liverpool have 6 players
Darain,gakpo, Zota, Salah, diaz
Their midfielders can hit goals too
We have
Garnacho
Amad
Hojlund
Bruno
Who else ? Now see the difference in quality between our forwards and theirs
..
Same with City..
 
No chemistry and no instincts that a good forward player needs in this league. Having next to no service from others isn't an excuse to not try and create your own opportunities. Garnacho tries but is predictably selfish and easy to defend against.
Every great United striker was phenomenal in bringing other players in to attacking situations. Now our forwards are on their own with no fecking clue what to do. Same channel, same routine, same touch and no vision unless Bruno is involved. Then they just leave it to him.
 
Do we even have attacking talent
Liverpool have 6 players
Darain,gakpo, Zota, Salah, diaz
Their midfielders can hit goals too
We have
Garnacho
Amad
Hojlund
Bruno
Who else ? Now see the difference in quality between our forwards and theirs
..
Same with City..
Same with most clubs in the league
 
Hojlund - no confidence and massively out of his depth.
Garnacho - needs acres of space and probably just counter attacking football. Too greedy, or decision maker, can't cross.
Bruno - can't do everything alone. Tired from trying.
Mount - looks like a championship level player. Barely seems to do anything.
Zirkzee - slow and lumbering but with some finesse that surprises. Very little goal threat though. Probably needs to play in Italy.
Amad - lots of talent, needs a good run and players around him when fit again.

We also have the 'wing backs' to provide. Featuring Dalot who is very ordinary on his good days. Dorgu who doesn't look a PL level player so far, Shaw who needs to retire and some kids.
 
The players are poor and the formation is awful. It really is that simple.
We have seen the players in more than one formation. We have not seen better players in this formation.
 
The players aren't good enough. The manager hasn't figured out how to get the best of them and we play with a defensive system that ultimately has an extra defender on the field because we really only have fullbacks. Plenty of blame to go around.
 
I think 5. The one I think we may not is CB unless there is a free agent or young talent we can get on the cheap
Would you take Tah on a free, there must be some shrewd ones out there this summer?
 
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Our recruitment has been garbage for a long time. Even our best players aren’t as good as we believe them to be.
 
It’s easy to solely blame our attackers but the system doesn’t get the best out of any of them.

We have an inexperienced set of forwards whose quality is debatable anyway. We support that by lining up with 5 defenders, and at least one (sometimes two) defensive midfielders.

Is anyone surprised we struggle to score?
 
Most of our attack consists of inexperienced players who also started to show lack of real quality. You would expect from Hojlund and Garnacho to step up but it didn't happen.
Amad and Bruno are the only ones who can create something.
Also our players lack physical qualities.
The system isn't that great either, we attack with 3 players because our wingers do not have any attacking qualities. Teams like Inter or Leverkusen who also play 3 at the back, have players like Dimarco, Dumfries, Grimaldo and Frimpong who can assist and score a lot of goals per season. Don't see that ever happening with Dalot and Dorgu.
 
We need more players getting into the box. Typically its Hojlund isolated in the box and Garnacho running from deep but with 3 defenders on him. Our attacking players need more options.

And yes, they are lacking composure and confidence. Need to get in the habit of scoring by doing above and building back the confidence.
 
It's bad but realistically - if we get a striker who can score goals - and we have Bruno and Amad as 2 of the players behind him- it will improve a lot
 
Our 2 10's don't get into the box. What should be happening in a 3-4-3 is the 2 wing backs are your width, and they can cross to the striker and 2 10's in the box. The way we play, as our wing backs aren't dynamic/good enough to actually get to the byline and cross, our 2 10's play as wingers which means there is only really one target in the box, and then we're restricted to a cut back for the defensive midfielders to run on to, but they don't do that, so attacks fizzle out.
 
Our 2 10's don't get into the box. What should be happening in a 3-4-3 is the 2 wing backs are your width, and they can cross to the striker and 2 10's in the box. The way we play, as our wing backs aren't dynamic/good enough to actually get to the byline and cross, our 2 10's play as wingers which means there is only really one target in the box, and then we're restricted to a cut back for the defensive midfielders to run on to, but they don't do that, so attacks fizzle out.
Good post. It contributes to Hojlands frustration and our lack of goals from other attacking players
 
It's a mix of both lacking confidence and not enough attacking numbers upfront. We literally start with 3 players every game with an instinct to score goals. The rest are defensive in thier play. But there's no options on the bench either. We've let go of Antony, Sancho and rashford without replacing them. It's going to hurt.
 
There isn't really anything "wrong" with our attackers. It's just that none of them are inherently great finishers. Players like Ronaldo who wasn't an amazing finisher but developed into one are the exception. Garnacho, Rasmus, Zirkzee, Amad, none of them are better finishers than Bruno. I don't really see any of them getting to Bruno's level of finishing and even he isn't in that amazing category.

Then add to a set of attackers with average finishing abilities low confidence and a tactical setup that leaves them with less passing options, leaves them more isolated and provides less attacking opportunities for them and we get what we get. Maybe as they get on in their careers they will get better at finishing but I wouldn't expect to see a big transformation all of a sudden bar the odd purple patch that any player is capable of.
 
Good post. It contributes to Hojlands frustration and our lack of goals from other attacking players
What's annoying is that a bloke sat at home can see this, so why can't a team of professional footballers/managers? It's hardly rocket science.
 
What's annoying is that a bloke sat at home can see this, so why can't a team of professional footballers/managers? It's hardly rocket science.
I'm sure they see it. Fixing issues is always harder than identifying them.
 
The worrying thing about that is we’ve bought dorgu for that reason you would think.
 
Yeah I get the concern about buying players just for him, however wouldn't see Cunha/Delap like that. I also understand your point about not having a proper DOF, weren't we loosely linked with a move for Jorge Campos.
I think delap for the price is sensible.

I think Cunha is a risk from the perspective of his attitude, the potential price and the fact that most managers won't neatly fit him and Bruno into the same team. He is a game changer and Bruno is getting older though
 
Our recruitment has been garbage for a long time. Even our best players aren’t as good as we believe them to be.
Yeah wouldn't argue with that
It’s easy to solely blame our attackers but the system doesn’t get the best out of any of them.

We have an inexperienced set of forwards whose quality is debatable anyway. We support that by lining up with 5 defenders, and at least one (sometimes two) defensive midfielders.

Is anyone surprised we struggle to score?
The fact they are so inexperienced should set alarm bells going with the INEOS clowns to buy someone EXPERIENCED which isn't Delap that's for sure
 
Problem is we’ve had to pay big money to players to get them in the door over recent years. The incentive alone of playing for Manchester United isn’t enough nowadays when we’re not competing for the really big prizes. To get top notch (or what we thought we going to be too notch) players in, they’ve wanted paying. The likes of Sancho for example who is a joke now but was considered one of the very top talents in world football when we got him. He wanted compensating as such.

The idea of offering performance based pay is great. But it’s surely either got to be that we’re looking towards future stars exclusively or we improve a lot on the pitch and get ourselves back into the Champions League to make this a desirable destination.

There’s almost no reason to sign for United at the moment if you have other good options on the table.
 
It’s easy to solely blame our attackers but the system doesn’t get the best out of any of them.

We have an inexperienced set of forwards whose quality is debatable anyway. We support that by lining up with 5 defenders, and at least one (sometimes two) defensive midfielders.

Is anyone surprised we struggle to score?


Erm... you say that the 5 at the back is the problem.... isnt it the same formation used by Amorim and Gyokeres and others scored tons of goals?

Earlier in the season, with 4-3-3 played by Ten Hag, were we free scoring?
 
Most of our attack consists of inexperienced players who also started to show lack of real quality. You would expect from Hojlund and Garnacho to step up but it didn't happen.
Amad and Bruno are the only ones who can create something.
Also our players lack physical qualities.
The system isn't that great either, we attack with 3 players because our wingers do not have any attacking qualities. Teams like Inter or Leverkusen who also play 3 at the back, have players like Dimarco, Dumfries, Grimaldo and Frimpong who can assist and score a lot of goals per season. Don't see that ever happening with Dalot and Dorgu.
Yeah there is no doubt our wing backs aren't good enough for Ruben's system, unfortunately we haven't the budget to fix that, attack, GK and add someone in the midfield too
 
It’s easy to solely blame our attackers but the system doesn’t get the best out of any of them.

We have an inexperienced set of forwards whose quality is debatable anyway. We support that by lining up with 5 defenders, and at least one (sometimes two) defensive midfielders.

Is anyone surprised we struggle to score?

Just to pick on that first point as it's a bit of a blanket meaningless statement I see repeated.

If you look at big chances created for the last 10 seasons, out of the previous 9 we've already surpassed 2 seasons and we're just 2 big chances away from surpassing another 3. So this season is going to be higher than 5 of the last 9.

That combined with our xg underperformance this season only being beaten by Southampton seems to imply it's not chances or system it's conversion.

There's many factors so not wishing to pick out players but Garnacho wasting chances and Hojlund avoiding them is self evident and neither are system issues.
 
Fergie made sure we always had world class/very good strikers and any kids like Forlan Belion Macheds Rossi etc were given short periods and if they didn’t come up to speed we’re soon moved on. They also didn’t cost a fortune in the first place.
Now we have no good strikers as in goal scoring and they keep playing them regardless, because the top end hasn’t been addressed for years properly. We spent a fortune on over the hill players with limited playing life
 
Lack of quality and lack of imagination(football brain).

Amad showed glimpses of both and went from being nearly out the exit door to our saviour

Standards have dropped massively. HOJLUND is total and utter pants
 
You only need look at Atalanta to see that how the system can work.. The only alterations that the manager makes to the system is the front 3 positions.. He either sets up the team as 3-4-2-1.. 3-4-1-2 or 3-4-3.. They have scored 67 in 34 league games so far this season.. only Inter have scored more.. 72 in 34.. Atalanta also won at Juventus 0-4 and Napoli 0-3.
 
What do you like about this formation?
Systems are only as good as you make them via players and coaching. Those formations all had 1 winger at WB. This one thus needs Amad (or similar) at RWB. It should be 4 defenders 3 midfielders, 3 attackers, just positioned differently (and with different levels of freedom)

1 wide 10, 1 midfielder 10. 1 FB at WB, 1 wide CB, 2CBs, 1 wide forward playing at R or LWB, then a 6 and 8 in the 2 midfield slots.

You just get all kinds of extra responsibilities and link-ups through defenders stepping up to cover at 6, WBs tucking in to cover for a roving CM, 10s rotating central or wide, the 9 being more of a 9 or more of a false 9 etc, all dependent upon personnel. But having 2 orthodox full-backs in the WB positions is a recipe for negative football longer-term, and has impacted upon creation of chances (never mind the issues with xG from chances actually created).
 
We have some of the worst attacking players in the league. Hojlund and Garnacho are absolutely shite and should be nowhere near our starting XI. I would trade them for forwards from almost every other team in the PL. Losing Amad was huge. He was performing before his injury. Zirkzee also started to perform before his injury as well.

We also need much better quality at wingback. We need players in those position to massively contribute in attack, which we don't get from Dalot or Dorgu.

I want to see our attack strengthened before anything else this summer. For the love of God, I can't watch Hojlund and Garnacho be starters for another season.
 
Lack of technical ability mostly and some are simply just not good enough. We have some of the worst attacking players in the league which is why we are like 15th in the league and can’t score any goals.