Why don't our players score hat-tricks anymore?

Samid

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Remember the last league hat-trick? van Persie vs Villa to seal the league 4.5 years ago. That's 167 league games ago.


Hat-tricks for PL teams in PL since the start of 13/14 season (ever-present teams only):
Code:
+------------+-----+------------------------------------------+
| Team       | HTs | Players                                  |
+------------+-----+------------------------------------------+
| Man City   |  7  | 5xAguero, Yaya, Sterling                 |
| Spurs      |  6  | 6xKane                                   |
| Chelsea    |  5  | Eto'o, Hazard, Schurrle, Costa, Morata   |
| Arsenal    |  4  | 2xSanchez, Giroud, Walcott               |
| Everton    |  4  | 2xLukaku, Naismith, Kone                 |
| Liverpool  |  3  | 3xSuarez                                 |
| Soton      |  2  | 2xMane                                   |
| C. Palace  |  1  | Bolasie                                  |
| Stoke      |  1  | Walters                                  |
| WBA        |  1  | Rondon                                   |
| W. Ham     |  1  | Carroll                                  |
| Swansea    |  0  |                                          |
| Man Utd    |  0  |                                          |
+------------+-----+------------------------------------------+
Even Leicester and Bournemouth have two each and they've played respectively one and two seasons less in the PL.

To put this into context, Lukaku managed to score a hat-trick for WBA vs United, moved to Everton, became their all-time PL top scorer and moved to United; all after United's latest league hat-trick.


Hat-tricks for United in all competitions since the start of 09/10 season:
Code:
+--------+-----+----------------------+
| Season | HTs | Players              |
+--------+-----+----------------------+
| 09/10  |  3  | 2xRooney, Owen       |
| 10/11  |  4  | 3xBerbatov, Rooney   |
| 11/12  |  3  | 2xRooney, Berbatov   |
| 12/13  |  3  | 2xvan Persie, Kagawa |
| 13/14  |  1  | van Persie           |
| 14/15  |  0  |                      |
| 15/16  |  1  | Rooney               |
| 16/17  |  1  | Ibrahimovic          |
| 17/18  |  0  |                      |
+--------+-----+----------------------+
From averaging over 3 hat-tricks per season in Fergie's final four years, we've barely managed 3 hat-tricks altogether since he left and none of them in the PL.

So why don't our players score hat-tricks anymore? Don't get enough chances? Don't have the hunger? Poor finishers? Lack of composure?
 
Last edited:

17 Van der Gouw

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Moyes: Go 1-0 up. Forget not managing Everton and utterly shit self. Substitute Van Persie with extra center back.

LvG: If in posession in attacking position or near opposition penalty area, send ball 50 yards backwards. Ideally to de Gea.

Mourinho: A 1-0 win is better than a defeat.
 

RedDevil@84

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Because we have been crap in last 3 years. We struggle to create half chances, leave alone goal scoring ones. Our finishers have been in pretty average form for quite some time.

And Ibra did score a hatrick against that hapless French side, so apart from league we have 1 hatrick at least.
 

stevoc

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Since Fergie retired we have been lucky to score 3 or more as a team never mind one player.

Having said that Rooney and Ibrahimovic did score hat tricks in europe.
 

Coxy

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Because you don’t play attacking football anymore?
 

Cheesy

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Simple reason as has been stated is that we've had mostly defensive or negative managers since then, but the fact we've pretty much not had a single one league hat-trick in the league for nearly half a decade is quite astonishing.
 

TinFoil

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Rashford has scored a brace a few times then gotten subbed off :nono:
 

JB08

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Why does it have to be in the League only? Do hattricks in Europe not count for some reason?
 

harms

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Moyes: Go 1-0 up. Forget not managing Everton and utterly shit self. Substitute Van Persie with extra center back.
Wrong. Remember when he didn't substitute Van Persie against Newcastle because he was afraid to angry the supporters? :lol:
 

el3mel

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We didn't have a proper functioning attack the post SAF years. Our goals scored in the league last 4 years till you the whole story.
 

Mcking

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There are many factors that IMO are the main reasons. From manager's styles, poor form, poor creativity, unluck and an occasional lack of red-hot strikers peaking in the team. Rooney who was already on a downward spiral and dropping into midfield when Moyes came could not have been the one expected to score hat-tricks. Our best striker in the last season under SAF probably could have done it, but a combination of injuries, loss of form and body fitness meant he didn't. I will put Van Persie up there on the least benefactors of SAF's retirement. It could have taken some God-like individual perfomance and some luck for a player to score a hat-trick under Moyes, especially when you consider how poor we were and the fact Welbeck and Chicharito - who was bizarrely poor under Moyes - were the other options apart from Van Persie and Rooney. LVG's boring tactics of passing it lamely round the defence and midfield and Falcao's failure to replicate his Porto and Atletico form which made him one of the best strikers in the world didn't help matters either. Under LVG, our forwards were reduced to feeding on meagre services and hardly gets the number of chances needed to score 3 and when you bring in the fact he sold or moved on 4 of our recognised strikers and replaced them with a young forward who isn't exactly renowned for his goalscoring prowess, it becomes clearer to the mind. It is also hard to envisage the midfielders scoring hat-tricks if the strikers couldn't. Mourinho solved the striker problem, but his insistence to close out wins - even in games we were dominating - rather than go for more is a major factor too. Profligacy and poor creativity didn't help matters either. The hat-trick Zlatan scored against St Etienne is also probably up there with the most individual and simultaneously, scrappiest hat-trick from a Man utd player this century, which kind of proves the support cast is also a major factor(he proved he's capable). The creativity has been better this season and Lukaku has come pretty close, but the drought has hit him, which seems a reoccuring sequence for our main strikers since SAF retired. Nevertheless, he looks the real deal and I'm convinced we will score a hat-trick soon starting against The Magpies. :wenger:
 

Lennon7

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I don’t think Mourinho’s too bothered about annihilating teams and killing games off. His aim is to go 1, maybe 2-0 up and hold out for the win. Fergie’s mentality was constantly attack, constantly take the game to them.

Yes we’ve had some 4-0’s this season but against shit opposition.

Jesus, @Mcking, ever heard of paragraphs :lol:
 

Mcking

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I don’t think Mourinho’s too bothered about annihilating teams and killing games off. His aim is to go 1, maybe 2-0 up and hold out for the win. Fergie’s mentality was constantly attack, constantly take the game to them.

Yes we’ve had some 4-0’s this season but against shit opposition.

Jesus, @Mcking, ever heard of paragraphs :lol:
Nah, what's that?
 

prtk0811

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Remember the last league hat-trick? van Persie vs Villa to seal the league 4.5 years ago. That's 167 league games ago.


Hat-tricks for PL teams in PL since the start of 13/14 season (ever-present teams only):
Code:
+------------+-----+------------------------------------------+
| Team       | HTs | Players                                  |
+------------+-----+------------------------------------------+
| Man City   |  7  | 5xAguero, Yaya, Sterling                 |
| Spurs      |  6  | 6xKane                                   |
| Chelsea    |  5  | Eto'o, Hazard, Schurrle, Costa, Morata   |
| Arsenal    |  4  | 2xSanchez, Giroud, Walcott               |
| Everton    |  3  | Naismith, Kone, Lukaku                   |
| Liverpool  |  3  | 3xSuarez                                 |
| Soton      |  2  | 2xMane                                   |
| C. Palace  |  1  | Bolasie                                  |
| Stoke      |  1  | Walters                                  |
| WBA        |  1  | Rondon                                   |
| W. Ham     |  1  | Carroll                                  |
| Swansea    |  0  |                                          |
| Man Utd    |  0  |                                          |
+------------+-----+------------------------------------------+
Even Leicester and Bournemouth have two each and they've played respectively one and two seasons less in the PL.

To put this into context, Lukaku managed to score a hat-trick for WBA vs United, moved to Everton, became their all-time PL top scorer and moved to United; all after United's latest league hat-trick.


Hat-tricks for United in all competitions since the start of 09/10 season:
Code:
+--------+-----+----------------------+
| Season | HTs | Players              |
+--------+-----+----------------------+
| 09/10  |  3  | 2xRooney, Owen       |
| 10/11  |  4  | 3xBerbatov, Rooney   |
| 11/12  |  3  | 2xRooney, Berbatov   |
| 12/13  |  3  | 2xvan Persie, Kagawa |
| 13/14  |  1  | van Persie           |
| 14/15  |  0  |                      |
| 15/16  |  1  | Rooney               |
| 16/17  |  1  | Ibrahimovic          |
| 17/18  |  0  |                      |
+--------+-----+----------------------+
From averaging over 3 hat-tricks per season in Fergie's final four years, we've barely managed 3 hat-tricks altogether since he left and none of them in the PL.

So why don't our players score hat-tricks anymore? Don't get enough chances? Don't have the hunger? Poor finishers? Lack of composure?
In 2013 hernandez scored a hatrick too off the bench against villa.
 

Nikelesh Reddy

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Style of play,lack of confidence,injuries etc....Lukaku will definitely bag a Hatrick this season,no question about that....
 

shaky

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It's just chance mainly, but our goals seem to come from many sources recently. Lingard, Fellaini, Lukaku and Rashford have all scored twice in a match so far this season. Zlatan got a hat trick in the Europa last season and Lukaku would have more than likely had one this season if he didn't let Martial take a penalty.
 

Samid

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Last edited:

matherto

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We don't batter teams, we settle and have settled since way back into the SAF days (post-Ronaldo) so we're not likely to have someone score highly individually when we don't as a team.
 

KingMinger22

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Because none of our attackers are top quality?

Lukaku could score a hat trick if he had proper service, which won't happen with the players he has behinds him.
 

Samid

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Since our last league hat-trick Callum Wilson has played one season in League One, one season in the Championship, ruptured the cruciate ligament in his right knee, then ruptured the cruciate ligament in his left knee and somehow still managed to score two Premier League hat-tricks.
 
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Who cares, I would rather have more players contribute to our goals than be reliant on one player. Spurs have scored 6 hat-tricks, all by Kane. We saw (Lucky us), how toothless they are without him. We won 4-1 yesterday and are the second highest scores in the league. Would much rather see Lukaku, Martial and Pogba score than one of them get three.
 

Ikon

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^^Exactly^^

I was about to make a comment about this too....
We've hit a few teams for 4 already this season, but the goals are being nicely spread about between Lukaku, Martial, Rashford, Pogba.
A few more from Mata, Mkhitaryan and now Zlatan sets up nicely I think.
 

golden_blunder

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Fergies teams used to play with an attitude of we are Man Utd we will score more than you.
Since he’s gone, Moyes was clueless but even worse an experienced manager like Lvg came in and sucked the life out of football. We’ve been in recovery mode since and Jose isn’t reknowned for attacking football.
However he’s had teams score a lot of goals so I’m hopeful we’re on the right trajectory again