Winger or Striker?

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Going forward, especially if we want to challenge on fronts, we need a striker and a winger. Not necessarily to displace the ones we have, but to boost out squad.

I believe priority in this and the summer window will be on buying midfielders, therefore, whist I believe we will pruchase an attacking player, I don't think we'll be buying a winger and striker.

My question is then, would you prefer us to buy a striker or winger?

Winger

Currently, we have Rashford, James and Greenwood that operate these roles. Yes, others can play there, but the aforementioned players have been an ever present for us on the wing this season.

Rashford has more or less made the left wing role his own, scoring 10 goals and assisting 2 from the attacking left midfield position.

On the right, more often than not, it has been James, but more recently, we've started to see Greenwood, who, although a natural striker, has contributed 5 goals and 1 assist in 5 apps from the right.

Striker

Currently we have Martial, Rashford and Greenwood who can operate those roles.

Martial, despite being out for a couple of months, has contributed 9 goals and 3 assists as a striker. Whilst some may argue that it's not good enough numbers for a striker, Martial on his day gives us much more than just goals, and I feel his inclusion back into the team has improved our overall attacking play.

We then have Rashford and Greenwood, who can play back up, despite the former being better from the left.

Going forward, if you had a choice, which one would you prefer?

Choice 1

Martial
Rashford Attacking Midfielder Right Winger

James (back up left/right winger) Greenwood (back up striker)

Or

Choice 2

Martial
Rashford Attacking Midfielder James

Greenwood (back up winger) Striker (back up to Martial)

I would personally choice 1. As much as I feel James has been a good signing, he should never have played the amount of games he's played for us this season. Not just because hes's from the Championship, but because he's young and new to the club. As we can see, he's still raw and learning, and feel a top right winger, where James can rotate with Rashford and New Winger would be the best bet, in my opinion.

That would obviously leave Greenwood as back up to Martial, who has already shown he knows where the goals are at this level.

 

[davidmichael]

We’ve not had a natural right winger since Nani and Valencia in the first post Ronaldo season (2009/10 ?) so it’s a winger for me and I’d go all out and sign Sancho now whilst there’d be little competition due to it being January.

 

[Mcking]

Right winger. James and Greenwood are currently our only options for the position, but James is just average and Greenwood is usually anonymous in games. They should be fifth and sixth choices across the front three.

 

[LInkash]

Apparently Sancho is better on the left.

Are there no right wingers anymore?

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Apparently Sancho is better on the left.

Are there no right wingers anymore?

Depends what we're looking for. If it's creative wingers, who likes to cut inside and find pockets of space in between the lines, then there's players like:

Hakim Ziyech
Steven Bergwijn
Adama Traore (if he continues to improve, he'll be frightening)

 

[Skills]

We need 30+ goals from somewhere. Would be nice to have a RW provide that and Martial + Rashford grab another 20-25 each.

 

[bosnian_red]

Going to look at it like this:
Anthony Martial - ST
Marcus Rashford - LW
Dan James - RW/LW squad player
Mason Greenwood - ST/RW squad player (for now)

Rashford and Martial can play in both, but both are starters when fit so no point counting them as cover for each other. They play in their main position. If we buy a key right winger, Dan James is full time impact sub or squad option on either wing, with Greenwood being the backup striker with occasional right wing such appearances. It's a good balance IMO, but also means Greenwoods path to starting will get blocked maybe right before he progresses into being ready to start (assuming we sign someone in the summer, and the plan is Greenwood progresses into a starter during next season). If that's the plan, it makes sense to have him and James rotate the RW for now, and get more experienced depth as a poacher/goalscorer to get goals in the tight occasions, but leave the RW there for the taking for Greenwood. If the plan is to rotate Greenwood and Martial and have them fight for the #9, maybe learning to even be a partnership with Rashford still on the left, then a classic wide midfielder/winger on the right would make the most sense (starting caliber). James would be squad player for both flanks, Rashford starter on left, Martial and Greenwood fighting for striker, while new right winger would be main starter on the right.

Basically it all depends on how the club plans to develop Greenwood, how quickly they see him progressing and in what position long term. Also why I kind of see the logic in being careful in those positions, but they need to make the right call.

 

[Kostur]

Both, we need a right winger and somebody to challenge Martial for the #9.

 

[BlackBen]

We need both if we really want to complete.

 

[bosnian_red]

We need 30+ goals from somewhere. Would be nice to have a RW provide that and Martial + Rashford grab another 20-25 each.

We arent going to get 3 players put up 20+ goals each. 2008/09 United we had Ronaldo on 26, Rooney on 20, Tevez on 15 and Berba on 14. Getting Martial and Rashford to both get close to 25 each would be great, we would just need the most advanced midfielder or backup striker to put up 10+ and our 3rd main attacker to put up 10-15. And the rest of the team needs to pitch in.

We arent doing too badly this year tbh with the main guys. Half a season in and Rashfords on 16, Martial on 10, Greenwood 8, James and McTominay 3 each. Getting Rashford 25-30, Martial to 20, Greenwood close to 15 and James and McTominay at 5 each is great. It's the rest that need to step up. The defenders need to pitch in. The other midfielders and squad players need to get the odd goal here and there and get a handful per group of players.

 

[Skills]

We arent going to get 3 players put up 20+ goals each. 2008/09 United we had Ronaldo on 26, Rooney on 20, Tevez on 15 and Berba on 14. Getting Martial and Rashford to both get close to 25 each would be great, we would just need the most advanced midfielder or backup striker to put up 10+ and our 3rd main attacker to put up 10-15. And the rest of the team needs to pitch in.

We arent doing too badly this year tbh with the main guys. Half a season in and Rashfords on 16, Martial on 10, Greenwood 8, James and McTominay 3 each. Getting Rashford 25-30, Martial to 20, Greenwood close to 15 and James and McTominay at 5 each is great. It's the rest that need to step up. The defenders need to pitch in. The other midfielders and squad players need to get the odd goal here and there and get a handful per group of players.

That's your problem, you're using the standard from 10 years ago to build a team for 2020. That too, a stupidly low scoring season for Fergie's United. The average PL winning team in the last 10 years has scored close to 90 goals. On average about 11 goals more than between 1999-2009.

 

[OleTheGreat]

I think we need a ride side winger because James is basically a left sided winger and Greenwood is a striker who likes playing through the middle. As time goes by, he's grow stronger and learn to play with his back to goal and therefore we need to get a right sided winger for whom Greenwood and James can be rotated. Martial and Rashford can stay where they're and rotated as necessary.

 

[bosnian_red]

That's your problem, you're using the standard from 10 years ago to build a team for 2020. That too, a stupidly low scoring season for Fergie's United. The average PL winning team in the last 10 years has scored close to 90 goals. On average about 11 goals more than between 1999-2009.

I was actually using a season in the past 10ish years where we had the most "goalscorers". 12/13 we had Hernandez on 18, Rooney on 16, Van Persie on 30. 1999 we had Yorke on 29, Cole on 24, Ole on 18, Scholes on 11, Giggs on 10, Beckham on 9,Teddy on 5, etc. Its just highly unlikely where we'll have 3 starters all over 20 goals. Nothing wrong with that. Just unlikely. Not the problem anyway. You need the whole squad to contribute, not just 3 starting 11 players.

City had 4 players on 20+ goals in 2013/14, Liverpool had 3 on 20 or more in 17/18, Barca/Madrid probably had it a few times over the past decade. Its very rare though.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

Right winger or right forward without a doubt. Up front we have Martial who is a good striker, can hold the ball to bring others into play. Who do we have on the right? James? & Greenwood? Both of them to me are backup quality at the moment, great potential but still not up there that you want to expect them to perform week in week out. We really need a right forward who can produce good numbers of end product and have pace.

Rashford Martial New RF
——— New No. 10 ———

James - Greenwood - James/Greenwood
———— Mata/Pereira ———

 

[Canagel]

Right wing. And championship players don't count, if we are serious we must address the situation properly

 

[Catt]

RW for me but I don't watch enough football to know who that shoud be.

 

[adexkola]

I don't understand how the answer can be anything other than a right winger that makes Boris look like Bernie

 

[Bastian]

The one with more quality.

 

[Josep Dowling]

A natural right winger for me. We have lacked balance going forward for years. If we got Sancho it would make our front 3 a lot more dangerous.

 

[adexkola]

A natural right winger for me. We have lacked balance going forward for years. If we got Sancho it would make our front 3 a lot more dangerous.

This.

 

[Hugh Jass]

We need a ten before we need them unless Pogba stays. Striker then and two MFs.

 

[VeevaVee]

I think we're in a real tough position where what we have isn't good enough and can definitely be improved upon, but each could potentially be better in a better set up. At the moment the deciding factor for me is Martial being injured too much.

As much as I like James, I think he should end up on the bench though, because the bench is shit and needs some players that could make an impact on it.

Greenwood should be treated as the youngster he is.

So...both.

 

[UNITED ACADEMY]

I think we're in a real tough position where what we have isn't good enough and can definitely be improved upon, but each could potentially be better in a better set up. At the moment the deciding factor for me is Martial being injured too much.

As much as I like James, I think he should end up on the bench though, because the bench is shit and needs some players that could make an impact on it.

Greenwood should be treated as the youngster he is.

So...both.

The issue here is that we need to be careful to choose what we actually need. If we only have certain amount of money and we spend the money on striker just to backup Martial then it’s ridiculous. I think next summer we should sign players who can upgrade our starting XI and rely on our youngster for backup, thus why right forward/winger is more important than striker. We only managed to sign 3 each of our last three summer windows. I’m going to assume the next one will be only 3 signings unless if we lose Pogba.

James would have been ideal to backup and challenge Rashford and our regular right forward/winger. While Greenwood would have been ideal to backup and challenge Martial’s spot.

 

[VeevaVee]

The issue here is that we need to be careful to choose what we actually need. If we only have certain amount of money and we spend the money on striker just to backup Martial then it’s ridiculous. I think next summer we should sign players who can upgrade our starting XI and rely on our youngster for backup, thus why right forward/winger is more important than striker. We only managed to sign 3 each of our last three summer windows. I’m going to assume the next one will be only 3 signings unless if we lose Pogba.

James would have been ideal to backup and challenge Rashford and our regular right forward/winger. While Greenwood would have been ideal to backup and challenge Martial’s spot.

If we're getting a striker it would have to be first choice for me, meaning Martial goes or is happy on the bench (unlikely).

 

[reddev3]

I think i'm the only one that has a striker waaaaaaaaaay down in the list. It has to be top class RW and AM before anything else for me. Even after those two are taken care of I would want another CM next.

With an upgraded AM and RW i'm sure even Rashford would look good through the middle again, he is ok there when he has Pogba feeding him balls but looks next to useless when he isn't in the team and Rashford is up front.

 

[Isotope]

Obviously both positions can be massively upgraded, so it depends on the available players.

 

[NewGlory]

Going forward, especially if we want to challenge on fronts, we need a striker and a winger. Not necessarily to displace the ones we have, but to boost out squad.

I believe priority in this and the summer window will be on buying midfielders, therefore, whist I believe we will pruchase an attacking player, I don't think we'll be buying a winger and striker.

My question is then, would you prefer us to buy a striker or winger?

Winger

Currently, we have Rashford, James and Greenwood that operate these roles. Yes, others can play there, but the aforementioned players have been an ever present for us on the wing this season.

Rashford has more or less made the left wing role his own, scoring 10 goals and assisting 2 from the attacking left midfield position.

On the right, more often than not, it has been James, but more recently, we've started to see Greenwood, who, although a natural striker, has contributed 5 goals and 1 assist in 5 apps from the right.

Striker

Currently we have Martial, Rashford and Greenwood who can operate those roles.

Martial, despite being out for a couple of months, has contributed 9 goals and 3 assists as a striker. Whilst some may argue that it's not good enough numbers for a striker, Martial on his day gives us much more than just goals, and I feel his inclusion back into the team has improved our overall attacking play.

We then have Rashford and Greenwood, who can play back up, despite the former being better from the left.

Going forward, if you had a choice, which one would you prefer?

Choice 1

Martial
Rashford Attacking Midfielder Right Winger

James (back up left/right winger) Greenwood (back up striker)

Or

Choice 2

Martial
Rashford Attacking Midfielder James

Greenwood (back up winger) Striker (back up to Martial)

I would personally choice 1. As much as I feel James has been a good signing, he should never have played the amount of games he's played for us this season. Not just because hes's from the Championship, but because he's young and new to the club. As we can see, he's still raw and learning, and feel a top right winger, where James can rotate with Rashford and New Winger would be the best bet, in my opinion.

That would obviously leave Greenwood as back up to Martial, who has already shown he knows where the goals are at this level.

Honestly, we need at least 2-3 midfielders, before we even entertain buying players for any other positions. But if somehow magically Woodward opened his wallet up that widely, I think Greenwood is a better CF than a winger, so we should go for a winger, because if Rashy gets injured we have no top winger. James is still too raw.

 

[meamth]

That's your problem, you're using the standard from 10 years ago to build a team for 2020. That too, a stupidly low scoring season for Fergie's United. The average PL winning team in the last 10 years has scored close to 90 goals. On average about 11 goals more than between 1999-2009.

Another problem is that it's a title winning side standards. We're far away from that.

 

[Andrew Richmond]

We need strengthening in all areas the squad just isn’t good enough.

I’m not sure what this current window is going to deliver, but if we don’t bring in some re-enforcements there will be no trophies and no top 4 finish. May not win anything even if we do improve the squad but OGS needs a midfielder and another attacker in this window just to stay competitive.

 

[Andycoleno9]

We need goalscoring right winger. Martial is first choice striker, Greenwood is backup. On right wing we have only James who has his strengths but is not top quality player and is not goalscorer