Do we still need a #9?

Devil may care said:
This is the biggest question facing whoever is manager this summer. Rooney's had a mini run of goal scoring but spent the first 5 months of the season as the least effective striker in the PL and I think most would agree he's not really good enough to be the main man in a team hoping for a PL title challenge. Will we risk going into the next season without adding a #9?

The big issue is we know Rooney will almost certainly be here, but will he accept the challenge of having to earn a place Vs another top #9? Somehow I doubt it which would mean we'd be looking for someone who would be happy coming off the bench. It's no good buying a top #9 and trying to use Rooney as a #10, his touch, skill and passing is too inconsistent and erratic for the role, to get any value out of him he has to be closest to the goal.

While Martial's future may be as a #9 I think he'll mostly play from the left for at least another season and it might even end up being his best position as he becomes more and more experienced at it, especially if we play more 4-3-3.

I know Will Keane scored 5 goals in the U21's tonight and Wilson is popular on the Caf, but I think it would be mad to start the season with them as Rooney's only competition/back-up.
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This is by far my biggest fear. We went into this with a player on a serious decline for the best part of 2 seasons, probably the only player in the whole league no competition whatsoever and given extra privileges, it was always bound to end pretty badly for us. I fear next year, a worse Wayne Rooney will still be the main guy for us.

Personally, the best solution is to sell him. For the sake of it, let's say Lewandowski becomes available, a player whole is leagues ahead of Rooney, still might have to compete with Rooney as the main man. As long as LvG will be here next season and will most definitely give Rooney his privileges, I don't he will drop Rooney for a Lewandowski, rather he will try to mash them both in the XI to the detriment of the team. Let's not talk about the wage issue in this scenario.

So before we can think of a new #9, we must seriously consider Wayne Rooney's status next year.
 
dichinero said:
This is by far my biggest fear. We went into this with a player on a serious decline for the best part of 2 seasons, probably the only player in the whole league no competition whatsoever and given extra privileges, it was always bound to end pretty badly for us. I fear next year, a worse Wayne Rooney will still be the main guy for us.

Personally, the best solution is to sell him. For the sake of it, let's say Lewandowski becomes available, a player whole is leagues ahead of Rooney, still might have to compete with Rooney as the main man. As long as LvG will be here next season and will most definitely give Rooney his privileges, I don't he will drop Rooney for a Lewandowski, rather he will try to mash them both in the XI to the detriment of the team. Let's not talk about the wage issue in this scenario.

So before we can think of a new #9, we must seriously consider Wayne Rooney's status next year.
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The Rooney situation is even more difficult than our manager woes. I can't see any new manager selling him as their first act in the job, but I fully believe we'll not win anything as long as he is still starting week after week. I think the big move would be for the next manager to pick his own Captain, if that happens it makes it easier to buy in another #9 and put Rooney into rotation.
 
Devil may care said:
The Rooney situation is even more difficult than our manager woes. I can't see any new manager selling him as their first act in the job, but I fully believe we'll not win anything as long as he is still starting week after week. I think the big move would be for the next manager to pick his own Captain, if that happens it makes it easier to buy in another #9 and put Rooney into rotation.
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Unfortunately, easier said than done. This is also the reason why I don't want Jose as manager. Jose will be under pressure to be on the media's side and dropping Rooney is officially a taboo. Imagine trying to sell him. I'm sure Jose was seriously interested in Rooney before Moyes tattood Rooney on our backs.
Poch, is under no such pressure and has a serial reputation for dropping and offing players that aren't cutting it.
 
Even if you see Martial as a #9, the only other players we have who can play there are Wilson, Will Keane and Rooney, so yeah, definitely.
 
I'm pretty sure Jose would have no problem dropping or selling Rooney, despite whatever the pundits might say about it.

We absolutely need a top scorer. Lingard and Wilson look to the play the role of squad men, at best.
 
Griezmann and/or Dybala would be my Muppet signing in a front of 3. But they are a bit unrealistic.

So, would you prefer a young striker like Kane/Lukaku or someone in his peak like Aubameyang/Higuain?
 
Aubameyang would be a brilliant signing as he and Martial can play as a #9 and on the wing which means he would cover both positions.
 
Some papers saying we are after the lad from Watford, who has gone completely off the boil. I would rather have Lukaku than him. I hope we aren't going down the cheap, let's produce another Ronaldo route to make loads of money. We should be buying top quality for our benefit. Not buying and developing them to sell to Real Madrid.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Some papers saying we are after the lad from Watford, who has gone completely off the boil. I would rather have Lukaku than him. I hope we aren't going down the cheap, let's produce another Ronaldo route to make loads of money. We should be buying top quality for our benefit. Not buying and developing them to sell to Real Madrid.
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Igalho?
 
He's at about the right level for his abilities, unless he's joining one of the bigger sides as a bench option. If Mourinho takes over it could be real, he does like a domestically experienced striker on the bench - Remy at Chelsea comes to mind.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Absolutely, we need a dependable #9 that can score 20+ goals in the league.
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Without Champions League football. Which players do you think would like to join us? I think Lukaku could be an option.
 
I think this is the narrowest market this summer regarding the positions we need to buy in.

Kane - No chance Spurs sell and I doubt he'd want to leave
Lukaku - The price will be eye watering but I think Everton would sell
Aubameyang - Much the same story as Kane and wants to play in Spain anyway
Higuain - Has had his best season to date but the Napoli president is a Levy and the price would be too high for his age
Morata - Hasn't done as well this season but is talented and I think Juve might sell
Icardi - Limited, overpriced and comes with a rubber stamped dodgy personality
Batshuayi - Second top scorer in Ligue 1 but in truth I don't think he'd offer us more than just playing Martial as a #9
Ibrahimovic - Free and still good, plus he wouldn't stall our younger players development, age might put the board off though given his astronomical wages
 
Out of those I'd go for Lukaku; most attainable option, Prem-proven, physical and still only 22.

17 in 38 for WBA (age 19)
16 in 33 for Everton (age 20)
20 in 48 for Everton (age 21)
23 in 35 for Everton (age 22) - So far...

As long as we have his kryptonite (McNair) there's no reason he can't do this for us.
 
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Has to be Lukaku. Everton are wallowing and must be reasonably unattractive to him at this point. He has all the attributes we desperately need in a forward, is proven, is a perfect age...it just has to be him.

We utterly lack the ability to clear our lines at present. None of our strikers have a snowballs-in-hell of controlling high balls/clearances. None of our strikers are able to 'bully' defenders into worrying about those physical battles. Outside of Leicester and City - who are built perfectly for how they play football - no major team has as weak a strike force as we do. I mean physically weak. And both of those teams have a backup who can mix it up (Ulluoa and Bony).

Look at the damage players like Ighalo/Deeney, Costa, Lukaku, even Kane and Giroud are able to do just being a 'presence'. Since Rooney lost his legs, we've completely lacked that.

It's just another testament to how badly built our forward line is.
 
Beachryan said:
Has to be Lukaku. Everton are wallowing and must be reasonably unattractive to him at this point. He has all the attributes we desperately need in a forward, is proven, is a perfect age...it just has to be him.

We utterly lack the ability to clear our lines at present. None of our strikers have a snowballs-in-hell of controlling high balls/clearances. None of our strikers are able to 'bully' defenders into worrying about those physical battles. Outside of Leicester and City - who are built perfectly for how they play football - no major team has as weak a strike force as we do. I mean physically weak. And both of those teams have a backup who can mix it up (Ulluoa and Bony).

Look at the damage players like Ighalo/Deeney, Costa, Lukaku, even Kane and Giroud are able to do just being a 'presence'. Since Rooney lost his legs, we've completely lacked that.

It's just another testament to how badly built our forward line is.
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Agent Saha said this a couple hours ago; :drool::drool::drool::drool:

"And definitely he will bring something to the United side because he is strong, he has got that presence to trouble the central defenders.

"With someone like Lukaku on United's side, especially his presence around the box, along with [Anthony] Martial playing on the left and [Wayne] Rooney also linking with Lukaku, it will be great.

"It would be nice to have him at United. In terms of strikers, in terms of options, in terms of diversity and attacking options, Lukaku will be a right fit for."
 
I would prefer to see Martial as our future #9 and just sign someone for cover/competition.
 
No Lukaku. Too inconsistent. 0,2,0,0,0,0,2,1,0,0,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,0,2,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,1 in PL this season. Sure he has 18 in 28, but he has scored in just 14 games and apart from the 7 game run, he has had too long droughts. 4 and 5 games is too long for a top quality striker, rather what is more worrying is 2 droughts in the same season with 10 games left to play
 
If we want to compete with biggest clubs that got Messi or Lewandowski as main sting then you probably know the answer.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Agent Saha said this a couple hours ago; :drool::drool::drool::drool:

"And definitely he will bring something to the United side because he is strong, he has got that presence to trouble the central defenders.

"With someone like Lukaku on United's side, especially his presence around the box, along with [Anthony] Martial playing on the left and [Wayne] Rooney also linking with Lukaku, it will be great.

"It would be nice to have him at United. In terms of strikers, in terms of options, in terms of diversity and attacking options, Lukaku will be a right fit for."
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Buzz Kill!
 
anant said:
No Lukaku. Too inconsistent. 0,2,0,0,0,0,2,1,0,0,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,0,2,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,1 in PL this season. Sure he has 18 in 28, but he has scored in just 14 games and apart from the 7 game run, he has had too long droughts. 4 and 5 games is too long for a top quality striker, rather what is more worrying is 2 droughts in the same season with 10 games left to play
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To be fair, he is 22. He is obviously still going to be inconsistent.

He has the intelligence and technique to be a 25-30 goal a season player with a functioning team around him. He won't be an Aguero or a Suarez to dribble round the whole team and score but he will bring goals. We will have Martial/Depay for that anyway.
 
anant said:
No Lukaku. Too inconsistent. 0,2,0,0,0,0,2,1,0,0,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,0,2,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,1 in PL this season. Sure he has 18 in 28, but he has scored in just 14 games and apart from the 7 game run, he has had too long droughts. 4 and 5 games is too long for a top quality striker, rather what is more worrying is 2 droughts in the same season with 10 games left to play
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I think you're being harsh. How many top strikers don't go through one or two lulls a season? 4 and 5 is hardly significant.

I'm pretty sure even in RvPs last season under Fergie he had a goalless streak.
 
HabeasC said:
To be fair, he is 22. He is obviously still going to be inconsistent.

He has the intelligence and technique to be a 25-30 goal a season player with a functioning team around him. He won't be an Aguero or a Suarez to dribble round the whole team and score but he will bring goals. We will have Martial/Depay for that anyway.
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Yes, but Lukaku is someone who basically has good seasons and bad seasons and not just good and bad couple of games

Smores said:
I think you're being harsh. How many top strikers don't go through one or two lulls a season? 4 and 5 is hardly significant.

I'm pretty sure even in RvPs last season under Fergie he had a goalless streak.
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Again 1 run. Here we are talking 2 runs in 28 games in a side that knows only how to attack and playing with a lone striker
 
Smores said:
I think you're being harsh. How many top strikers don't go through one or two lulls a season? 4 and 5 is hardly significant.

I'm pretty sure even in RvPs last season under Fergie he had a goalless streak.
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Yeah and it depends what his other contributions during those 4-5 game lulls were? Any assists? Etc.
 
Ish said:
Yeah and it depends what his other contributions during those 4-5 game lulls were? Any assists? Etc.
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In the 4 game drought 0 assists, in the 5 game drought 1 assist in the 1st match of the drought
 
Dong Fangzhuo said:
I would prefer to see Martial as our future #9 and just sign someone for cover/competition.
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But if we don't get a reliable option then we won't have success and by the time he turns good he will do a Van Persie on us in pursuit of trophies. We can't hold the rest of the team back on account of one player.
 
Devil may care said:
I think this is the narrowest market this summer regarding the positions we need to buy in.

Kane - No chance Spurs sell and I doubt he'd want to leave
Lukaku - The price will be eye watering but I think Everton would sell
Aubameyang - Much the same story as Kane and wants to play in Spain anyway
Higuain - Has had his best season to date but the Napoli president is a Levy and the price would be too high for his age
Morata - Hasn't done as well this season but is talented and I think Juve might sell
Icardi - Limited, overpriced and comes with a rubber stamped dodgy personality
Batshuayi - Second top scorer in Ligue 1 but in truth I don't think he'd offer us more than just playing Martial as a #9
Ibrahimovic - Free and still good, plus he wouldn't stall our younger players development, age might put the board off though given his astronomical wages
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In my opinion Ibrahimovic is our best choice. In 1 or 2 years, we can go for a new forward.

I know some of them are unrealistic but what's your opinion on Dybala, Muller, Embolo, Cavani, Griezmann, Fekir, Dembele, Lacazette and Vietto?
 
Fer said:
In my opinion Ibrahimovic is our best choice. In 1 or 2 years, we can go for a new forward.

I know some of them are unrealistic but what's your opinion on Dybala, Muller, Embolo, Cavani, Griezmann, Fekir, Dembele, Lacazette and Vietto?
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Dybala is fantastic, the next elite talent IMO, but more of a #10/SS than a #9. Muller likewise is not a #9 but obviously a world class forward. Embolo has potential but is the same age as Rashford. Never rated Cavani, he needs way too many chances to register. Griezmann and Fekir are both class, the former is probably in the top 10 forwards in the world right now, different roles to the one we are discussing here though IMO. I've never seen Dembele play and Vietto and Lacazette have both struggled to push on this season but Vietto is young and has time to develop further.
 
Ish said:
That is a proper drought :nervous:

You have his chances missed stats as well anant?
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No mate, if I will be able to find them, would post them
 
RonaldoVII said:
What happened to Lacazette after breaking through last season? Gone off the boil?
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He's had back issues and the whole Lyon team struggled in the first part of the season. Now OL and him are picking up form and I can see him getting close to 20 league goals by the end of the season.
 
Ish said:
That is a proper drought :nervous:

You have his chances missed stats as well anant?
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Drought 1 4 Game
Shots: 12
Shots on target: 4
Shots off Target+ Shots Blocked: 8 (1 on woodwork)


Drought 2 5 game (including the assist game)
Shots: 16
Shots on target: 1
Shots off Target+ Shots Blocked: 15

And note that this does not include the performance in the 1-0 loss vs WBA which came a week after his 2nd drought ended- 2 shots and both of them blocked

Stats from https://www.whoscored.com/Players/78498/Fixtures/Romelu-Lukaku
 
do we still need a number 9...in a season where Rooney has pretty much been missing, Martial has probably shown better form as a winger, and Rashford has played 4 games...

erm...yes we do.
 
anant said:
Drought 1 4 Game
Shots: 12
Shots on target: 4
Shots off Target+ Shots Blocked: 8 (1 on woodwork)


Drought 2 5 game (including the assist game)
Shots: 16
Shots on target: 1
Shots off Target+ Shots Blocked: 15

And note that this does not include the performance in the 1-0 loss vs WBA which came a week after his 2nd drought ended- 2 shots and both of them blocked

Stats from https://www.whoscored.com/Players/78498/Fixtures/Romelu-Lukaku
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Many thanks for the effort man. Appreciated.
 
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