The lack of goals post-SAF

Eddy_JukeZ

Full Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2012
Messages
17,549
This is our biggest problem after the great man retired.

We simply don't score enough goals in the league.

We've never hit 80 goals since 2012-2013. We only hit 70+ once and that was in 2020-2021. We're currently on pace for only 60 goals. If we get to 70 goals at the end, I think it'd be a great sign of progress too.

I honestly think our biggest target in the summer has to be a goal-scorer.
 
I've said it quite a few times this week or two, we have the lowest amount of goals scored out of the top 9 teams, that's unacceptable and why we were never in a title race.
 
We just haven't signed the right players in general. Players whose touch, choice of pass and weight of pass is good enough.

We've had players who've had certain strengths but they're not rounded enough or don't suit playing with each other.
 
Ole was headed in the right direction on that scale. We were scoring fours and fives more than once a season. And that was until Mendes tricked SAF and brought the ballerina, and everything Ole built fell apart and they kicked the man... I won't everforgive that feckin drama queen.
 
pascell said:
I've said it quite a few times this week or two, we have the lowest amount of goals scored out of the top 9 teams, that's unacceptable and why we were never in a title race.
Click to expand...

Well yeah we don't have a main striker.
 
It's been very poor planning for a long time, although no one could have predicted what would happen with a certain youth player.
 
We haven't signed a proper striker under the age of 45 it feels like since he retired.
 
Irwin99 said:
It's been very poor planning for a long time, although no one could have predicted what would happen with a certain youth player.
Click to expand...

If he wasn't such a (use any expletive here), we probably never spend the 80m+ on Antony that's looking like a dud buy.
 
We bought strikers, a lot of strikers, we don't really do that anymore.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
If he wasn't such a (use any expletive here), we probably never spend the 80m+ on Antony that's looking like a dud buy.
Click to expand...
I'm not even sure he would have been the main number 9 anyway, which is really what we've lacked. I do wish we had that 30 goals a season striker who could be depended on.
 
Pavl3n said:
Ole was headed in the right direction on that scale. We were scoring fours and fives more than once a season. And that was until Mendes tricked SAF and brought the ballerina, and everything Ole built fell apart and they kicked the man... I won't everforgive that feckin drama queen.
Click to expand...

The goals were drying up way before Ronaldo arrived. Much bigger problem that one player.
 
We need a top class striker. Enough with the stop gaps and get a long term one in the summer.
 
Pavl3n said:
Ole was headed in the right direction on that scale. We were scoring fours and fives more than once a season. And that was until Mendes tricked SAF and brought the ballerina, and everything Ole built fell apart and they kicked the man... I won't everforgive that feckin drama queen.
Click to expand...

This. We had more 4-5 goals wins since Fergie's retirement during that period. Plus mason missing.
 
We’ve only really had declining Zlatan and fluctuating Martial here post Fergie. All the rest we signed were finished. Lukaku didn’t fit. That was our one decent stab at it financially and it flopped. We got most of our money back and didn’t reinvest it in the position. No wonder we’ve lagged behind. Instead of signing the likes of expensive misfit Lukaku and old players like Ronaldo we should have been on the look out for the next big thing.
 
Irwin99 said:
It's been very poor planning for a long time, although no one could have predicted what would happen with a certain youth player.
Click to expand...

But that can easily backfire when you put all eggs in one basket. Waiting for players to come good or banking on players to stay fit and available forever will only end in tears.

Under Fergie we had 4 goalscoring strikers in the squad. If 1-2 were missing we still had a couple others who carried the weight. Nowadays we only have about one goalscorer in the squad and there are panic stations when he gets injured or goes off the boil.

I know football positions and formations have changed a fair bit since the Fergie days so you can’t hoard strikers like he used to but the forwards we’re signing just don’t have an appetite for goals. Sancho and Antony we throw 180m at but they contribute with goals once in a blue moon.
 
I agree. Doesn't help that we spunked £80m on a forward that doesn't score or assist many too. We're lacking some serious production in that front line
 
Oh without a doubt, we are a genuine top striker away from being real title challengers. We create a decent amount, but it goes up so much more with a goalscorer. Games like today, the one vs Wolves, vs West Ham, vs Newcastle... Low scoring games that we are in control of, some we win, some we draw. We controled the play in all of them, but failed to get the 2nd goal or 1st vs Newcastle and sometimes we'll get the win, other times we'll drop points. With an elite striker, you simply get the 2nd goal and kill the game earlier, enable the manager to rest players earlier, etc. 1 elite striker like Kane and we genuinely are title challengers.
 
We haven’t had a clinical forward since Van Persie and Rooney declined, basically at the same time. The problem is there aren’t that many out there either
 
Utd finishing last season zero goal difference ….never thought I’d ever see that
 
Pavl3n said:
Ole was headed in the right direction on that scale. We were scoring fours and fives more than once a season. And that was until Mendes tricked SAF and brought the ballerina, and everything Ole built fell apart and they kicked the man... I won't everforgive that feckin drama queen.
Click to expand...

Nah we scored a ton from individual brilliance under Ole, we hardly had the control on games we do in games these days. Problem now is we are unbelievably thin upfront after having one striker turn to shit and leave this year, another one unable to stay fit, and the third being a rapist. Add to that we’ve spent 150m on two wingers that aren’t great goal scorers and yeah you won’t score as often.

But likewise, you score goals from controlling play and dominating territory, and then turning that into good decisions and chance creation. We were terrible at this post SAF, and only now are getting close to the standards of high scoring teams. It will come
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
Nah we scored a ton from individual brilliance under Ole, we hardly had the control on games we do in games these days. Problem now is we are unbelievably thin upfront after having one striker turn to shit and leave this year, another one unable to stay fit, and the third being a rapist. Add to that we’ve spent 150m on two wingers that aren’t great goal scorers and yeah you won’t score as often.

But likewise, you score goals from controlling play and dominating territory, and then turning that into good decisions and chance creation. We were terrible at this post SAF, and only now are getting close to the standards of high scoring teams. It will come
Click to expand...

The term individual brilliance can be used in quite a number of goals even under ETH right? Wasn't Bruno's goal a piece of individual brilliance too? There were plenty of goals that Cantona scored which were individual brilliance. How many of Therriy Henry's goals were individual brilliance?

IMO its a daft term that's being used conveniently. We have had a whole bunch of goals this season that were as you described it individual brilliance.

It all depends on your prism. Potato/Potahto.

And the reality is that life isn't so black & white. Its just being lazy analysis to call the goals under the previous regime due to individual brilliance.

There are different ways of creating opportunities to score goals. Some of it includes isolation play that enables a striker to use open space to beat the defender easier. ETH is doing what we used to do under Ole.

The defender gets the ball back in our own 1/3rd then hits a long diagonal pass to Rashford? Or transit quickly by having someone like Rashford or Ganarcho who are usually isolated upfield break quickly into space.
The main diff in what we are doing under ETH is we have more control of the midfield; he's a better tactician and coach than Ole for sure. But this individual brilliance tag just doesn't hold water. The majority of goals could be attributed or tagged as such.
 
Last edited:
I think it’s a mentality issue as much as anything. We aren’t particularly profligate when the chances come. Too often the players don’t have the mentality to push on for 3 and 4 goals in a game. It’s far better under Ten Hag but there’s still this tendency to drift for 20 minutes of games with the lead and do absolutely nothing when they should be pushing on. Brings teams back into games.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
If he wasn't such a (use any expletive here), we probably never spend the 80m+ on Antony that's looking like a dud buy.
Click to expand...
100%. We needed a left footed attacker. We had a potentially world class one, and have spent 100m on someone who is nowhere close to the same level of talent unfortunately. Really fecked us over that.
 
We can split this into 3 periods:



1) SAF era: Consistently scored about 75+ goals & conceded less than 35 per season.
2) Moyes, LVG, Mourinho era: Trended from scoring 75+ goals per season to 50-55 goals per season. We also did not concede more than the SAF era.
3) Ole era: goals scored tended upward from 55+ to 70+ - while at the same time, goals conceded increased from ~35 to ~55. In a sense, he did try to make us a little bit more exciting than what we previous were but did it in a way that also made us vulnerable leak more goals.

Frankly, call me an Ole fanboy if you wish but the damage done by those three managers is quite significant. It destroyed the very fabric of what we are made of. Ole, while not fully capable of execution, tried to make amends a bit there.

Ten Hag is correcting the holes drilled by Ole in defence, but this is impacting our attacking play in the short run. However, for the first time in ages, there is a plan & method being used to progress.
-> Our defence is sorted out
-> Transition to midfield is rock solid
-> Transition from midfield to forwards is "OK"
-> Attacking play demands a lot to improve on.

I'm quite sure the plan is to build from this base over the next couple of seasons.
 
Pavl3n said:
Ole was headed in the right direction on that scale. We were scoring fours and fives more than once a season. And that was until Mendes tricked SAF and brought the ballerina, and everything Ole built fell apart and they kicked the man... I won't everforgive that feckin drama queen.
Click to expand...

Poor ole. He had this big plan with Carricky. Another 420m later he might have won a trophy as manager. Unfortunately Sir came in alongside Mendes and ruined it.
 
In my opinion there are 3 reasons to that

A- We kept switching managers/football styles. That gave managers/players the excuse they needed as of why they are not performing well. In most cases players were right as the style implemented was either clueless (ex Moyes, LVG and Ole) or incredibly defensive (ex Mou)

B- RVP's and Rooney's downfall was sudden which stripped us of proven strikers who should have served us well for another 2-3 years. We then gave gambled on kids (ie Martial and Rashford) who proved to either be a disappointment or more suited as LWs. Finally we waited for what was considered the best talent coming through since the class of 92. Turned out that he ended up in court.

C- EPL football had changed. Once seen as the most entertaining football in the world the EPL has shifted to a very defensive style of football were most clubs are just happy to end up with a draw against the top sides. It require exceptional players to crack a deep defence with 6-7 players in it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.