Could have signed Kane, didn't even try
We are not going to score enough goals
- Thread starter careca07
- Start date
Behave. It's pretty obvious we'd have gone there but Levy wouldn't have it.
Yes we did
I can't explain it succinctly, but...it feels like we're trying to fluke goals. The general idea is get the ball in midfield and hope that something happens somewhere that eventually leads to a goal. We don't seem to naturally attack the opposition in the same way that other teams do it. There's no fluidity to it. The football doesn't look pretty and it doesn't result in goals. It's the worst of both worlds.
I agree - we have no actual build up. We also seem to lose the ball/give the ball away more than any team I have ever seen.
We are reliant on a moment of individual skill to get a goal, rather than a style of play that manufactures chances.
Hojlund needs to be starting the net game. Not gonna be time to ease him in sadly.
But even if he hits the ground running our wingers don't score enough
But even if he hits the ground running our wingers don't score enough
This for me is the issue!
United should have been ahead against Spurs (22 Shots)
Which in turn makes the game easy to play as Spurs would need to over commit.
Hopefully Martial can play soon because he is the only one who can hold up the ball.
United should have been ahead against Spurs (22 Shots)
Which in turn makes the game easy to play as Spurs would need to over commit.
Hopefully Martial can play soon because he is the only one who can hold up the ball.
He can. But he can't score goals either so that's a problem
I know it apparently makes me a dinosaur but signing a keeper to transform the team into an attacking force was at best, never going to be a short fix.
You can see difference his distribution makes but when the end product is reliant on players who carry virtually no goal threat at the moment it’s not going to change much.
Obviously it should be a moral decision and not a footballing one but its very very easy to see why the footballing side of United supposedly wanted to bring Greenwood back.
Our attack is toothless and needs every bit of help it can get.
Probably should have just tried to sell him so we could buy another attacker.
Our attack is toothless and needs every bit of help it can get.
Probably should have just tried to sell him so we could buy another attacker.
Yeah and Kane has admitted since he was only interested in joining a team would could compete for trophies. Yes I know we won Carabao last season but that wasn't enough for him
Eth may as well stick slab head up top again at this rate, this feels like the van gaal second season all over again where we looked terribly goal shy
It's a fecking joke. We are so limited in attack it's laughable.
Hojlund is going to need easing in and we simply aren't in a position to do that. We are still totally reliant on Rashford hitting a purple patch again. Without it, last season would have been meh.
Hojlund is going to need easing in and we simply aren't in a position to do that. We are still totally reliant on Rashford hitting a purple patch again. Without it, last season would have been meh.
I almost made a new thread on this, but we've had 37 shots in the first two games of the campaign. Thirty seven.
And we've got one goal, scored by a centre back.
That's a problem we had last season too. We've FACED something like 40 shots as well, so we are a little lucky to have three points at all, but we are gonna need to convert some of those chances or we are in for a long season. Hojlund is gonna get chances, for sure, we need him to score them.
And we've got one goal, scored by a centre back.
That's a problem we had last season too. We've FACED something like 40 shots as well, so we are a little lucky to have three points at all, but we are gonna need to convert some of those chances or we are in for a long season. Hojlund is gonna get chances, for sure, we need him to score them.
Ludicrously small sample size obviously, but it's 1 goal from 4.2 xG across the first two games.
Which usually you'd point to as a sort-of positive, because you could simply say we've been a bit unlucky in terms of finishing and could have easily got more from those games. It's certainly better that we created those chances and didn't take them rather than not create them at all.
In a context where around 65% of our squad underperformed their xG last season though, it's definitely frustrating. Generally you'd expect it not to last and for them to start converting better through sheer variance, any day now...
Which usually you'd point to as a sort-of positive, because you could simply say we've been a bit unlucky in terms of finishing and could have easily got more from those games. It's certainly better that we created those chances and didn't take them rather than not create them at all.
In a context where around 65% of our squad underperformed their xG last season though, it's definitely frustrating. Generally you'd expect it not to last and for them to start converting better through sheer variance, any day now...
I've been looking for the xG stats myself, 4.2 with one goal is absolutely shocking but sounds about right. One positive I suppose is that Onana has been a clear upgrade at least so far. The other is that eventually they do even out to SOME extent. But it's bad JuJu even at the start of a season we deserve to see progress in.
This will be our downfall this season. It was the reason we couldn’t mount a title challenge last year and ended up in a top 4 battle and it will be exactly the same this year. We chose to buy mount and hojlund for a total of £130m. Don’t tell me we couldn’t have landed a world class forward for that. And if we had I guarantee we would have been in a far stronger position than we currently are.
On another day we had 3 goals yesterday.
1. The penalty.
2. The biggest sitter from Bruno with that header.
3. The shot against the post from Anthony.
We have had a terrible start but it’s not the crises that so many are making out. Let the window close first.
1. The penalty.
2. The biggest sitter from Bruno with that header.
3. The shot against the post from Anthony.
We have had a terrible start but it’s not the crises that so many are making out. Let the window close first.
We are going to be saying the same about a lot of teams I think. Chelsea are in the exact same position, I think Spurs will ultimately lack goals this season, Liverpool are still waiting on Darwin to take the next step.
There is only one world class striker in the league and it shows. There are going to be a hell of a lot of games like the United/Spurs and Chelsea/West Ham games this season, if teams can't generate goals in line with the amount of chances they are creating.
We just have to hope Hojlund is ready for the step up basically immediately.
There is only one world class striker in the league and it shows. There are going to be a hell of a lot of games like the United/Spurs and Chelsea/West Ham games this season, if teams can't generate goals in line with the amount of chances they are creating.
We just have to hope Hojlund is ready for the step up basically immediately.
That would be fine if this was a one off occurrence and wasn't a long term issue.. We just don't have enough players who can be trusted in front of goal.
It’s only two games in but I’ve just read that only Brighton and Newcastle have created more big chances in front of goal than United. The difference, obviously, is that they’ve put some of theirs away. So hopefully somehting to be a little positive about.
I think McT would be a better option up front than Rashford, I really do. If neither Martial or Hojlund aren’t fit to start next weekend then we need to change it around.
We have created good chances and, just like last season, have failed to put them away. Goal scoring is our achillies heel and once we start banging them in, we will be fine.
We have created good chances and, just like last season, have failed to put them away. Goal scoring is our achillies heel and once we start banging them in, we will be fine.
Chance creation wasn't a huge issue last season. Arsenal only had 4.61 xG more than United over the course of the season (and that was entirely from pens and corners, open play xG was the same). They scored 15% above their xG, we scored 19% below our xG.
Actually even going on the teams who had more xG than us last season, here are their open play xG's:
- City - 64.9 (84.32 total)
- Liverpool - 62.71 (80.77 total)
- Brighton - 65.61 (77.72 total)
- Newcastle - 52.52 (76.98 total)
- Arsenal - 63.94 (76.51 total)
- United - 63.09 (71.90 total)
Edit: Actually also looking at our defensive numbers, open play is right there with Newcastle and Arsenal, but our set piece defending drags us way down. City is clear at the top defensively though.
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He was not on sale to United. We were made pretty clear on that very early.
One could argue that 150M or more could have done the trick. But that would be insane.
One would think we want to compete with City/Arsenal/Newcastle and not Spurs/Chelsea. At least keep our ambitions high.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.c.../mason-greenwood-live-man-united-27564066.amp
The correct decision, he’s gone.
The correct decision, he’s gone.
He should go abroad.
Club statement doesn't necessarily mean he's being sold/released though. All it says is he will recommence his career away from OT, so could be a loan.
Yeah good post. It’s clearer more than ever. It could be a loooong season for us
Until an hour ago, I, along with the United hierarchy, were assuming that we would have a 20 goal a season contribution coming from the right wing. Now with the back-tracking news that Greenwood is not coming back, we need another striker before the season starts (which we needed anyway), and an upgrade on Antony for a truly world class right winger. Orban would be an exciting striker as an alternative to Hojlund. We are fine with Rashford and Garnacho on the left, but there is a massive dearth of great right wingers. There is a guy at Arsenal who is ok, but who are the world class right wingers??? Most of the good wingers seem to play on the left.
Everybody wants a striker. Spurs with over 100 million in their pocket. PSG with unlimited funds.
Chelsea who have no price which is too high.
It’s not happening. Juventus and Inter. Where do we get a decent and cheap striker?
I think Arsenal are still TBC as well, to be fair. Not sure they can continue relying on Saka worldies to bail them out this season.
This is the worst set of attackers we've ever had in the PL. So little threat.
It’s baffling we spent £100m on Onana and Mount when we clearly needed goals.
Goals were not to be ‘bought’ as much as they need to be coached. ANY centre forward with a top goalscoring record will almost certainly reduce their output once they join us. Ten Hag is clueless. The team doesn’t manipulate space, create enough opportunities, make off the ball runs - nothing. Just pass, stop, pass, stop - 50 yard switch from left to right and start again. Against a team that is camped and ready to once we get somewhere dangerous.
Have our players made one overlapping/underlapping run whole game? heard this is a good way to break down low block defenses....
Wolves have scored more goals than us this season...just let that sink in
Yeah, it was there to see.
Rashford's freak season was never going to be replicated.
Garnacho is a big potential for sure.
Hojlund I know nothing about, still too early to form an opinion.
All our other options are anywhere between 'meh' and trash.
It's one of the weakest attacking lines we had in quite some time.
Rashford's freak season was never going to be replicated.
Garnacho is a big potential for sure.
Hojlund I know nothing about, still too early to form an opinion.
All our other options are anywhere between 'meh' and trash.
It's one of the weakest attacking lines we had in quite some time.
Our goals mainly come from unlikely sources, any chance we could get some from our attacking 4 positions (any of the 8 players that could play there) any time soon?