We need a striker.

Valencia Shin Crosses said:
I have no idea how people can watch us and think "yeah we need ANOTHER striker, these lot don't bang in enough goals" when our entire attacking approach seems to come from the wings. If anything we need a Nico Williams in that Rashford spot.
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True. Watching our wingers fail time and time again to beat a single is frustrating as hell. We are creating feck all.
 
pcaming said:
No we need a winger, in the mould of Nico Williams (or just him in general). None of ours can beat a man
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Tbf, at one point Rashford did a kick and chase and completely burned his man. But, then stopped on the ball and allowed Brighton to recover and then he played the ball back to Dalot. It seems we can't beat ourselves let alone another man.
 
goldenballs said:
To be honest. I would give Dalot a shot at being a winger before Rashford.
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Seems Dalot crosses better on his weak foot than Rashford does on his strong f... Actually, I cant remember the last time he crossed a ball.
 
Todd said:
What we've seen for the past year is why when a world class striker like Kane becomes available you break the bank to bring him in, because he's a sure thing.

It's so frustrating going into every weekend knowing that City have a striker like Haaland who is more or less guaranteed to get a goal and we have nobody who can finish off chances properly.
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Haaland works because City are guaranteed to create chances. He would look completely ordinary for us.
Højlund had the highest conversion rate or something in the league last year, but a lot of his goals weren't assisted by a team mate.

C'est Moi Cantona said:
I think people have forgotten what it's like to have a proper reliable striker, and so somehow think we don't need one for some reason.

Everyone sees that Chelsea struggle alot because they don't have a top striker to put the ball in the net regularly, but yet some are happy for us to go into the season without one.
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Chelsea's issue last year wasn't creating chances, it was that Jackson, Mudryk and whoever had to finish them.
Our issue is the opposite. Our wide players either slow the play down, meaning the opposition gets back into shape, or look to create an angle for themselves to finish about three times before they try to play in someone else. Whoever tries to make a run for them to pick up will have to make multiple moves while quickly running out of useful space to get into. Or they have to guess the correct amount of times the wide player is going to try their own luck before passing. Strikers won't thrive here until we have players other than Bruno who wants to pass it on their first or second touch.
 
I just think this view is so unbelievably outdated and over simplistic. You could stick Haaland in this side and he wouldn’t function properly. Hojland can finish, give him chances and he will score, but we just don’t create. What’s the real issue? Our wingers! Our wingers would not look out of place in a mid table side. I don’t want to be too harsh on Amad and Garnacho because they are clearly very talented and could end up being top level players, but as it stands currently, they are just nowhere near the level of our rivals. Arsenal are one of the best in the league because Saka is world class and Martinelli and Trossard are excellent. Liverpool are still a very good team because Salah is still world class. This Man Utd side isn’t missing a Haaland, it’s missing a Vinicius, a Saka, a Salah. Our very best sides have always had world class wingers and all the best sides do. I think there’s a massive proportion of fans who just go we don’t score goals = we need a striker without realising the most important players in world football currently are wide players.

Rashford is the elephant in the room. I’ve said for years he’s nowhere near his contemporaries at other sides and he’s paid more than them. If we had serious ambition, he would have been shifted out this summer to make room for Leo or Williams. Both would have the single biggest transformative effect on our side, far more than any striker in world football. But alas, Rashford is the poster boy, a local lad and has at times shown he can score goals so we are stuck with him. We won’t become a top team again without at least one bonafide world class wide player.
 
This “it’s our wingers” vs “it’s our strikers” chat is odd when I think it’s a little bit of both. Not including Zirkzee here as he’s just got here, but last season Hojlund didn’t seem to have very good positioning, but our wingers also seem very reluctant to take their man on and get the ball in.

Amad tried it today and ended up with a goal, so clearly they can do it. But usually they’ll get the ball and immediately turn around and see if there’s a fullback they can give it to. Ideally one of ours, but they’ll also give it to an opposition player.

A new striker might help, but we need our wingers to be more aggressive. To actually attack.
 
Insanity said:
We do. Should get Toney.
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I like Toney he’s a very good player, but as with Hojland and Zirkzee, people would be in for a massive shock when he doesn’t end up having any impact on our goals scored column. Midfield and maybe more importantly our wide players hold us back far far more than any single striker.
 
Minkaro said:
This “it’s our wingers” vs “it’s our strikers” chat is odd when I think it’s a little bit of both. Not including Zirkzee here as he’s just got here, but last season Hojlund didn’t seem to have very good positioning, but our wingers also seem very reluctant to take their man on and get the ball in.

Amad tried it today and ended up with a goal, so clearly they can do it. But usually they’ll get the ball and immediately turn around and see if there’s a fullback they can give it to. Ideally one of ours, but they’ll also give it to an opposition player.

A new striker might help, but we need our wingers to be more aggressive. To actually attack.
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The difference between Hojland and Haaland is far less than the difference between Rashford and Saka, or Rashford and Bernardo silva/foden. The gulf in quality is so vast in those key positions. World class attackers win you games and I can’t think of a single great team that didn’t have at least one world class winger. We don’t have a single player even close to that level.
 
Maagge said:
Haaland works because City are guaranteed to create chances. He would look completely ordinary for us.
Højlund had the highest conversion rate or something in the league last year, but a lot of his goals weren't assisted by a team mate.


Chelsea's issue last year wasn't creating chances, it was that Jackson, Mudryk and whoever had to finish them.
Our issue is the opposite. Our wide players either slow the play down, meaning the opposition gets back into shape, or look to create an angle for themselves to finish about three times before they try to play in someone else. Whoever tries to make a run for them to pick up will have to make multiple moves while quickly running out of useful space to get into. Or they have to guess the correct amount of times the wide player is going to try their own luck before passing. Strikers won't thrive here until we have players other than Bruno who wants to pass it on their first or second touch.
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Exactly! That's THE problem, if you don't get prime Ronaldo to play up front for us now, everyone else is going to struggle. Hojlund did extremely well last season in front of goal (and I don't even rate him that high overall).

This thread completely misses the root cause of our problems.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
The difference between Hojland and Haaland is far less than the difference between Rashford and Saka, or Rashford and Bernardo silva/foden. The gulf in quality is so vast in those key positions. World class attackers win you games and I can’t think of a single great team that didn’t have at least one world class winger. We don’t have a single player even close to that level.
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100 percent.
 
We need a striker like Watkins who puts away every chance he gets.
 
AltiUn said:
We need wingers too, our attack isn't anywhere near good or productive enough.
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He keeps playing Rashford.
Garnacho was playing some of our best football and he's gone and dropped him for Rashford who hasn't had a good game for months now.
 
mitchmouse said:
we don't have a recognised goal-scorer... an actual No.9 which is a disgrace for the most famous club in the world
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I have a secret for you - we are also not the most famous club in the world. That would be Real and Barca ahead of us

And we do have recognized goal scorer, his name Hojlund and he scored the most amount of goals last season despite getting virtually no assists. And he had highest chance completions in all of EPL but some people are still crying about Watkins, because some people love to pretend grass is always greener on the other side
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
I have no idea how people can watch us and think "yeah we need ANOTHER striker, these lot don't bang in enough goals" when our entire attacking approach seems to come from the wings. If anything we need a Nico Williams in that Rashford spot.
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Thread
 
I cant believe we havent signed a proper number 9 since Van Persie other than ageing stars like Zlatan, Cavani, and Ronaldo and now we are desperate for goals and have no one to score them because those in charge have neglected this area of the team.

I hope we at least try to bring in someone on loan before the deadline because 1 goal every game isnt going to cut it.
 
AltiUn said:
We need wingers too, our attack isn't anywhere near good or productive enough.
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We really do not need wingers. Garnacho and Amad are both special talents… Rashford Sancho and Anthony on the bench .

A DM and CF are priorities in that order.
 
RedRocket9908 said:
I cant believe we havent signed a proper number 9 since Van Persie other than ageing stars like Zlatan, Cavani, and Ronaldo and now we are desperate for goals and have no one to score them because those in charge have neglected this area of the team.

I hope we at least try to bring in someone on loan before the deadline because 1 goal every game isnt going to cut it.
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We have hes called Hujlund.
 
RedIan said:
We really do not need wingers. Garnacho and Amad are both special talents… Rashford Sancho and Anthony on the bench .

A DM and CF are priorities in that order.
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I think CF is near the bottom of our priorities. Honestly wouldn't make much difference.
 
The fact that Welbeck can still do a job for us would show you how much we;re lacking in striker options

long were the days we used to have 4 top strikers - cole, york, ole and teddy. We're also really light in midfield.
 
RedRocket9908 said:
Urgarte and Rabiot for Midfield, Toney on loan with an option or obligation to buy for Striker
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Toney won't make much difference at all, he's hardly prolific. Rabiot is both problematic and not the type we need, there is a reason he hasn't been picked up for free.
 
Hammondo said:
Toney won't make much difference at all, he's hardly prolific. Rabiot is both problematic and not the type we need, there is a reason he hasn't been picked up for free.
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What counts as prolific? In his last full season Ivan got 20 goals in 33 appearances.

In what way is Rabiot problematic and if he is why have Liverpool been trying to sign him?
 
croadyman said:
So what would then?
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That's tough. I have rewritten this message a few times. Hard to answer because we are in the middle of different styles (in terms of players), and it depends which direction you want to go.

If he wants this really direct fast attack, fast counter attack style then you need the wide players to do it, they are far more important than a CF.

If you actually want some control you need to ditch Bruno and get 2 CMs (1 DM and one controlling player).
 
RedRocket9908 said:
What counts as prolific? In his last full season Ivan got 20 goals in 33 appearances.

In what way is Rabiot problematic and if he is why have Liverpool been trying to sign him?
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First season 12 in 33.
Last season 4 in 17 (no idea how many starts).

He's had 1 season of 20 in 33, which is good.

This is not some amazing record.

I have no read anywhere they have approached him, no contract offers. Just normal paper talk (Rabiot).
 
Hammondo said:
That's tough. I have rewritten this message a few times. Hard to answer because we are in the middle of different styles (in terms of players), and it depends which direction you want to go.

If he wants this really direct fast attack, fast counter attack style then you need the wide players to do it, they are far more important than a CF.

If you actually want some control you need to ditch Bruno and get 2 CMs (1 DM and one controlling player).
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Well he won't ever ditch Bruno so you can forget the second one, can also rule out the first because can't find anyone to take Rashford and Antony to get Williams & another
 
croadyman said:
Well he won't ever ditch Bruno so you can forget the second one, can also rule out the first because can't find anyone to take Rashford and Antony to get Williams
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We are fecked. I guess you give up on midfield and make yourself as solid as possible at the back, we would need a very defensive DM and fullbacks that don't go forward too much.
 
Hammondo said:
We are fecked. I guess you give up on midfield and make yourself as solid as possible at the back, we would need a very defensive DM and fullbacks that don't go forward too much.
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We desperately need to buy two players this week if only just to get some positive feeling again. Surely there is a proven goalscorer we can pick up just to see us through to January or summer
 
croadyman said:
We desperately need to buy two players this week if only just to get some positive feeling again. Surely there is a proven goalscorer we can pick up just to see us through to January or summer
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We don't make chances.
 
False 9 shit hardly ever works consistently. More something you can bust out every once in a while
 
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