Why can't United score goals?

fallengt

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Jul 27, 2011
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xG seems alright-ish for the major parts but team is always under perform the stat. United can have xG 5.0 but it doesn't look like players would ever score even if match went on for two hours. Why?
Is it manager's job to tell how should they do off the ball run or it's coaching staff's job? Because it's theme since LvG till this day. Ole had one freak season that the team score more than 70 league goals and that was about it.
 
fallengt said:
xG seems alright-ish for the major parts but team is always under perform the stat. United can have xG 5.0 but it doesn't look like players would ever score even if match went on for two hours. Why?
Is it manager's job to tell how should they do off the ball run or it's coaching staff's job? Because it's theme since LvG till this day. Ole had one freak season that the team score more than 70 league goals and that was about it.
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I don’t think Oles was a freak season. He encouraged them to take shots. If you look at moyes, Lvg, Jose. Each season was getting worse, for chances and goals scored. Too many managers not embracing what it means to be a United manager where attacking football is king
 
golden_blunder said:
I don’t think Oles was a freak season. He encouraged them to take shots. If you look at moyes, Lvg, Jose. Each season was getting worse, for chances and goals scored. Too many managers not embracing what it means to be a United manager where attacking football is king
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Yeah Ole had us taking early shots and got the players tuned into shooting when the opportunity was there.

We’re faffing around too much in the last third and teams recover their positions. There was a scenario the other day when Rashford was pretty much through (or 1v1) but dithered and by the time he took a shot there were five defenders back.

There’s not quite enough movement from the front players and the guy on the ball doesn’t have quite enough options.

This can all change with practice and the confidence that comes from scoring and winning. Just need to get going with a couple of good wins, somehow.
 
Because our players aren't great at football.

We can debate tactics but we've consistently had a team that can compete for top 4 and that's it. We're not a top team anymore. I've accepted that and now football doesn't frustrate me.
 
fallengt said:
xG seems alright-ish for the major parts but team is always under perform the stat. United can have xG 5.0 but it doesn't look like players would ever score even if match went on for two hours. Why?
Is it manager's job to tell how should they do off the ball run or it's coaching staff's job? Because it's theme since LvG till this day. Ole had one freak season that the team score more than 70 league goals and that was about it.
Click to expand...

We're 12th in the league for XG.
 
We have one ’reliable’ PL goal scorer who doesn’t create anything for others,
we create very few basic chances for our striker,
our right winger is predictable and a terrible finisher (if available at all),
we have minimal set piece threat.

Compare above to Liverpool who are the polar opposite.

Our xg isn’t alright-ish its 12th best in the league.
 
A slow midfield, an average striker and our two "best" players aren't as good as they or most of the fanbase think.
 
Leftback99 said:
We have one ’reliable’ PL goal scorer who doesn’t create anything for others,
we create very few basic chances for our striker,
our right winger is predictable and a terrible finisher (if available at all),
we have minimal set piece threat.

Compare above to Liverpool who are the polar opposite.

Our xg isn’t alright-ish its 12th best in the league.
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He creates...but he is double triple tagged ..others can't score ..except Bruno..
 
Judas said:
We don’t do the basics well. Terrible movement, poor decision making, average chance creation and finishing.
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Yeah I'd go with this.

You look at teams who score lots of goals or our great teams of the past, it's not usually incredible things happening. Just the basics being done well.
 
I mean if someone can solve this then they would be able to be our manager wouldn't they :lol: Has been arguably our main problem in the entirety of the post SAF era
 
golden_blunder said:
I don’t think Oles was a freak season. He encouraged them to take shots. If you look at moyes, Lvg, Jose. Each season was getting worse, for chances and goals scored. Too many managers not embracing what it means to be a United manager where attacking football is king
Click to expand...
I think attacking-wise we did look a bit more clinical than usual under Ole so I agree but probably not by a lot. It was helped a bit in the league by a suicidal Leeds (6-2) and a nine-man Southampton (9-0). Obviously you still have to score and can only beat what's in front of you but I just remember those games being outrageously easy, not that i was complaining :lol: .

I think the managers have to take some of the blame but the club's planning has been ridiculously bad or risky at times regarding the quality or reliability of the forward line, E.g.,

14-15 - Rooney (more of a midfielder at this point IIRC), Martial, Depay. Rashford got his break only around February i think.
19-20 Martial, Rashford, and Greenwood (all early twenties or younger) . Rashford played on with a back problem because we had no one else and got a serious injury.
23-24- Rashford, Hojlund and Martial

The days of having a strike force like Rooney, Ronaldo and Tevez, or Cole, Yorke, Sheringham and Ole seem a very long time ago. You'd think after two seasons of struggling to score goals we'd have invested a bit more this summer but here we are.
 
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