The positive spin for Manchester United as their shyness in front of goal continues at the start of this season is that Erik ten Hag has one of the club’s former greats on hand to try and correct the problem.
United have scored just five goals in their first five Premier League matches — three of those came in one match against Southampton — and their waywardness in the final third was on show again in Thursday’s 1-1 Europa League draw to FC Twente.
It is clear that their tally must drastically increase should Ten Hag’s team have any plans of making in-roads this season.
It is therefore apt that this summer Ten Hag brought in Ruud van Nistelrooy, who is ninth on United’s all-time top scorers’ list, to coach the forwards in the squad. The appointment may not have immediately borne fruit, but United’s season largely depends on the former striker’s ability to get a tune out of the attacking players.
Van Nistelrooy, who scored 95 goals in 150 appearances across six seasons at United, must currently be watching from the dugout and only wishing to be on the end of some of the moves that the team are creating but contriving to score from. It is now his job to diagnose and fix the underlying issues.
United’s lack of goals is nothing new; it has been problematic since Ten Hag took over. They scored 58 in his first campaign while last term they managed 57, which is a total dwarfed by those managed by Manchester City and Arsenal (over 90); Liverpool and Newcastle United (over 80); and Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea (over 70).
Focus may have been placed on United’s propensity to concede chances and goals as they slumped to eighth position last season, however, their lethalness in front of goal has been diminished for some time and has been most marked in the opening month or so of this campaign.
United’s Expected Goals (xG) measure from their first five league outings is 9.53, which is only behind City on 11.44 and Liverpool on 10.1, and they have missed seven ‘big chances’, which is a league high. It shows that Ten Hag’s team are creating but not finishing their chances.
There are mitigating factors — something which Ten Hag is never afraid to point out — with Rasmus Hojlund having only returned to action this week after injury, but Joshua Zirkzee, the £36.5 million summer signing, has not filled the void in his absence.
The Dutch striker has not scored since his debut goal against Fulham on the opening day of the season despite starting three of the subsequent four league games.
Ten Hag undeterred by Zirkzee's slow start
Despite the slow start — and being responsible for missing four of those seven ‘big chances’ — Ten Hag has said that he believes he can turn the 23-year-old into a “prolific” striker who can solve the team’s goalscoring problems.
Zirkzee is one of the players Van Nistelrooy has been focusing on at the Carrington training centre, spending time one-on-one with the former Bologna forward to analyse and review his performances.
Marcus Rashford, who ended a 12-game goalless run at Southampton before being dropped/rotated for last weekend’s draw against Crystal Palace, has shown glimpses of his old self with some decisive runs in recent weeks and will be another player Van Nistelrooy has a keen eye on.
Amad Diallo has quite literally been hit and miss despite being given a run in the side, Alejandro Garnacho was eased back into the team after a busy summer and is not back up to speed yet, while Bruno Fernandes has, arguably, been United’s most out-of-form player.
The United captain lost possession 34 times in last weekend’s goalless draw at Selhurst Park and that is the most by any player in the league so far this season. United’s attacks have faltered as a result of their playmaker’s untimely duff displays.
United did put seven past League One side Barnsley in the Carabao Cup but that aside it is clear where their shortcomings have been up to now.
“We are not scoring enough goals. That is the problem, the key area,” said Ten Hag, who described his team’s underwhelming start to the season as a “blip” and also questioned the “hunger” of his players after the Twente game.
“We have to score more goals as a team; we have players across the team who have the ability to score, that is clear, and with all the opportunities we are creating, we are not scoring enough. It is not only up to them [strikers Zirkzee and Hojlund] but other players we have across the frontline who can score goals.”
The problem for Ten Hag is that time is of the essence. Promising jam tomorrow has been a feature of his time at United so far, but having narrowly kept his job during Ineos’s first summer in charge of football operations, the United manager could have done with a strong start to the new campaign.
Instead, it has been mixed — similar to his tenure as a whole — and this upcoming week ahead of the international break includes the hosting of Tottenham in the league on Sunday, a visit to Aston Villa eight days later and a trip to Porto in the Europa League in between.
Familiar questions will start rearing their heads again should United not start hitting the target soon.
