Manchester United must go all out to secure the most important piece of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s puzzle
- Manchester United are desperately short of firepower up top and the club needs to make the biggest signing of the post-Ferguson era to return to the top
- Edinson Cavani has done a job and it’s crop of promising youngsters might one day be the answer, but a shorter-term solution is needed
Manchester United boast fast, exciting and young forwards, yet don’t have an established centre forward, a top goalscorer. Edinson Cavani could have been that man this season, but he’s started only seven of United’s 28 league games and played only 919 minutes of league football. Harry Maguire has played 2,610. Cavani signed after the season had begun, quarantined, got fit, got injured, got suspended and got injured again. Twice. The Uruguayan could still be a world class player and has shown moments in games scoring a creditable six league goals and has been a positive influence on the training ground. But let’s not kid ourselves that he’s been as successful as United fans hoped he would be. The timing of his move couldn’t have been worse. He left Paris for Manchester at the start of winter and moved into a city where he didn’t speak the language, one under lockdown because of the pandemic. Then he was suspended for a tweet perceived to be racist when it wasn’t. His “Manchester” chapter will make for interesting reading if he ever does an autobiography.
Anthony Martial is in no danger of troubling the clauses in his contracts for golden boots and player of the year awards.
Beloved by the Glazers who own the club on paper, the Parisian has scored four league goals and made five assists. It’s not close to even being sufficient.
Marcus Rashford has nine league goals from 28 games and is the twelfth top scorer in the league. He’s not the go to man for penalties either. He’d like to be, but that’s Bruno Fernandes territory. The Portuguese is by a distance the top scorer with 16 league goals. Only Harry Kane and Mo Salah have more – one more – and Bruno has a better shot accuracy and conversion rate than both, but while he used to be a central defender, he’s never been a centre forward. Bruno needs more goals around him.
Manchester United’s defence is providing solid foundations for unbeaten run, but there is room for improvement
Paul Pogba, top scorer two years ago, has been injured too much to be the same this season. Pogba is not looking to get out of United.
Scott McTominay has added goals to his game and United are the second top scorers in the league.
Would an Erling Haaland or Kane boost United significantly? Too right. Would they be incredibly expensive and hard to get? Too right
Would an Erling Haaland or Kane boost United significantly? Too right. Would they be incredibly expensive and hard to get? Too right
Goals are not as pressing as they were when United signed Eric Cantona – the final piece in an all-conquering jigsaw. Manchester City, the league’s top scorers, don’t have a free scoring centre forward since Sergio Aguero succumbed to injury. And that’s a worry. How good would they be if they did have one?
Mason Greenwood could become a top scorer, but he’s 19. At present he starts in half the games and plays half the minutes. He’s also scored only one league goal this season. He’s one for the future as is youth team striker Charlie McNeil, 17, who looks as bright a prospect as James Wilson did six years ago. McNeil, who signed from City in October, has 15 in 15 under-18 games. United top the under-18 table and there are several very bright prospects. Joe Hugill, an old fashioned English centre forward, is also 17. United like to give youth a chance but these players are nowhere near ready for regular first team football. There are no guarantees for even the best attacking young prospects like Shola Shoretire or Facundo Pellestri. Fans want to see continued progression now for the first team, to see the team challenge for a title or win a cup. It’s one thing a young player making the odd appearance in the first team, another for a player to drive that team towards a title like Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo did.
Manchester United must spend as wisely as rivals City and PSG if they want to keep up
Would an Erling Haaland or Kane boost United significantly? Too right. Would they be incredibly expensive and hard to get? Too right, just as some of United’s greatest ever players were, from Roy Keane to Rio Ferdinand or Robin van Persie. Alex Ferguson disliked the idea of any players being easy to get sign, he thought that diamonds were always tough to extract. He had the advantage of offering them the finest team in which to shine.
We’ve been here before with United in the post-Ferguson era and the solution was to sign Romelu Lukaku, a proven goalscorer wherever he went.
Did United get it wrong with Lukaku, now scoring freely at Internazionale? No, in that the Belgian wanted to leave and United let him. He was frustrated he didn’t get the service he needed in Jose Mourinho’s side and the abiding image of him standing 25 metres from the nearest red shirts in Seville shows he had a point. Were United fans annoyed when he left? No.
United are looking at striking options. From Odion Ighalo to Cavani, United have used stop gaps and can continue to do the same, but that doesn’t fill fans with conviction.
Last season, the club asked to be kept abreast of Ollie Watkins, then unknown to United fans and at Brentford, but now with one more goal than Rashford in the league this season. United didn’t make an offer for Watkins.
Haaland is a level above all. He’s 20 and has scored 21 league goals in 21 league games for Dortmund this season including three in the two games against Bayern Munich. He has 33 in 31 in all competitions including 10 in six Champions League games. His numbers are so far ahead of any United striker and yet United were twice interested in signing him. He appeared expensive overall both times and United were concerned at any future sell-on fees and the control it gave to the agent Mino Raiola. United believed the terms would give both the player’s father and agent a share of future sales, considering it would be bad for the club and for the football industry in general. Both times, Haaland’s value has increased.
Where will Haaland go? Though his agent has been talking to them this week, the Spanish giants are cash-strapped and would have to offload players. Going from Dortmund to Paris Saint-Germain would be a step down on a week-by-week basis. Bayern have Robert Lewandowski. There’s United, City, Chelsea – or Juventus, who would have to move Ronaldo on. United prevailed with Maguire, Fred and Sanchez, players City wanted. City were reluctant to go so high on wages. If United want to get back to the top, they need to show they can compete with the best in the transfer market to secure the most important piece of the puzzle in the post-Ferguson era.
