Under Sir Alex Ferguson’s era, United were leading the marksmen in most season and possessed a consistent prolific and feared front line that was the spearhead for so much of the glory. But, things have changed since his retirement.
After a bleak period last time under David Moyes, the sorry state of United’s front-men hit a new low this season. Of the existing crop, only Robin van Persie has managed to reach the double figures this campaign in the league.
The Dutch striker has ten goals in the Premier League this season but the 2013 Golden Boot winner has been out of form and is now out of the Reds line up for potentially a long time after his ankle injury at Swansea City last Saturday.
Wayne Rooney has nine goals and Radamel Falcao, has scored just the four league goals since his costly deadline-day move from Monaco. On the other hand, Diego Costa and Sergio Aguero top the Premier League scoring charts with 17 goals each.
It is one of the reason for the Reds struggling to score many goals this season. United have managed just the 44 goals so far this campaign. Chelsea and City are the top scorers with 56 goals each this term. Arsenal who are third in the Premier League are also next in the scoring charts with 49 goals and have Alexis Sanchez in the top five marksmen in the division with 12 strikes.
“It is true because I cannot deny it,” Van Gaal said when asked if the lack of a prolific scorer had hindered his team this year. “Robin van Persie cannot deny it, Falcao cannot deny it and Rooney – but he is not playing there so much anymore. But we cannot deny that at this moment we don’t have a striker who scores 20 goals in the season.”
A lack of goals from his frontmen does not mean Van Gaal is certain to sign a new striker in the summer, though. The Dutchman has faith in 19-year-old James Wilson and also has other priorities – like signing a dynamic, world-class midfielder.
“This doesn’t tell anything about next year,” Van Gaal said regarding the future of his strike-force. “They can be having an unlucky year and I have to take account with these aspects and I have to decide, with my staff, if it is these aspects or other aspects.”
He however added that changing the squad regularly may unrest the squad. “That’s also a little bit boring, but that is also a process between players. Falcao is used to playing with Van Persie, then when he plays with Wilson he starts another process, that’s why I started with Falcao and van Persie,” he said.
“Now maybe is the time to start a process between Falcao and Wilson, they don’t play so much together, I believe only once or twice. You can see that Wilson is also left-footed like van Persie and Falcao is right-footed. I have used Rooney as the right-footed striker and Wilson as left-footed striker, that is why I keep these four players in the start of the season. I expect in theory that it is like that, but in practice we have to wait and see.” Van Gaal said.
As expected, the United manager would not accept all the blame for his shot shy side this season. “It is not always the fault of the manager, when a player is not performing well, I can tell you!” he said.