Coach Erik ten Hag needs a true striker to push Marcus Rashford back to his preferred position on the left wing.
Rashford is enjoying a brilliant season in his career, but the “Red Devils” will have a hard time competing for the highest titles without a world-class “number 9”. After what has been shown against Liverpool and Real Betis, Wout Weghorst shows that he cannot be the necessary piece for the red half of Manchester to step up to new heights.
Missing an excellent striker
The Dutch striker scored his first goal for MU at Old Trafford in a 4-1 victory over Betis in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16. He celebrated emotionally, with the cheers of his teammates around him.
The contract on loan from Burnley of MU in the January market deserves a goal. Since arriving at Old Trafford, the 30-year-old striker has played hard and helped the “Red Devils” solve many problems. However, the goal against Betis could not erase the fact that Weghorst is just a decent striker.
MU can play a lot better if they recruit a striker at a higher level than the Dutch striker. Just a week ago, Weghorst received criticism for his poor performance at Anfield. One of the factors leading to MU’s heavy 0-7 defeat against Liverpool was in taking advantage of opportunities.
Instead of being led 0-1 by “The Kop” after the break, the visitors had at least two clear chances to score the opening goal. The ability to score goals of strikers has become a big problem for MU this season. Coach Ten Hag’s team is the sixth highest scoring team in the Premier League this season, with 41 goals in 25 matches. They scored far behind Arsenal (59 times) and Man City (66 times).
If MU wants to race for the championship with Man City and Arsenal, their attack lacks a large number of goals. The problem with MU is not in the ability to create opportunities. The “Red Devils” lack an excellent striker who knows how to score at many times. Rashford has had the best season of his career, but the English striker is still just a winger.
Rashford himself has only scored 1 goal after the first 3 matches of March. Against Liverpool, Rashford missed an extremely delicious opportunity in the first half when facing goalkeeper Alisson Becker. MU has lived off goals and shining moments from Rashford in the first two months of the year. When the English striker could no longer maintain the same high scoring performance as before, the “Red Devils” immediately had problems.
Rashford has also repeatedly said that he wants to play like Cristiano Ronaldo, ie moving from the left to the inside to finish. If Rashford wants to play like that, MU’s system needs an excellent striker and assists, like how Karim Benzema once supported Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
Coach Erik ten Hag needs a true striker to push Marcus Rashford back to his preferred position on the left wing.
Rashford is enjoying a brilliant season in his career, but the “Red Devils” will have a hard time competing for the highest titles without a world-class “number 9”. After what has been shown against Liverpool and Real Betis, Wout Weghorst shows that he cannot be the necessary piece for the red half of Manchester to step up to new heights.
Missing an excellent striker
The Dutch striker scored his first goal for MU at Old Trafford in a 4-1 victory over Betis in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16. He celebrated emotionally, with the cheers of his teammates around him.
The contract on loan from Burnley of MU in the January market deserves a goal. Since arriving at Old Trafford, the 30-year-old striker has played hard and helped the “Red Devils” solve many problems. However, the goal against Betis could not erase the fact that Weghorst is just a decent striker.
MU can play a lot better if they recruit a striker at a higher level than the Dutch striker. Just a week ago, Weghorst received criticism for his poor performance at Anfield. One of the factors leading to MU’s heavy 0-7 defeat against Liverpool was in taking advantage of opportunities.
Instead of being led 0-1 by “The Kop” after the break, the visitors had at least two clear chances to score the opening goal. The ability to score goals of strikers has become a big problem for MU this season. Coach Ten Hag’s team is the sixth highest scoring team in the Premier League this season, with 41 goals in 25 matches. They scored far behind Arsenal (59 times) and Man City (66 times).
If MU wants to race for the championship with Man City and Arsenal, their attack lacks a large number of goals. The problem with MU is not in the ability to create opportunities. The “Red Devils” lack an excellent striker who knows how to score at many times. Rashford has had the best season of his career, but the English striker is still just a winger.
Rashford himself has only scored 1 goal after the first 3 matches of March. Against Liverpool, Rashford missed an extremely delicious opportunity in the first half when facing goalkeeper Alisson Becker. MU has lived off goals and shining moments from Rashford in the first two months of the year. When the English striker could no longer maintain the same high scoring performance as before, the “Red Devils” immediately had problems.
Rashford has also repeatedly said that he wants to play like Cristiano Ronaldo, ie moving from the left to the inside to finish. If Rashford wants to play like that, MU’s system needs an excellent striker and assists, like how Karim Benzema once supported Ronaldo at Real Madrid.
The current MU squad does not have a striker possessing a good technical background to play a supporting role when needed. Weghorst is at a level far behind Benzema or Wayne Rooney, forwards willing to sacrifice and move wide to create opportunities for excellent wingers.
eghorst can’t solve the problem
Weghorst has only scored 2 goals for MU after 15 matches. Those who sympathize with the Dutch striker may argue that Ten Hag asks the striker to be too involved in defence. At times, Weghorst played as a central midfielder in the MU squad.
“The real role of Weghorst in the MU squad at times is no different from that of a defensive player,” explains Paul Scholes. “He moves a lot, puts pressure on opponents and assists in defence.”
However, a good striker must know how to finish and penetrate the opponent’s penalty area when needed. “He (Weghorst) is not qualified to become the number 9 MU needs. To play for this team, a striker needs more qualities than that,” Scholes affirmed.
Former MU midfielder is not wrong. If coach Ten Hag wants to race for the title with Arsenal and Man City, his team needs a really good striker. Pep Guardiola has Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez, while Mikel Arteta has Gabriel Jesus. Liverpool, the team that has just beaten MU in the 26th round of the Premier League, owns a series of good strikers like Darwin Nunez, Mohamed Salah or Roberto Firmino.
Confronting Real Betis, the Old Trafford team created up to 9 clear scoring opportunities, the most they have in a Europa League, Champions League or Premier League match in the past 6 seasons. Coach Ten Hag’s strikers missed 7 of them.
In this season, MU’s attack only has an impressive performance. That is not enough, because Rashford has never been comfortable in the central role.
