Former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson once said that “attack allows you to win games, but defence allows you to win titles”. The problem is that without reliable goalscorers a team will never be in a position to put the second part of the theory to the test, and no team has failed to adhere to Ferguson’s maxim for success as badly as his former club.
If you were to dissect United's recurring shortcomings, you would find plenty of reasons for their failure to mount a serious challenge to the Premier League over the past decade, but sometimes, beneath the avalanche of statistics and data, you can find a simple answer: Manchester United simply don't score enough goals.
After five games of the new Premier League season, only three teams (Crystal Palace (4), Ipswich Town (3) and Southampton (2)) have scored fewer goals than United, who have so far managed five.
Saturday's 0-0 draw at Palace was the latest example of the team's lack of attacking prowess. Against Palace, United created 15 chances and failed to convert any. In the 3-0 loss to Liverpool earlier this month, United created eight chances and failed to convert another; Liverpool, meanwhile, scored three goals from 11 opportunities.
Although Erik ten Hag’s side did claim a 3-0 win at Southampton earlier this month, those three goals came from 20 chances. In the five league games, United have created 68 chances and scored five of them. So United are creating chances, but their wasteful finishing is the reason ten Hag’s side are languishing in 11th place, already losing touch with the leading pack in the Champions League qualification places. Their forwards are simply not good enough – mid-table quality at a club that used to demand the best.
Ten Hag's United are failing miserably to follow Ferguson's model, but the same could be said of the teams managed by David Moyes, Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. While each of those managers bears some blame, both in terms of tactics and team selection, the biggest problem has been a sorry history of poor signings and failures to find talent, with the club lurching from one bad signing to the next.
When Ferguson’s teams dominated the Premier League (and those days are fast disappearing in the rear-view mirror), he prioritised the recruitment of world-class strikers throughout his two decades of success. From Eric Cantona in the early 1990s to treble winners Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha, Cristiano Ronaldo and Robin van Persie, United always had the best of the best in attack. It’s why the team won so many titles.
Since then, United have signed veterans whose best days were behind them (Radamel Falcao in 2014, Zlatan Ibrahimovic in 2016, Edinson Cavani in 2020, Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021) and made unsuccessful attempts at youngsters with star power, including Anthony Martial (20 when he joined in 2015) and Rasmus Højlund, who was signed in 2023 (although it is perhaps too early to make such a judgement on the Danish international).
Joshua Zirkzee, 23, signed from Bologna in the summer, is the latest young player charged with becoming the answer to Manchester United's goalscoring problems.
Even when United have produced from within, things have not gone as planned. When Marcus Rashford burst onto the scene he looked like he could be the answer, but he has been inconsistent, reaching double figures in Premier League goals just four times in eight full seasons. He has scored just 13 times in his last 60 appearances.
There have also been inexplicable panic moves from strikers such as Odion Ighalo (2020) and Wout Weghorst (2023), who must have believed their lottery numbers had come up when they got the call to move to Old Trafford on loan.
Aside from the £75m deal to sign Romelu Lukaku, then 24, from Everton in July 2017, United have failed to sign a centre-forward at the height of his powers since Ferguson recruited Van Persie from Arsenal in the summer of 2012. Lukaku’s record of 42 goals in 96 games was better than many have given the Belgian striker credit, but even Lukaku has failed to break the 20 league goals-a-season barrier, and that has proven an impossible benchmark for all United strikers in the post-Ferguson era.
Van Nistelrooy, now assistant manager to Ten Hag, scored more than 20 league goals in four of his five seasons at United, Ronaldo scored 31 in one season, Rooney scored more than 20 on two occasions, while Dimitar Berbatov registered 20 in 2010-11. Van Persie gave Ferguson his last title in 2012-13 by scoring 26 league goals.
Since Van Persie's impact in 2012-13, the highest tally of league goals in a season by a United player has been 18, matched by Bruno Fernandes in 2020-21 and Ronaldo in 2021-22. Last season marked a new low point, with Fernandes and Højlund sharing the top scorer's spot with just 10 league goals each. So how has United, a club that has been defined throughout its glory years by prolific strikers, arrived at this situation?
According to ESPN sources, Harry Kane had been on United's radar since 2016 but the club never made a serious offer. Their concern as they pursued the England captain from Tottenham Hotspur was that Spurs chairman Daniel Levy would either refuse to do business or only engage in talks by insisting on paying an exorbitant transfer fee for the player. United would not pay the £88m Spurs wanted for Kane before he joined Bayern Munich in 2023.
Lukaku was supposed to be the answer, but his bright start under Mourinho faded and he was transferred to Inter two years later, having ended his days at Old Trafford being used as a winger by Solskjaer. But despite the obvious need for a world-class centre-forward, United filled the gaps by signing the likes of Ibrahimovic, Cavani and Ronaldo.
Erling Haaland's signing failed to materialise in the 2019-20 season because United did not accept a release clause when the striker left RB Salzburg. Borussia Dortmund accepted the clause and the forward went on to score 86 goals in 89 games in all competitions. Now he is breaking the record books in a Manchester City shirt, equalling Cristiano Ronaldo's record as the fastest male player to score 100 goals for a top European club on Sunday.
Martial was signed in 2015 but only after United failed to agree a deal with Sadio Mané from Southampton, while Højlund arrived after more experienced strikers were passed over in his favour.
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Michalik: “Manchester United are still far behind the top clubs”
ESPN FC's Janusz Michalik reacts to Manchester United's goalless draw against Crystal Palace after a disappointing second half for Erik Ten Hag's side.
Sources told ESPN that Napoli's Victor Osimhen was being assessed over the 2022-23 season but concerns were raised over his ability to keep the ball and also whether Serie A was a strong enough league to truly measure his ability, with Lukaku's prolific form at Inter cited as a reason to be sceptical over Osimhen's actual quality. Despite those concerns over Serie A, United opted to complete a £72m deal for Atalanta's Højlund, who was just 20 at the time and had scored 10 goals in 34 games for the Italian side.
A similar story happened this summer, with Zirkzee being signed for £36.5m despite scoring just 14 goals in two seasons for the Serie A side. Before signing Zirkzee, United had considered signing Ivan Toney from Brentford, but sources have said the English striker was ruled out because he did not fit Ten Hag’s profile as the required striker, as although he had an impressive attacking rate, he did not press defenders energetically enough.
So United now have an attack consisting of two young, unproven Serie A strikers in addition to Rashford, and exciting young wingers in Amad and Alejandro Garnacho, who, while showing signs of a bright future, are not capable centre-forwards of leading the attacking line.
Opponents face United knowing that they can be more adventurous against them because they have no attacking strength. United conceded more goals than they scored last season and have conceded as many as they have scored so far this season, all of which is down to deficiencies in attack.
United may look more solid defensively under Ten Hag, and their midfield may finally take shape following the recent arrival of Manuel Ugarte from Paris Saint-Germain to play a holding role, but unless their forwards start turning draws into wins, United won't win enough games for their defenders to come close to winning trophies for them.
