MISFIRING HITMEN
ERIK TEN HAG is facing a striker crisis with Manchester United on course for their lowest goal return of the Premier League era.
Ten Hag’s consistently inconsistent side have just 22 league goals this season – only the bottom two, Burnley and Sheffield United, have scored fewer.
Rasmus Hojlund, a £72million summer signing from Atalanta, has a solitary league goal, while Marcus Rashford, last season’s 30-goal hero, has just three.
Skipper Bruno Fernandes has managed only three in the league, while £82m winger Antony has failed to score at all this term.
With such a paucity of goals, the Reds have looked at adding Timo Werner – set to join Tottenham – or veteran Bayern Munich striker Thomas Muller on loan to solve their alarming scoring crisis.
United’s lowest goal return in the Premier League came in 2015-16 under Louis van Gaal,
PAUL SCHOLES laid into Jesse
Lingard on social media over the former Manchester United star’s failure to find a new club.
Lingard, without a team since leaving Nottingham Forest last summer, posted several pictures on Instagram of him working out in a gym.
The former United winger shared when they notched just 49. Van Gaal was sacked at the end of that campaign, despite winning the FA Cup, and Ten Hag (below) could suffer the same fate if he cannot get the Red Devils scoring at a greater rate.
United are the only side in the top 10 with a negative goal difference, while in Monday’s 2-0 FA
Cup win over League One Wigan, they had 33 shots, yet scored just once from open play.
That stat is indicative of their lack of conviction in front snaps of him doing pull-ups and press-ups, as well as working on a rowing machine at a gym in Dubai.
The post drew a scathing response from United legend
Scholes (left), who wrote in the comments: “Are you just gonna f**k about in the gym or are you of goal, with Hojlund coming under increasing scrutiny, having failed to find the target once again. His impressive late winner in United’s dramatic comeback from 2-0 down to beat Aston Villa 3-2 on December 27 feels like a distant memory, with the 20-year-old back to spurning chances.
At Wigan, Hojlund could have had a hat-trick, but wasted several chances to boost his goal tally and confidence ahead of a huge second half of the season.
United’s chance conversion rate of 7.8 percent is the lowest in the Premier League, underlining their profligacy in front of goal, with Scott Mctominay their top scorer with five goals.
Rashford, who came under fire from his own fans at Wigan, has taken just 7.1 percent of his chances in the top flight, with Hojlund on 5.3 percent.
Fernandes has three goals and is at 6.4 percent while Antony, shaping up to be the Premier League’s most expensive flop, has no goals and a chance conversion rate gonna actually play football?” Lingard (right), capped 32 times by England, was paid around £200,000 a week by Forest last
Shots on Target Goals Conv % Mctominay ... 28 14 5 17.9 Martial ...............6 4 1 16.7 Rashford........ 42 12 3 7.1 Garnacho....... 43 9 3 7.0 Fernandes......47 17 3 6.4 Hojlund............ 19 8 1 5.3 Antony.............24 6 0 0.0
of zero this term, with one goal in his last 24 league games.
Those damning statistics underline what a dismal campaign it has been for United, who are out of the title race, out of Europe and out of the EFL Cup, with the FA Cup their sole shot at silverware.
Sunday’s visit of Tottenham to Old Trafford is their only league fixture this month, giving Ten Hag time to address the lack of goals as he tries to haul them into the top-four race.
United, currently eighth, are nine points adrift of fourth-placed Arsenal. season, but made just 17 Premier League appearances and failed to score in any of those matches.
The 31-year-old, who spent the second-half of the 2020-21 season on loan at West Ham, has been offered to a host of clubs, including Everton and Lille, but still remains a free agent.