MK HIT ARYAN WILL SORT IT
Henrikh’s out to score more
HENRIKH MKHITARYAN has vowed to sort out Manchester United’s goalscoring woes after a stinging attack from Jose Mourinho.
United’s hopes of a top-four Premier League finish are fading fast with their forward line having fallen flat.
Mourinho’s men have taken two points from home games against West Brom and Everton in the last week.
The manager has been left frustrated by their lack of potency up front, with his players managing 36 efforts on goal over the two games – with just six of them on target.
Mourinho criticised Mkhitaryan, Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford for being “not consistent” as United laboured to a 0-0 draw against the Baggies on Saturday.
Promised
He dropped the Armenia captain and France forward Martial to the bench for Tuesday’s match against Everton, where they scraped a 1-1 draw thanks to Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s injury-time penalty.
But Mkhitaryan, 28, has promised to raise his game to give United the goals they are lacking.
He said: “I still have places where I can improve and have room to improve. I am sure that I can do better, because I am confident.
“As I know I can do more, I want to say that for next year I am going to have more goals and more assists.
“There is not one area that you can say I am good at it and that I don’t have to work on that facet.
“You have to work on every side of your game, every aspect. You just have to keep working hard to improve.” Mkhitaryan has had an up and down season since arriving at Old Trafford from Borussia Dortmund for £27m last July.
He went almost two months without a game after being substituted during the Manchester derby in September and was then slated by Mourinho for a lack of effort on his return.
The play-maker has scored seven goals since becoming a regular starter before Christmas.
He has become renowned as a scorer of spectacular strikes – winning United’s in-house goal of the month competition three times – but admits he needs to find the target more often.
Mkhitaryan added: “It is always good to receive some individual awards, but I will do my best to score a goal if the chance is there. That way I can help the team reach the aims they want to achieve.”
United’s best hope of reaching next season’s Champions League is now to win the Europa League.
After Sunday’s league trip to Sunderland, Mourinho’s side head to Belgium for the first leg of their quarter-final against Anderlecht next Thursday.
Mkhitaryan warned: “I realise some people will think, ‘Ah, we’ve got Anderlecht so it is going to be easy to beat them’. But it is not like that.
“I know that because I have watched some of their games in Europe and I can say they are playing very well and have players of high quality.”