Erik ten Hag’s revolution has relied almost exclusively on Rashford and his injury means United must find an alternative.
Coach Erik ten Hag has repeatedly emphasized that Manchester United need a player to share the scoring burden with Marcus Rashford.
That will be Man United’s task in the summer transfer window but for now, matters become more complicated when Rashford is injured.
Even with a two-week absence, Rashford can also miss three matches with MU, including two important matches against Sevilla in the Europa League quarter-finals, and the FA Cup semi-finals. Worse, the Englishman may not be back in time to face Tottenham in the Premier League.
Man United will enter their 50th game of the season without any player scoring more than 10 goals in all competitions.
That shows the extent of Man United’s dependence on Rashford. The Englishman currently has 28 goals in all competitions, 13 of which have resulted in wins and accounts for 20 of United’s 55 goals since the World Cup.
Excluding Rashford’s Premier League goals, Man United would have 14 points less.
They are only ranked 10th, below Brentford. Part of Ten Hag’s success depends on Rashford’s form.
“What you want as a team is you have two players who can score more than 12 or 15 goals a season,” Ten Hag said last week.
But at present, Man United is almost unable to find a second striker and ambition in all three remaining arenas may be threatened.
That’s the immediate issue and reflects United’s summer priority: to sign a striker. Harry Kane and Victor Osimhen are good candidates.
If successful, Rashford can play the role of the second scorer.
“Manchester United need excellent players, that’s clear,” insisted Ten Hag.
It can be said, “Red Devils” only have 1 outstanding attacking player this season. Worth mentioning is that, on average 135 minutes, Anthony Martial will have 1 goal in the Premier League, more than Rashford’s 159 minutes / goal. The problem is that the French player can only play 540/2610 minutes at most.
With Martial’s injury history, Ten Hag is hard to believe. That could also be the reason why Rashford is overloaded with 47 appearances.
Only Bruno Fernandes is another MU attacker with a similar ratio. Meanwhile, rookie Wout Weghorst did not make a significant contribution.
Ralf Rangnick complained about the same problem this time last year. They started the season with many strikers, but scored too few goals. Man United owns Cristiano Ronaldo, Rashford, Fernandes, Martial, Sancho, Mason Greenwood and Edinson Cavani.
In the end, Man United scored only 9th most in the Premier League with the third lowest total score since 1990.
In some ways, Ronaldo’s 24 goals last season is a good individual achievement. Or as Ten Hag concludes, it’s proof that CR7 is limiting other people’s opportunities.
Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Man United had two seasons scoring at least 110 goals. In the 2020-2021 season, Fernandes leads with 28 goals, followed by Rashford with 21 and Cavani with 17. In the 2019-2020 season, Martial and Rashford both surpassed the 20-goal mark, Greenwood also has 17 goals.For now, that’s what Ten Hag is all about. Because Rashford is excellent, but he cannot forever shoulder the task of scoring Man United.
