Coach Ruben Amorim is reflecting on one of his best performances in his short time at Manchester United, against Real Sociedad in the Europa League, when his attention turned to the attack.
"Sometimes we miss something," Amorim said with a sad smile. With the number of opportunities created, Man United should have scored more than 1 goal thanks to Joshua Zirkzee. Instead, the two teams will meet at Old Trafford with a score of 1-1.
Real Sociedad have also missed their chances, but they will be confident that Man United's goalscoring problem is even more worrying. The longer the tension and tightness are, the more confident the Spanish team will be.
The problem of scoring goals is not new for the "Red Devils". This is an problem that existed before Amorim's arrival, in Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's final season.
Man United ended the 2020-2021 season as the second top scorer in the Premier League (73 goals), behind champions Manchester City. But in the last 4 seasons combined, they have only scored 206 goals in the tournament.
To understand more clearly, Man City scored 342 goals in the same period, while Brentford scored 210 goals. Only five teams have scored fewer than Man United's 34 Premier League goals this season. Wolves - the 17th-placed team and struggling to stay in the league - have also scored 38 goals.
The Old Trafford team is 10th in the league for shots (364) and 17th for shot conversion rate (9.3%). Aston Villa have done the same number of shots but have scored 41 goals and are 8th in the rankings, 5 points behind the top 4.
Like many other problems with Man United, part of the reason may stem from the transfer stage.
Since the summer of 2021, the four strikers have arrived at Old Trafford to lead the attack. Cristiano Ronaldo, then 36, returned in August 2021. Wout Weghorst joined on loan from Burnley in January 2023. After prioritizing signing a young striker in the summer transfer window of 2023, Man United have chosen Rasmus Hojlund. Zirkzee - another potential young player but has no impressive goalscoring record - joined last summer.
With Ronaldo and Weghorst long gone, Anthony Martial was released on a free transfer last summer and Marcus Rashford was loaned to Aston Villa, the scoring responsibility fell on Hojlund and Zirkzee. However, the pair have only scored five goals in the competition so far in the 2024-25 season. Hojlund has even had the fewest touches in the box per 90 minutes (3.05) than any other Premier League striker who has played at least 500 minutes.
Amorim will be sad when Hojlund is included in the list of ineffective players named by co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe in an interview.
"Amorim only has about half of his squad in hand. And these players are paid only average compared to the Premier League. There are players who are not good enough to play for Man United or are receiving salaries that are too high compared to their ability.
In the coming summer, we still have to pay the debts to the teams since recruiting Antony, Casemiro, Hojlund, Andre Onana and Jadon Sancho. We have to pay Dortmund £17 million next summer, for Sancho," said the British billionaire.
Perhaps this is not the encouragement Amorim thought of when preparing to face Real Sociedad.
The match against Real Sociedad could decide Man United's defeat. Losers, and their campaign will actually end in early March. Winning, and still having a chance for Amorim to end his first season with both a title and a place in the Champions League.
Amorim wants to downplay the importance of winning the Europa League, saying this is just a temporary solution to bigger problems. However, CEO Omar Berrada has made it clear in interviews about the importance of the Europa League title in the near future.
"There is no doubt that if we qualify for the Champions League, we will have more revenue and increase the ability to invest in the team," Berrada said.
More money for new players at the same £2 billion stadium will speed up the transition period under Amorim. He may even find the missing piece when talking about Man United's goalscoring.
