Some of the reasons Manchester United score so many goals, (73 between Martial, Rashford and Greenwood this season), are because the front three are young, hungry and will shoot on sight. They all have a tendency, occasionally, to try and beat too many defenders and all can be greedy, choosing to shoot from near-impossible angles rather than try and find a better placed team mate.
Some of the reasons Manchester United don’t score as many goals as they should are because the front three are young, hungry and will shoot on sight. This “shoot on sight” attitude is fine providing there are no opposition players in the way but, again probably due to youth, the blinkers tend to go on when the goal is sighted.
Many a time, particularly in the last two games against Copenhagen and Seville, the three strikers have caught a glimpse of the goal and let fly. This has resulted in what the media and some pundits have described as “brilliant defending”. To an extent that was the case but, had the United strikers shown a little more composure, then the team would probably have won both those games easily and, over the course of a season, added around fifteen goals to their final tally.
Back in the days we were lucky enough to share Old Trafford with the likes of Law, Best and Charlton, we don’t remember many times when the team created so many chances but failed to score. The three aforementioned players could all be relied upon to remain calm when on the ball and score a goal when presented with the opportunity. That isn’t to say they never missed, or had a shot saved by the goalkeeper, but they were rarely the victims of such “brilliant defending” as the current team.
There’s a way to go before United have 3 as good as these were!
The reason for this is maturity and composure which, in fairness, George Best was showing at around the same age as Mason Greenwood!
The three youngsters currently occupying the main goalscoring roles at United have a tendency, as we said, to shoot first and ask questions later. This often results in their shot hitting the defender immediately in front of them because they have yet to understand the basic physics which state that a ball, no matter how hard it is kicked, will not travel through another human being!
They also have a penchant for trying to beat as many players as possible before scoring or, as is often the case, before losing the ball or running out of pitch.
With age they may find the happy medium which is to shoot when there is a sight of goal but preferably with no defenders between ball and goal, or beat a couple of players to get in a better position to score, or even pass to a colleague occasionally. This would prevent defenders being credited when a striker hits the ball straight at them as is very often the case in today’s crazy world of football.
And finally…..
Now that the season is over, for Premier League teams at least, the transfer window can finally get into full swing. Sky Sports is getting it’s “classroom” of juveniles back together to discuss, invent and generally misrepresent any transfer stories that may abound.
This being a teacher-less classroom, we don’t advise any self-respecting parents to allow their children to watch “Transfer Talk” as the influences on said offspring could be damaging. That is, of course, unless those parents don’t mind very regular examples of how terribly the English language can be spoken and how stupid so-called adults can actually be.
Transfer Talk – The programme where clueless, semi-literate kids try to out-moron each other!
Still, TV’s answer to the Sun newspaper does sometimes get things right and even manages the occasional “exclusive”, usually a day or two after it has been reported on Twitter!
Enjoy watching if it’s your type of masochism, we do!
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 