news-engine

The all-time Manchester United top goal scorer, Wayne Rooney has discussed the issues that his former team has faced in the first three games this season. United forwards have scored three of their eight goals this season, with Bryan Mbuemo getting two and Benjamin Sesko scoring off the bench this weekend against Everton. Speaking on his new podcast Stick to United alongside internet personality, Mark Goldbridge, Rooney highlighted what he believes to be the issue with United’s attack, “I’m just not having [Matheus] Cunha as a nine and I think he’s a good player”. He also noted that he believes that Cunha was coming too deep at times, “If he’s coming that deep as a number nine and you haven’t got the runners in behind, you’ve got no one up top”. A theme that we’ve seen all too often this season for United’s attack. Rooney also offered an alternative option, “I would have liked to see [Marcus] Rashford there and put Cunha out on the left to come in”. He also noted a clear change when Sesko came on “You look when Sesko came on, ball comes into him, gets it out wide, gets in the box and gets his goal”. Wayne Rooney Highlights Big Issue at United Goals Don’t Come Easy The Red Devils have scored seven goals in three games this season. Impressive on the face of it, however, when diving deeper into these strikes, it highlights a key issue. Michael Carrick’s men have faced two of the three newly promoted teams this term, losing 2-0 to Hull and blitzing past Ipswich 5-2. They then went on to score two past Rooney’s old team, Everton this weekend, only to concede a last-minute equaliser. Looking at the Ipswich game, the goals didn’t come easy. The first was as a result of a defensive slip and a good counterattack. The second came as a result of a favourable referee call and a deflected shot, the third was a penalty, the fourth was a deflected shot that fell into the path of Bruno Fernandes to complete his hat-trick; and the final strike was a good passage of play on the break. Against Everton, United had to rely on individual brilliance from Mbuemo and a good piece of play from Bruno, Luke Shaw and Sesko to notch their second of the game. The Last Word – Dampened Firepower It’s clear that when Sesko doesn’t play, United don’t have a clear style of attacking play. It’s counter attacking football without an obvious outlet, which lets them down. Gone are the days where Rooney, Tevez, Ronaldo and Berbatov would battle it out for a place in the starting team. Sesko came off the bench multiple times last term to score important goals and yet, can’t seem to warrant a start under Carrick thus far this time around. Disappointingly, Joshua Zirkzee offers nothing for the manager and has seen no minutes in this campaign, even when United were 2-0 down to Hull City on the opening day. The club should have ventured into the transfer window to buy a more experienced striker to work with Sesko, help him develop and take the pressure off him being the only recognised striker at the club. Instead, they chose to do nothing. Moving forward, perhaps Carrick listens to his old captain, Wayne Rooney and mixed the attack up with Rashford playing through the middle and Cunha playing off the left. Once Amad Diallo is back, it should offer some selection headaches that the team needs. Related Articles - Manchester United Release Kit Numbers With Interesting Number 9 - Manchester United Champions League Fixtures - Manchester United Wonderkids Who Flopped: Federico Macheda Featured Image Credit IMAGO / NurPhoto