Erik ten Hag wants Man Utd to take greater use of the opportunities that are being produced because the team has had trouble scoring goals from their attackers this season.
Erik ten Hag has remarked that his Manchester United forwards are wasting too many offensive overloads this season and has urged them to be more clinical in front of goal.
With Rasmus Hojlund scoring three goals in the Champions League and Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, and Anthony Martial each scoring one goal in all competitions, United’s forwards have only contributed six goals this season.
Erling Haaland of Manchester City, on the other hand, has 11 goals across all competitions, while Julian Alvarez has seven.
With United coming into this weekend’s Old Trafford derby six points behind City—who have eight more Premier League goals than Ten Hag’s team in just nine games—that offensive prowess could prove to be a decisive factor.
For the first time this season, United has won three straight games, but the victories against FC Copenhagen, Sheffield United, and Brentford were all decided by a single goal, and the team’s play was unimpressive.
After a challenging start to the season, Ten Hag believes United is starting to turn things around. He praised his team’s pressing and defensive capabilities, but he still expects more from the attackers.
“I said [we’re going] in the right direction, we have a way to go, I see positives and I see also negatives,” he stated. “In games we can play in, as away against Arsenal and the first 20 minutes against Bayern away, we are not always in position at the level we can be.
“We should do this consistently, but we’re really excellent at pressing. Our organisation, which combines pressing and defence, gives us the most ball regains and midfield rebounds in the Premier League.
“But even if our teams are capable of benefiting from it, we fail to do so during attacking transitions. This is the way that the games will develop and get easier.
Ten Hag used United’s 1-0 victory over FC Copenhagen on Tuesday as an illustration of how they aren’t taking advantage of the good chances they are creating in attacking zones.
“Cooperation is necessary, but this week we demonstrated a few instances where there are numerous overload positions and where we go in overload position towards the opponent goal and fail to score or even hit the target. We don’t have time to train them, so we just provide some coaching, and given the calibre of our players, I have no doubt that they will go on to score more goals.”
Rashford, who scored 30 goals last season, has only scored once, encapsulating United’s offensive woes. Nevertheless, Ten Hag is still confident that the 25-year-old will soon find his best form.
“Give him the trust and play him every game, most of the games he finishes every game so I have a strong belief he will return to scoring a lot of goals,” he stated.
