Manchester United's Long Road to Goal Solution

MANCHESTER, MONDAY – Manchester United’s efforts to find a way out of their goal-scoring problems have yet to end. A glimmer of light shone through Kobbie Mainoo’s brilliant performance against FCSB in the Europa League. However, Mainoo apparently has not been able to provide an instant solution in a competition as tight as the Premier League.

MU manager Ruben Amorim made a surprising breakthrough when losing 0-2 to Crystal Palace in the Premier League at Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester, Sunday (2/2/2025) evening WIB. Instead of placing Joshua Zirkzee or Rasmus Hojlund as a striker, Amorim instead entrusted the front line to Kobbie Mainoo.

The 19-year-old played as a false nine in a 3-4-3 formation, flanked by Alejandro Garnacho on the left wing and Amad Diallo on the right.

The assignment as a false striker is quite unique considering Mainoo's natural position as a defensive midfielder. Amorim entrusted the attack line after Mainoo performed very impressively when smothering FCSB, 2-0, in the previous match.

In that match, Amorim's experiment of pushing Mainoo's position slightly forward as an attacking midfielder paid off. Mainoo became the star of MU's victory with a goal and an assist.

Amorim tried to repeat the same success to get the maximum result against Palace. Moreover, Amorim even put Mainoo as a false striker, not an attacking midfielder as before, to see how far his goal-scoring instincts were.

Although the false striker is a fairly unfamiliar role, Mainoo was still able to play well in the first half. He managed to create a chance created by Garnacho. However, Garnacho's hard kick was still blocked by defender Chris Richards.

Not only did Mainoo provide a perfect pass, he also threatened Palace's goal. Receiving a pass from Amad, Mainoo fired a shot from inside the penalty box, but his effort still hit the goalpost.

That was Mainoo's only golden opportunity in this match. In the second half, Mainoo's performance was less developed until Amorim decided to replace him with Hojlund. However, MU's goal drought continued until the match ended.

Palace eventually came away with all three points thanks to a brilliant second-half brace from striker Jean-Philippe Mateta, but United suffered their seventh home defeat of the season.

This result emphasizes MU's complicated problem in the attack line. The defeat from Palace made the "Red Devils" drop back to 13th place in the standings. What is even more worrying is that MU's goal difference is still a deficit of six goals. MU is recorded as a team that is not too sharp. They only score an average of 1.2 goals per game and are ranked 15th out of 20 teams with the most goals in the league.

“Today we chose to play with Kobbie to take advantage of his characteristics. It doesn’t mean we don’t like Rasmus or Joshua. Sometimes, teams score goals by creating situations, to use the right characteristics. It doesn’t mean that if you play with two strikers, you will score more goals. So, I think it’s a problem for the team and we’ve been talking about it all the time. We need to improve our performance in every aspect of the game, especially scoring goals,” said Amorim when asked about MU’s goal-scoring problem.

From what Amorim said, it can be concluded that MU's efforts to unravel the problem of the front line's drag still have a long way to go. Mainoo, who was initially a glimmer of hope, turned out not to be able to bear the burden alone in a competition as tight as the Premier League.

The transfer market is Amorim's choice to improve the performance of the attacking line. In the January transfer market, MU was linked with a number of attackers such as Christopher Nkunku (Chelsea), Mathys Tel (Bayern Munich), and Leon Bailey (Aston Villa). However, the agreement to bring in Bailey is certain not to materialize.

"We have to improve as a team to score goals, and we are trying our best to improve the team. This (transfer) market is really difficult for the club, to make some deals here, it's difficult," Amorim said.

So far, Amorim has only secured the services of Patrick Dorgu. The right-back from Italian club Lecce is also Amorim's first recruit as MU manager.

Dorgu is considered suitable for Amorim's three-defender system which requires wing-backs in attacking situations. Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazaroui are considered not yet capable enough to carry out the task. (Reuters)