It’s not just Rooney.
Plenty of criticism has been heaped on United captain Wayne Rooney for his side’s current travails in front of goal. Much of it is fair; Rooney himself would probably admit his performances this season have been below his usual standards.
But it is unfair to blame all of United’s troubles in their front third on one player. Football is a team game and more often than not a continuing failure to score goals is the fault of more than one player.
United have a fine array of attacking talent but at the moment it is clear that Louis van Gaal is failing to get the most out of them. But the Dutchman will be hesitant to make any changes to the structure of the front third given that his defence has excelled the majority of the season. United have already kept seven clean sheets in the first 11 league games. The 3-0 disaster at Arsenal aside, United have conceded just five goals in their other 10 league games.
Ordinarily these kinds of stats would put them into title consideration. Perhaps it is a telling sign of how poor their goalscoring has been that they are far from that conversation at the moment.
Wayne Rooney’s best position will again be the discussion of much debate, as it probably will for the rest of his career. But one thing is for sure, Van Gaal needs to get Martial more involved. Since his arrival he has looked like United’s most likely source of goals. United could do a lot worse – and perhaps, by not dropping Rooney, they already are – than to structure their attack around the talented teenager.
