This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
One of the hallmarks of the early Premier League era, the use of two out-and-out centre-forwards has completely died out as an art. No strike partnerships, no big man-little man combinations. Just a whole load of 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3.
The desire to win the midfield battle is understandable. It’s arguably the most crucial contest on the pitch, and it invariably decides who comes out on top at the end of the game. But what’s the point of that, if you haven’t got anyone to convert your dominance into goals? And that’s the exact problem Manchester United are currently facing.
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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer may proudly puff out his chest and point to his side’s 55.5% average possession in the Premier League as a sign of how well they may have performed this season. But the truth is, it’s been sterile. Not really going anywhere, and lacking any incision in the final third. As per Whoscored, the side have taken 13.8 shots per game, the fifth-highest in the division. Their total of nine goals however? That’s only good enough for 13th.
What the Red Devils desperately need, is a greater threat from inside the penalty area. Taking long-range efforts just boosts up the shot counter, and doesn’t increase the chances of scoring a goal than if you were much closer in. One way United can potentially rectify that, is by switching to a two-striker formation like yesteryear.
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All the talk surrounding the likes of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial has been whether the duo are natural strikers, or more suited to playing from the left. Often when they do play together, one of them gets shunted out wide. But if Solskjaer does move to a 4-4-2, then he can afford to play the duo as a strike partnership.
Speaking earlier this year in February, the United boss even talked up the prospect of the two forging an on-pitch relationship.
“They’ll play many, many years together. The relationship of, if one of them plays centrally, then the other one has to have opposite movements, because they go out-to-in sometimes. When they play central, they go in-to-out on those runs, so I think, in the coming years, we’ll see loads of combinations between those two.”
Having Rashford and Martial terrorise opposition defences as a tandem could go a long way in solving their goal-scoring woes. The latter’s return from injury cannot come soon enough for the Red Devils.
