Manchester United have a striker crisis
Alex Ferguson’s transfer dealings during the summer pissed a lot of Manchester United fans off – people thought he was mad not to buy a striker, mad to send away Rossi, mad to splash 14 mil on Carrick instead of spending that money on a defensive midfielder and a striker, mad for selling Ruud van Nistelrooy.
This season, Ferguson took risks. One of them has paid off, with Manchester United’s excellent squad spirit and pre-season preparations helping them to the top of the Premiership table. Evra, Vidic and Scholes have a major role to play here, and for this Ferguson must be praised.
Another of those risks has backfired, even if no damage has been done so far. Ruud’s departure meant that Manchester United were restricted to two main strikers, of which one was coming back from injury (Rooney) and the other (Saha) was fairly injury-prone himself. Of the backups, two (Solksjaer and Smith) were returning from long-term injuries, and the third was a young kid with little first-team experience (Rossi).
Rossi was loaned out, Solskjaer warmed the bench as Ferguson, United and a legion of fans waited for Alan Smith to recover his fitness, and then his form.
But the kid’s not flying fit, and after a handful of games he’s definitely off-pace. He needs regular games but the sad reality is that if you are going to choose between Solskjaer and an off-form Smith you’d go with Ole for his intelligence and positioning.
And because Smith needs games, Ferguson has accepted loan offers for the striker, with Cardiff and Leeds hoping to get Alan Smith playing for them this season in the Championship. United have accepted Cardiff’s offer, but Smith wants to stick around, and considering the pride Smith has (this is a striker who was once toyed with as backup to Owen and Rooney before Crouch, Defoe and company came along), he might just stay.
But with only 2 strikers with any serious pace and penetration, Manchester United now have little option but to wait for Rossi to return from Newcastle.
Who will support Rooney and Saha? The obvious names are Ronaldo and Giggs, with Solskjaer likely to be limited to emergency service. In midfield Fletcher can cover for Ronaldo on the right, while Park is due to return from injury soon.
Short on numbers? If only we could stay fit till January now…
Topics: Manchester United
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A ‘Striker Crisis’ suggests that were struggling. We’ve scored 26 goals in 11 games. Thats not exactly a crisis is it?
Solksjaer has already banged in 4 goals in the premiership, and he’ll be back before Christmas. Saha and Rooney are showing their class at the moment, and Ronaldo and Giggs are both capable of playing as support strikers.
Arsenal have Van Persie, Adebayor, Henry and Walcott, yet they cant seem to put the ball in the net right now.
That said, Defoe would be a great signing in January if he became available. I cant see him wanting to spend much longer on the Spurs bench, and he wont get a start ahead of Robbie Keane or Berbatov anytime soon. If hes available for under 10m, then we should get him. He’s English too, and knows most of the lads from internationals, so he’d fit straight in. Plus hes mates with Carrick and Rio from his Hammers days, so he should feel at home straight away.
November 11th, 2006 @ 05:00Without a doubt, it is definitely a striker crisis. Only United’s first XI looks class nowadays and we do not really have a good replacement for Saha. There will be great trouble if injuries crop up during the crucial December X’Mas period.
I would like to see Ferguson retain Smith although I admit he needs games. Backup is really important for the stack of games coming up.
November 11th, 2006 @ 10:42Yea Ahmed .. dont agree that its a crisis .. yet. It depends on injuries and suspensions. To say that Saha is injury prone and rooney is lacking touch so therefore theys should have another striker doesnt fit. If there are some injuries like the one Ole has right now, there is a possibility of a crisis with only saha rooney and smith available with smith on the way out on loan. Lets face it smith needs games, he sucked ass against southend, totally useless and the only way he is going to get games now that the carling cup is over and FA cup not started and Champions league group stages about to end, is to go on a short term 3 month loan. Plus im tired of saying they saying he shouldnt have spent 14 million on carrick but considering the fact they made 12 million from obi mikel(haha), he spent 2 million out of his transfer budget, excluding ruud transfer money, so he has more than enough money, just have to wait and see what he does with it.
November 11th, 2006 @ 10:52I tend to agree somewhat that its a crisis. But, it can easily be rectified. Lets just hope we can pull through the next couple of weeks without injuries.
Personally, in hindsight, I feel that SAF did very well (transfer-wise and teambuiling), but should take another risk in January. Instead of buying a young striker (like Torres,etc) I think he should get someone experienced, prolific, cheap and somewhat old (anyone you know of that fits this bill???). This striker’s role should be mainly to provide depth and numbers for this (and perhaps next) season. I would love him to then build Rossi. I think that the Rossi-Rooney pairing can really become something special.
November 13th, 2006 @ 14:13I have a personal ‘conspiracy theory’ where I belive that Ruud’s sale had much to do with keeping Ronaldo from going to Real. Thinking about it logically, there might be some sense don’t you agree?
1. Ruud declares he want to go to Bayern
2. United target Hargreaves
3. Ronaldo declares he want to go to Real.
4. United sell Ruud to Real (even though Bayern made better offer)
5. Bayern pissed-off –> no Hargreaves sale (even thoug they don’t need/want him, and bought replacements).
What do you guys think? Am I missing the plot completely?
November 13th, 2006 @ 14:18Matt – Solskjaer’s 4 ‘banged in’ goals included a deflection and one where he popped up right in front of goal and it rebounded to him from saha’s shot.
But there was one sweet goal from outside the box, don’t remember against who though.
Karl – conspiracy theory is possible, although Ruud had no problems going to Real either, and Ruud had no problems in staying either.
November 13th, 2006 @ 14:25