After drawing for the fifth time in seven games against Watford, Ralf Rangnick believes Manchester United have a striker shortage.
United drew 1-1 in four games in February before being held to a goalless draw at Old Trafford on Saturday by 19th-placed Watford. United had 22 shots on goal, but only three of them were successful.
Cristiano Ronaldo hit the post in the fourth minute, and his performance in his sixth start in 22 days deteriorated. Ronaldo has only scored one goal in his previous ten games and has been marked offside 25 times, which is more than any other player in the Premier League.
Ronaldo, 37, is United’s leading scorer with 15 goals, followed by Bruno Fernandes, who has nine. Marcus Rashford, a left winger by trade, has five goals in four months but his form has been poor for over a year, while Anthony Elanga has three goals this calendar year.
Edinson Cavani has been out with a groyne injury for the last three weeks, but the 35-year-old has only scored twice this season and is set to leave when his contract expires.
Rangnick has already stated that United need a younger centre forward in the summer, but he has also shown his dissatisfaction with the present squad’s lack of specialist strikers.
“As you mentioned, Edinson is unavailable,” Rangnick replied. “We don’t have a lot of other centre strikers on the team.” Marcus and Jadon were brought on for the last 15-20 minutes. Almost all of our offensive players were there on the field.
“As I have stated, we must play with the players we have.” I spoke with him before the game yesterday, and he assured me before the training session that he is fully fit to play, which is why I chose to put him in the starting XI.”
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