Marcus Rashford celebrates against Ipswich
Marcus Rashford scored the first goal of the Ruben Amorim era - and should be getting plenty more
For a statistic that tells the story of Manchester United's goalscoring problems, consider this: not a single player in this squad scores at a rate of one in three games or better for the club.
Or this one: Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford have scored 62% of the 353 goals for United in the current squad. And the sixth-highest scorer for United still on their books currently plays for Chelsea.
There is no way of sugar-coating it. This team doesn't score anywhere close to enough goals, and as much as Ruben Amorim talks of unlocking improvement in the current players rather than turning to the transfer market to solve those issues, it feels inevitable that the chequebook will have to come to the rescue sooner rather than later.
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Who is there to take on the goalscoring burden? At least one player in this squad should score 0.5 goals a game, or one every two appearances. Currently, only three players average more than 0.3 goals a game and none are above the 0.333 ratio that would signal one in three.
Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Hojlund have the biggest ceilings for that improvement, but both remain raw in the final third. Garnacho has 22 goals in 105 games for the club, and Hojlund has 18 in 56. Both of those records should improve under Amorim.
Fernandes is pretty blameless, given his role as an attacking midfielder. Not only does he have 83 goals in 251 games, as well as 73 assists, but his scoring ratio is the best in this squad. He is the most creative player in the squad and the most likely to put those chances away.
Then there is Rashford. With 136 goals, he is the top-scoring player for United in the squad. Having scored 30 times in 2022/23, he is also the forward with the best CV. On three occasions he has scored 20 or more in a season, but sandwiched between those he had campaigns when he scored five in 32 games and eight in 43. His inconsistency is a significant problem.
But it also feels telling that successive managers are now putting the onus on Rashford to hit those levels on a more regular basis. The academy graduate riled Erik ten Hag with a couple of unauthorised nights out, and even back in September, the Dutchman was talking about Rashford's lifestyle.
When Rashford hinted at a return to his best form earlier this season, Ten Hag was asked whether the 27-year-old had learnt from his misdemeanours last term.
"I think he always knew, and every player knows, because when your lifestyle is not right you can't perform," he said. "You don't get the right levels when you don't have a good and disciplined life away from Carrington."
Ten Hag also added: "At the end of the day, he has to do it by himself. He has to set his life right, his training attitude right, his match attitude right. When he sets his professionalism, he will perform because he is a class player."
Fast forward two months, with a different man in charge, and Amorim is sending a similar message. Rashford scored the opening goal of the Amorim era at Ipswich Town, but the head coach is now sceptical as to whether he can lead the line, certainly against more physical defences.
"I will try to help him," Amorim said. "That position is not the best one for him, especially in a game like that. We have to kick with high pressure, we have to kick the ball so many times and it was like fighting with two giants.
"We'll try to find the right solution for him, as for the other players. But he has to be Marcus, first of all, to try to return to that moment and then he will have all the help of the staff, the club and the fans because he's a Manchester United boy. But he has to be the first one to want it."
"He has to do it by himself" and "he has to be the first one to want it" are remarkably similar sentences, issued about the same player by different managers.
Rashford is the player who can flick a switch and suddenly help to solve United's goalscoring issues. But as successive managers have now pointed out, he is the one who has to lead that change.
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