da spicy bet： A stinging defeat at the hands of newly promoted Bournemouth last weekend leaves Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal with some tough questions to ask and answer.
da bet7： The result – which continued the club’s recent trend of playing abject attacking football and being susceptible to soft goals – means that the Red Devils have not won in their last five games in all competitions. One of the saving graces for the Dutch coach his season has been that, up until recently, the Old Trafford outfit had been solid at the back.
Their misery rearguard effort at the start of the campaign propelled the club into the title mix and although they are currently five points adrift of leaders Leicester, United cannot be entirely ruled out just yet despite recent setbacks.
However, one thing clearly missing is a striker that can score goals. Leicester duo Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez have scored three more goals this season than the entire United squad.
The Red Devils have scored only one more goal than Bournemouth this term, and at 21 strikes in 16 games have netted considerably less than the teams around them in the table. The only saving grace has been the individualism of Anthony Martial, but with the Frenchman having gone off the boil slightly and Wayne Rooney injured and low on confidence, it’s been a dire situation.
As such, despite the likes of Radamel Falcao and Robin van Persie being granted Old Trafford exits in the summer, the major mistake that Van Gaal committed was allowed Javier Hernandez to leave.
The Mexico international was almost always on the fringes of the United team during his time in England, especially in his last two seasons, with his sale to Bayer Leverkusen appearing like the right move at the time.
However, since his switch to Germany, ‘Chicharito’ has been graced with time on the pitch and reminded the European football fraternity of his rare ability to score consistently. His first-ever club career hat-trick at the weekend against Borussia Monchengladbach took his Bundesliga tally to ten for the season, while the former United man has netted an impressive 17 goals in 20 games in all competitions for Roger Schmidt’s men.
The Red Devils are clearly lacking strength in depth in the striker position and had Hernandez still been at the club it looks likely that Van Gaal would have been glad to be able to call on him.
United need another striker and one with the Mexican’s unique abilities would have been absolutely ideal.
Hernandez may not be as impressive or all-round a centre forward as United’s current options, but he has the ability to be on the game’s peripheries and then suddenly strike with the winner for his team. His movement off the ball and clinical finishing ability have been the difference in plenty of games he has featured in and given that United are currently lacking attacking substance, Hernandez’s ability to score out of nothing could at least have the club winning ugly.
If and when the Old Trafford club go to the transfer market in January in search of a striker, it will likely be a player with similar attributes to the Mexican that is brought in to fill the void.
Had they not sold him in the first place, there is every chance that United still would be in the Champions League and be a lot closer to the Premier League’s summit currently.
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