ANDY Cole, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Wayne Rooney, Dwight Yorke, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and I could name plenty more. Over the years, Manchester United have had some fearsome strikers but heading into next season there are question marks around who the main man is for United.
Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial have both been among the goals in pre-season, as has 17-year-old prodigy Mason Greenwood, yet there is no stand-out choice. Although, it certainly isn’t Alexis Sanchez, who most fans would rather see leave than play in a United shirt next season.
It begs the question – who should be considered United’s No.9 next year? Romelu Lukaku currently wears the number but he’s on his way to Serie A, so Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has a big decision to make in choosing his main striker.
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There’s one player in the squad who wore it previously and that was Anthony Martial in his first campaign, his best season at the club. He was a predator in front of goal that year – left foot, right foot, it didn’t matter, it was all clinical. His first goal on his debut against Liverpool won’t ever be forgotten by United fans. Yet, United took it away from him when Zlatan Ibrahimovic joined and he’s never had the same spark since. Maybe he needs that number back to truly re-light the fire in his belly, maybe that’s what’s missing for Tony.
Why not Rashford? Ever since he exploded into the team against FC Midtjylland and Arsenal with four goals in his first two appearances, Rashford has been at the forefront of United’s attack. Last year under Solskjaer, he matured and showed a clinical side to his finishing that eluded him before, but he finished the season with a whimper, so there are still question marks over whether Rashford is good enough to lead United’s line.
The wildcard option in the current team would be Greenwood. I’ll say it now – he’s a more complete striker than Rashford ever will be. Greenwood can run at a defender, shoot off both feet, cut inside, run outside and more – he can do it all. I think he’s got the ability to go on and be a top-class striker but to give him that number this season would put the sort of unnecessary pressure on him Solskjaer will be keen to avoid. He might be good enough already but Ole will ease him in slowly.
Maybe then, it will be a new player. A new striker, somebody who has experience at the highest level, a real winner who has scored a hat full of goals and is a born finisher – somebody like Paulo Dybala. In his career, he’s scored over 100 goals in just shy of 300 appearances and on paper he’d be the perfect candidate, a player with a classy touch like Dimitar Berbatov combined with the predatory instincts of a Van Nistelrooy. Of course, United need to actually sign Dybala first.
Out of all the current options, I’d give the shirt number back to Martial because of what it would mean to him, but the fact I can’t immediately choose a new No.9 does sum up a problem this United team has and one of our strikers needs to step up next season and take centre stage. We need somebody up front who we can rely on for goals every week. That doesn’t have to be the man wearing No.9 on the back of his shirt but whoever Solskjaer does go for will be tasked with a bigger responsibility of wearing that number.
