What will the Man Utd attack if Ronaldo stays?

"Owning four strikers in the squad is always an advantage," coach Alex Ferguson once said when recruiting Robin Van Persie summer 2012 from Arsenal, although Man Utd had Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck. His point of view is that the more strikers have, the higher the ability to score goals.

In the 2012-2013 season, Van Persie won the second Premier League to the secondary Premier League in a row, with two different teams. He played 38 matches, scoring 26 goals. And Man Utd also scored 86 goals, the third good achievement with them in the 21st century.

According to The Athletic, that's why coach Erik Ten Hag resolutely hold Cristiano Ronaldo, although he no longer wants to stay at Old Trafford. There is a better striker, especially when Man Utd only Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial can kick.

In the last five seasons, the Top 4 teams that have scored the fewest goals have been Man Utd (68 goals), Chelsea (63), Man Utd (66), Chelsea (58) and Tottenham (69), respectively. According to this statistic, the team that wants to enter the Top 4 next season must ensure to score about 69 or more goals.

Top 4 teams last season have strengthened the striker with notable contracts, such as Erling Haaland (Man City), Darwin Nunez (Liverpool), Raheem Sterling (Chelsea) and Richarlison (Tottenham). And Man Utd has just brought to three rookies, both at the lower route, including defender Tyrell Malacia, Lisandro Martinez and midfielder Christian Eriksen.

Last season, Man Utd first ended a Premier League without a goal difference. Their defense has punctured 57 goals, the most history of the tournament. The team also scored 57 goals, of which the number of Ronaldo's goals accounted for 32%. Man Utd needs to score more than the previous season 12 goals, to have more opportunities in the Top 4.

Products Man Utd last season disappointed. Ronaldo scored nearly a third of the team's goals, despite the longest chain of his career. Fernandes scored 10 goals, but this parameter dropped sharply compared to 18 goals in the 2020-2021 season. Edinson Cavani rarely played, Jadon Sancho has not been able to catch up with English football, and Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial spent the worst season in Man Utd.

Ten HAG is trying to rebuild Man Utd's attacking play. In five friendly matches, they scored an average of 3.4 goals per game. While just friendly, the goals always help strikers like Rashford, Martial or Sancho more confident. They are expected to lead the attacking attack next season, with Fernandes playing in the public position.

Does Ronaldo without the ability to score these players have improved? It is guaranteed that if Ronaldo does not play, the chance of finishing of other players will be greater, leading to a higher ability to score.

In the last six seasons, Fernandes needs an average of 2.8 finishes to the goal to score a goal, and this performance is also stable over the years. In the 2020-2021 season, he sublime with 18 goals, from 51 finishes to the goal. Last season, the number of shots like that with Fernandes was only 29, down nearly half.

With Rashford, his performance is 3.1 in the last year. Like Fernandes, Rashford finishes the goal of 37 times 2020-2021, but that parameter drops to 12 times the season 2021-2022, not even one-third of the previous season.

Sancho and martial performance better, respectively 2.0 and 2.6 shots on the goal of a goal for one table. And Ronaldo's performance last season reached 2.4, with 18 goals from 43 shots on the goal. That statistics show that Ronaldo has a goalscoring performance from the high goal of Sancho.

Moreover, no longer Ronaldo, Man Utd will also do better in the stage to create pressure from afar. That helps them to win more balls, keep the ball longer and also lead to the ability to create greater opportunities.

Of course, Ten HAG still needs Ronaldo, when Man Utd is difficult to bring to another high -class striker even though the transfer period is still more than a month to close. Moreover, if Martial injured, he still needs a replacement player. Ronaldo will regularly come on the bench. But how to convince the 37 -year -old superstar to accept to abandon the "main" position will be a difficult problem for Ten HAG.