Erik ten Hag believes that purchasing a new goal scorer this summer would be a huge help for Manchester United.
During Erik ten Hag’s press conference before the Bournemouth game, there was a lot of discussion about Anthony Martial, strikers, and goals.
“I don’t know [if we will see him again this season]; he is still with the medical staff. He’s out on the field now, but I don’t know if he will be available, no,” he said, according to United.no.
A journalist asked if he felt ‘let down’ by Martial’s lack of availability given United’s offensive struggles this season, to which Ten Hag expressed that it hasn’t been all that bad offensively in recent months.
“We have scored many goals recently. In the first half of the season, we didn’t score many, but after the winter, we’ve improved a lot in that area. Since January, we have scored in every single game [starting from Boxing Day, ed. note], and in the last few, we have scored more than once in our games,” he said.
He admitted, however, that there was a need for Martial.
“There’s no doubt that we counted on him. You need two strikers in the competitions we are in. You need multiple options, and you need to double up in all positions. In some positions, we haven’t had those options this season, and that includes the striker position, the left-back position, and it has a negative impact on the results,” Ten Hag said.
“Last season, we had even fewer [options up front], and we got through the season very well. The plan was obviously to go into this season with an extra striker, which we got in Rasmus Hojlund.”
A journalist then asked how important it would be to bring in a goal scorer this summer.
“I think it would be helpful. But in the plan we constructed [with Højlund in addition to the other attackers], we should have had enough goals in the team. You count on goals from ‘Rashy’ – who scored 30 goals last season – and you count on goals from Martial. He played very well in my first season, and in very important games, he had a significant impact on our performances,” he answered.
“So when you also bring in a goal scorer like Rasmus Højlund, there should have been enough goals in the team.”