40-goals striker is Erik ten Hag’s choice to lead the line for Man United next season

40-goals striker is Erik ten Hag’s choice to lead the line for Man United next season

Manchester United struggled against 19th placed Burnley and eventually escaped with a 1-1 draw in their Premier League game at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Vincent Kompany’s men enjoyed most of the possession and carved open United at will and could have scored more if not for heroics from Andre Onana.

It was the hosts who took the lead through Antony but it was the same familiar sinking feeling as the Clarets joined a long list of clubs who have scored late on against the Red Devils this season.

United’s lack of goals throughout the campaign has been a major concern with the 20-time English league champions being the lowest scorers in the top-10.

Summer signing Rasmus Hojlund has 14 strikes to his name in his debut campaign and while it is a good start, it is far less than what the club needed.

The young Dane has been starved of service due to the manager’s tactics and against the Clarets, the 21-year-old managed to complete only three passes in over 60 minutes of action.

He had zero shots as well and apart from that mini-spurt of goals in six consecutive games, the Denmark international has looked lost out on the field.

Inconsistency was expected from a 20-year-old arriving in Manchester on the back of one season in Italy. But United cannot afford it right now.

Rasmus Hojlund needs help
They need an elite striker, someone Hojlund can learn from and as per Fichajes, Viktor Gyokeres is Ten Hag’s “obsession” to improve the frontline next season.

The Swede has 40 goals and 16 assists in 46 games across all competitions for Sporting CP, which equates to a goal involvement in every 67 minutes. Remarkable numbers indeed!

The 25-year-old was playing in the Championship last season for Coventry City and had managed 22 goals and 12 assists and earned himself a move to Lisbon for €21 million.

Gyokeres has a release clause of €100 million and Sporting will not agree to any deal for anything less than that. The Spanish outlet have claimed that United are open to including players in the deal to lower the price.

“Viktor Gyokeres has long been one of Manchester United’s main objectives to strengthen its squad for next season, and they are looking for a formula to reduce the purchase price of the Nordic attacker.

Gyokeres price
“Rúben Amorim, coach of the Lisbon club, assured at the time that they would only let their star scorer leave in exchange for the 100 million euro clause he currently has.

“The price is something that United would not be willing to pay, preparing an offer in which it would include players from the current squad to reduce that amount as much as possible and in this way offer Erik Ten Hag the forward that he has requested so much for 2024/2025.”

Considering Ten Hag’s own uncertain future, and with INEOS expected to take charge of transfers, whether the new backroom team deem Gyokeres worthy or not remains to be seen.