Manchester United fans walking down Marine Parade in Southampton on their way to St Mary’s may recall a past visit.

Almost precisely 12 years ago, Robin van Persie, who signed for £29 million from Arsenal, scored a hat-trick to secure a 3-2 win.

He also missed a penalty. The Dutchman, who was filling in for an ailing Wayne Rooney, could have scored four goals.

In the next day’s Mail Sport article, Matt Barlow gave him a 9/10 grade for his hat-trick, making it four in two starts. This was a hint of what was to come.

Van Persie scored 29 goals in all competitions, including 26 in the Premier League, helping United win the title. Erik ten Hag would benefit greatly from having a goal-scoring player like Van Persie on his United team.

 

 

 

Alejandro Garnacho (left), Marcus Rashford (middle) and Joshua Zirkzee (right) have scored just one goal between themselves in Manchester United’s first three games of the season

 

Attacking troubles lie in sharp contrast to Robin van Persie’s St Mary’s hat-trick. Twelve years ago.

In the 2012-13 season, Van Persie contributed 38 goals/assists, while Rooney had 26 G/A.

Fast forward to last season, and this goal-shy United team finished as the joint-lowest scorers in the top half of the league table, with 57 goals from 38 games.

No player at the club scored more than ten league goals, with captain Bruno Fernandes and Rasmus Hojlund reaching that mark, while their third greatest scorer, Scott McTominay, who tallied seven, was sold to Napoli this summer.

Let us take a closer look at their anemia.

Last season, Ten Hag’s United finished ninth, its lowest placing in Premier League history, and ranked 16th overall in terms of xG (Expected Goals) with 54.06.

They were ranked 10th in the league for touches in the opposition’s box (1,111), 11th for shots on goal (193), and 12th for counter-attack goals (3).

So, three games into the current season, with another £200 million spent to bring Ten Hag’s spending total to £600 million, have things improved?

After games against Fulham, Brighton, and Liverpool, they are ranked 10th for xG (4.64), 11th for shots on target (12), and 16th overall with 33 shots.

 

Erik ten Hag desperately needs to unlock his attacking players after finishing 8th last season

 

His decision to substitute Garnacho off against Liverpool was booed by fans at Old Trafford

What Ineos don’t need pointing out to them is no ranking above reads as 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th.

There are caveats to the data, not least the fact that Alejandro Garnacho, who scored seven times last season, will feel he should already have two to his name having missed an open goal versus Fulham, and seen a goal against Brighton chalked off because Joshua Zirkzee’s knee on the line was offside.

But there have long been concerns over United’s worrying lack of goals and one pertinent example came via former United midfielder Paul Scholes following a 2-0 defeat to West Ham in December 2023.

Scholes, working for TNT Sports as a pundit that day, had just seen United go four games without scoring a goal, the first time they’d stuttered like that since 1992.

‘United have got problems,’ he said then. ‘Goalscoring is a big issue, that’s four games without a goal and without creating, really. Second half I can’t think of a save the [West Ham] goalkeeper had to make.’

He continued: ‘You usually go through seasons where one or two of your forwards are maybe struggling with a bit of confidence and they can’t score goals, but it’s every single one of them.

‘There are no goals coming from anywhere. Goalscoring is a real problem, they’ve got to sort that somehow.’

Even more recently, former United striker Dwight Yorke is not at all convinced that since Scholes fired his warning, much has been done in the transfer market to fix issues.

Yorke told talkSPORT’s Inside Devils show: ‘I would say with United attacking, with strikers at the moment, I think that right now where United is at, they’re buying players to finish fourth.

 

The absence of £72million striker Rasmus Hojlund (second from right) has left a large hole

 

Bruno Fernandes, along with Hojlund, was United’s top league scorer last season with 10 goals

‘What I mean by that is that, the players they’re bringing in are good players, they’re not bad. But they’re not the elite players that United normally are associated with. So you will get that type of performance that we need to get back in the top four.’

With Hojlund, who picked up an injury during pre-season, still sidelined for a little longer, at Southampton the onus is going to fall upon Marcus Rashford and Zirkzee, the summer signing from Bologna.

The issue in that is that one claims to be a ‘9.5’ rather than a traditional No 9 forward and the other continues to look a shadow of the player who scored 30 goals in Ten Hag’s first season in charge.

Rashford in particular comes under immense amounts of pressure because people have seen how high his ceiling is. The worrying question over the past 12 months is how low is his floor?

‘He’s had two games this season Marcus Rashford and he’s not had one shot at goal,’ BBC pundit Alan Shearer said following United’s defeat to Brighton, in criticism that irked boss Ten Hag.

‘Fifty-seven goals they [Manchester United] scored last season. That was the worst in the top half. Ruud van Nistelrooy has been brought into there. He’s going to have to work his magic somehow.’

 

Zirkzee (right) scored on debut to down Fulham but himself admitted he is not a typical No 9

He was frustrated against Liverpool, losing chances, and there is a lot of pressure on him.

Rashford has zero goals and zero assists in three games for United, with his most recent competitive goal coming in an FA Cup victory over Liverpool on March 17.

Then there’s Zirkzee, a different Dutchman who has just arrived 12 years after Van Persie’s league-winning effect.

While no one expects Zirkzee to repeat similar results, his admission that he is more of a link-up guy than a creator leaves United worryingly short of scorers.

Zirkzee had 11 goals and five assists for Bologna previous season and rates himself as a 9.5.

‘I occasionally drop down to midfield to help the team, but I’m not a classic No 9 or No 10,’ he explained after scoring on his debut against Fulham.

‘I believe I have tremendous skills, and I want to use them to benefit the squad,’ he said. “Being different is good, right?”

 

Former United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy (right) is expected to boost United’s strikers.

Beyond the data, there is the eye test, which shows how many chances United should have taken in the opener against Fulham – Fernandes in particular had two golden opportunities, as well as the aforementioned Garnacho miss – and how they should have won at Brighton but for the tightest of offside calls on the line.

The problem for Ten Hag and United right now is that excuses are no longer acceptable as operational currency for an expectant Ineos executive team.

With an attacking unit that has spent more than £200 million in recent seasons and contracts worth up to £325,000 a week, they need goals now.

How they hope Zirkzee can channel Van Persie’s spirit on the south coast this weekend.