Strikers win you matches goes the well known cliché. Subsequently, it becomes all the more important for a top notch club like Manchester United to have four top notch strikers at its disposal. Currently, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Javier Hernandez are the strikers on the club’s roster.
Dimitar Berbatov is on his way out, Michael Owen has been released. Young and upcoming striker Will Keane is to go out on loan once he recovers from breaking his metatarsal. Federico Macheda is yet to acquit himself fully with the demands of being a regular top flight striker. So really speaking, we are looking at a situation where either the club buys a new striker or relies on the three it already has.
Manchester United need to go out and get a new striker. It’s not as if the strikers are facing a drought or something but given the overall scenario (which I shall enunciate now) there is a need to go out and buy a new striker. Welbeck is just 21. He is still learning the tricks of the trade. His finishing is a 6/10 at max which is not at the moment good enough for a club such as ours.
Rooney prefers the CAM role where he drops into the hole behind the main striker and links up play from midfield. Chicharito has suffered from the second season syndrome. He has been injured and hasn’t added to his game that much which has led to his impact on United’s play diminishing to such a degree that an upstart like Welbeck dislodged him from his starting spot, much the same way Chicharito dislodged Berbatov from his.
The past season has seen United struggle to be dominant in midfield with their lack of creativity and strength in the centre being exploited time and again by the opposition teams. This has been partially addressed with the capture of Shinji Kagawa from Dortmund and efforts are on for further reinforcements. One guy who fits the striker bill perfectly is Robert Lewandowski of Dortmund.
Lewandowski is tall, fast, 23 years old, can dribble well and is a prolific shooter. He has just come off a quite brilliant season at Dortmund scoring 22 goals in the German league. He was named the league’s player of the year. He links up really well with Kagawa and their partnership can be continued at United.
His arrival would put the pressure on the likes of Welbeck and Hernandez to up their game significantly otherwise they know they would be shunted to the bench. He can link up well with Kagawa as they used to do at Dortmund and can work well with Rooney given his attributes. His height (6 ft) is a big help as he can meet aerial crosses and pose problems in the air for opposition centre halves.
He would cost at the max £18-22m but given that he is 23 and has his best years ahead of him, it would be a good piece of business for United if they went ahead and purchased him. Plus, his arrival would mean that Rooney could drop into the hole if he wanted thereby leading to greater flexibility in the team’s play. Lewandowski isn’t a greedy fellow like Eden Hazard, so won’t demand £200k+ wages and so that won’t be much of an issue for the club. United should definitely go for him.
Yashasvee Prasad
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