Manchester United seemingly got their season back on track after the Champions League win over CSKA Moscow on Tuesday night, but let us remind you that it was a late solitary goal by Wayne Rooney that gave them the win.
United has had a hard time scoring of late, with manager Louis van Gaal getting stick not only from former United players, but the crowd as well, who are seemingly fed up with the Dutchman’s love of defensive based possession football.
And while the Red devils defence is solid, in part thanks to van Gaal’s love of playing two defensive midfielders, it is in attack where changes need to be made including a top striker after having not replaced Robin van Persie and Radamel Falcao, when the pair left Old Trafford during the summer.
When you scour the list of strikers available, one name in particular stands out and that is former Bayern Munich striker Mario Gomez who is currently on loan at Turkish side Besiktas where he seems to be having no trouble finding the back of the net, unlike his struggles in Serie A with Fiorentina who he joined in the summer of 2013 for a fee believed to be around 20€ million.
The Red Devils boss knows the now 30-year-old German international from his time with Bayern Munich and rates the German international highly saying: “I was manager of Bayern Munich, and there the striker was Mario Gomez. He touched the ball nine times as an average in a game. The highest was 14 balls, but he scored every game and I don’t think that our strikers touch the ball less. It’s how the balls are coming to him, how he decides, how quick he is in dealing with the situation, it’s much more complicated than everyone is thinking.”
With Manchester United still having aspirations of winning the Premiership a striker such as Gomez may just be the answer to the clubs lack of goals, and given that Fiorentina wants to sell, van Gaal could very well end up with a January bargain.
