Jose Mourinho says more players need to chip in with goals this season if Manchester United are to challenge for the Premier League.
Europa League, EFL Cup and Community Shield glory was a decent return in the Portuguese’s first campaign in the Old Trafford dugout, as was Champions League qualification.
However, United finished in sixth place and an eye-watering 24 points behind champions Chelsea – despite losing the same number of Premier League games as Mourinho’s former club.
An unerring knack of drawing matches they dominated proved their undoing, struggling to break teams down when top goalscorer Zlatan Ibrahimovic was absent or stuttered.
Mourinho knows they were over-reliant on the injured ex-Sweden striker’s goals and wants more support for this season’s main man Romelu Lukaku.
“In my other clubs what I had was more players scoring goals,” he said. “Midfield players scoring goals, wingers scoring goals, central defenders good in the air scoring goals at set-pieces.
“We always had that so my teams always had the goalscorer, we always had the guy that scores more goals, but then we had the winger that scored 15 goals, we had the midfield player who scored 10 goals, we had the central defender that scored five goals.
“And last season we were focused on the goals that our striker was scoring and when he was not scoring, the team was a little bit in trouble to win matches.”
At the other end of the field, Mourinho is set to reinstate Phil Jones and Eric Bailly as his centre-backs against West Ham.
Bailly and Jones missed Tuesday’s UEFA Super Cup defeat to Real Madrid through suspension, but their continental ban does not impact domestic matches.
