Luhansk: Jose Mourinho has demanded more goals from Manchester United, with the manager pointing to the team’s lack of potency as a key factor for their faltering Premier League form. United host Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday having scored only 19 goals across 14 Premier League games this season. Zlatan Ibrahimovic is United’s top scorer in the competition with eight, but the Swede has been poorly supported by teammates. Juan Mata and Marcus Rashford have managed three apiece; Paul Pogba has two, with Anthony Martial, Wayne Rooney and Chris Smalling having provided one each.
United have drawn six of their 14 league matches, scoring just twice across those fixtures, leaving them sixth, 13 points behind leaders Chelsea. “Sometimes little details make a difference and the goal is a big detail. We are not scoring enough goals for the football we play,” said Mourinho. “When we play against other teams in the Premier League, the goalkeeper is normally man of the match. They save everything. Goals make a huge difference so we need to score more goals.” The Portuguese compared Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Everton with Thursday night’s 2-0 victory over Zorya Luhansk which sealed their passage to the Europa League knockout stage. “1-0 up [at Goodison Park], complete control, [Ander] Herrera hit the post, no 2-0. They go there in the last minute, goal. Against Zorya 1-0, we go there in the last 10 minutes, we scored the second goal. Game over,” he said. Rooney struggled against Zorya and appeared dejected when he was replaced during the second half. Of the captain’s lack of goals, Mourinho said: “In my team, he is an attacking player — he will play as a nine or a 10, or eventually coming from one of the sides. So as an attacking player, normally he scores more goals.
“He scored a couple, I think against Fenerbahce and one in the Premier League. We expect more goals from him, yes, but we expect more goals from everyone in the team. “Maybe Zlatan is the one but as the main striker it is normal that he has more goals scored. But all the other attacking players, we expect more goals from them.” United trail Tottenham by six points and are a further three behind Manchester City, who occupy the final Champions League berth. Of the need to start closing the gap by beating Spurs, Mourinho said: “It’s always important. It is always important to win. When we played Arsenal, it was important to win. We played to win, we deserved to win, but we didn’t win. We played against Everton. We played to win, we deserved to win, but we didn’t win. “Every game is important to win, so against Tottenham we are going to try to play. We are going to try and deserve [victory] and we are going to try to win. I think the team is playing very well. I think the team is playing very well and probably the Ukrainian fans did not see the best Manchester United of the season.
“Because the best Manchester United of the season was the team that played the last four, five or six matches in the Premier League, and managed one victory and four or five draws. We are playing very, very well, but we need more goals.”
Luke Shaw and Chris Smalling remain unavailable for Sunday’s game due to their respective injuries, Mourinho said, while Eric Bailly came through a first start against Zorya since late October following a knee problem. Mourinho will lose the Ivory Coast defender for the Cup of African Nations that starts next month. “He is a big loss but we know that, so let’s hope that Smalling can recover in time to replace him in the squad,” said the manager. “With so many matches, we need players. In this moment, I think we have [Phil] Jones, Bailly and Marcos [Rojo]. OK, we play Tottenham, we play Crystal Palace, West Bromwich, Reading, semi-finals [EFL Cup], West Ham away — in that period we have lots of matches and it’s important to have more options. Smalling will be back I think by end of the year, by Christmas.”
