SCORE A GOAL

Wayne Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Louis Saha and Alan Smith cost
Manchester United £66m and between them they have produced four
Premiership goals from open play this season, three of which have come from
Smith. This is not a case of too many centre-forwards; of expensive boots getting in each other's way as Louis van Gaal discovered when desperately attempting to break down a 10-man Irish team in Dublin with Patrick Kluivert, Van Nistelrooy, Roy Makaay and Pierre van Hooijdonk.

The forward line Ferguson assembled at Old Trafford seemed so formidable
because they had such different attributes. Saha has frightening speed, Smith is a throwback to the classic English centre-forward epitomised by Nat Lofthouse.
Van Nistelrooy is a lurking predator, none of whose 119 goals for United has
been scored from outside the box. Rooney was described by Arsène Wenger as
the most complete teenage footballer he had ever seen.

And yet the statistic that United's record of 11 goals in a dozen games is their
worst since the 1973-74 relegation season appears profoundly shocking.
Ferguson could and should have pointed out that both in 1992 and 2002 they
started almost as sluggishly in front of goal and still ended up champions.

Instead, he hinted after the derby that it was hard to motivate his team for run-of-the-mill Premiership games. Denis Law, arguably the club's finest striker, argued that the Champions' League, where United remain fearsomely destructive at Old Trafford, is now the only stage that matters.

However, the theory that United now raise themselves for "big games" in the way that Ron Atkinson's teams used to beat Liverpool and fall apart at Oxford, is not exactly solid. If you examine United's record against England's other Champions' League competitors, they have won three of their last 10 matches. Like Claudio Ranieri in his final season at Chelsea, Ferguson finds himself imprisoned by the tyranny of too much choice. In a dozen matches he has used seven different striking combinations and overall more players than any other Premiership manager.

Ferguson has remarked that the four strikers he has now are better than the
quartet which drove his club to the Treble in 1999, although in that season Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke usually started. Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar
Solskjaer were both happy to be used as substitutes and were adept in the role.
And it should be added that the quality of football Manchester United displayed in that season may be unrepeatable.

It is actually the smaller teams they are finding increasingly problematic. In the
two seasons after winning the European Cup, United reached their zenith under
Ferguson, winning the title by 18 and 10 points respectively. Their first dozen
Premiership fixtures yielded 28 and 33 goals.

Fourteen matches, usually at Old Trafford and - one surreal afternoon against
Arsenal apart - invariably against run-of-the-mill sides, finished with United
scoring four times or more. They have not managed that, domestically, for 27
games; and in that afternoon Everton replied with three. You would have to go
back to December last year for an old-style United drubbing - a 4-0 hammering of Aston Villa.

Examining the raw statistics gives the clearest indication of why victories of any
kind are eluding Ferguson. The supply line to his strikers is an ageing one and
the flow of goals from midfield has largely ceased. Cristiano Ronaldo may
eventually be a convincing replacement for David Beckham but few would
consider Kleberson and Eric Djemba-Djemba the equal of a Nicky Butt, a Paul
Scholes or a Roy Keane in their pomp.

In 1999-2000 21 goals were scored by the midfield combination of Beckham,
Ryan Giggs and Scholes; the following season it was 20. This season the only
United midfielder who has contributed is David Bellion, regarded at Old Trafford
very much as a fringe item. Beckham is now in Madrid, Scholes has not
managed a strike in the Premiership since February while on Sunday Giggs
found himself clear on Manchester City's goal and blazed horribly wide.