The worry surrounding Marcus Rashford’s potential groin injury has given Erik ten Hag enough evidence that he is right to look for a marquee attacker this summer.
The striker hobbled off in some discomfort late on in Saturday’s 2-0 over Everton and the extent of his problem remains unclear. United have relied on him for their goals this season, the player scoring 28 in what is his most prolific campaign ever.
The next top scorer is Bruno Fernandes who has 10 goals. The return of Anthony Martial is a boost but his injuries have caused several issues for Ten Hag while two-goal Weghorst’s race looks run.
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Rashford has 38 goal contributions overall this season - the best in the team. His set-up for Martial’s goal at the weekend took him to 10 assists with only Fernandes ahead of him on 12.
He played a significant role in Scott McTominay’s opener too, keeping his composure on the edge of the box before pulling away a marker to allow the space for his teammate to power home on 36 minutes.
It’s no wonder United are fretting over his fitness ahead of Sevilla in the Europa League quarter finals on Thursday. But the bigger issue at hand is vindicating Ten Hag’s forthcoming summer pursuit of Harry Kane, with the first half against Everton making it as plain as day.
United rained down a bucketful of efforts on the Toffees goal, forcing Jordan Pickford into a number of stops. Rashford had two chances of his own while Antony - yet to score a Premier League goal since October - missed a one-on-one opportunity and needed to have done better with another.
United should have been out of sight by the break and Kane would have ensured that the three points were in the bag before Ten Hag gave his half-time team talk. Looking at the England captain’s conversion rate this season shows why the United boss is so keen on him.
Consider the quality Rashford has shown this season - he has 15 Premier League goals from 79 shots which account for a 19 per cent success rate. Kane has scored 23 goals from 106 shots giving him a 21.6 per cent rate of fire.
In fact, his 17 per cent success rate from all of his Premier League seasons - 206 goals from 1,155 shots - is one of the best in the competition's history, averaging a goal every five shots. He did it within three in Tottenham’s 2-1 win over Brighton on Saturday.
Rashford had seven against Everton and didn’t convert - but this is not to critique the United star but merely show how clinical Kane is and how he would have aided the team’s cause to become unstuck from the Toffees.
Aside from Rashford, United have few dead-cert goal threats right now which was highlighted against Everton - 29 shots were fired in with only two goals to show for it (a 6.8 per cent conversion rate).
Ten Hag has said he wants to have at least two players in his squad who can score north of 15 goals per season going forward. So if it wasn’t obvious before, then Kane is a must-buy this summer.
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