Fletch: We Need To Share The Goal Load

“There was a lot of pressure on Wayne to score all the goals last season and he took that burden on,” said Fletcher. “But sometimes that does not happen. All strikers go through phases when they do not score goals and that is when it is important that everyone else steps up and does their bit. As a team we have to improve every season. I think we saw that Nani and Valencia improved last year, and they are young, so they will continue to get better. But even Scholes and Giggs are trying to improve, and so am I, and so are the rest of the team. We are hungry and we all want to improve.”

Rooney missed 6 league games last season, against the likes of Spurs, Bolton and Blackburn, and we scored a total of 11 goals, an average of almost 2 goals per game.

If we compare the season just gone with the last season we won the league, we are given another insight to where our goal reliance lies.

Top scorer 08/09: 18
Top scorer 09/10: 26

2nd 08/09: 12
2nd: 09/10: 12

3rd: 08/09: 9
3rd: 09/10: 5

4th 08/09: 5
4th 09/10: 5

5th 08/09: 4
5th 09/10: 4

In 2008/2009, the highest four scorers other than top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo scored 30 goals between them. In 2009/2010, the highest four scorers other than top scorer Wayne Rooney scored 26 goals between them.

However, in 2008/2009 we scored a total of 68 goals and won the league. In 2009/2010 we scored a total of 86 goals. If we pretend Rooney scored just 18 goals last season, matching Ronaldo of the season before, United players still scored another 10 goals between them.