Where Will Manchester United's Strikers Fit In This Season?
Manchester United today announced the signing of Portuguese striker Bebe for £7.4 million. This in itself is not remarkable, as the club have a history of investing in outstanding young players from Portugal.
What makes this move surprising is the fact that it takes the total number of strikers at Old Trafford to eight. Most Premiership clubs have three or four strikers, some have as many as five, but to keep eight strikers on the payroll is virtually unheard.
It will be impossible for Alex Ferguson to keep all of his attackers happy this season and it will be interesting to see who steps up to the challenge of scoring goals in Premiership football and who ends up making only sporadic appearances in the Carling Cup.
The days of exorbitant investment at Old Trafford are a thing of the past and the emphasis is now on acquiring up and coming youngsters. Ferguson is presumably hoping that at least one of the current crop of young strikers will eventually establish themselves as a World Class player, but who will it be? And who will get left behind in this Old Trafford revolution?
This is my guide to the strikers currently at Old Trafford:
Wayne Rooney
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Wayne Rooney is Manchester United's main man. Without him the club would have struggled severely last season. With Rooney in fantastic goalscoring form they challenged for Premiership honours and only narrowly came up short.
Rooney was rightfully named the Premiership player of the season and Ferguson will be hoping for a similar impact from the striker this time around. However the Manchester United manager remains a realist and he knows that with a World Cup campaign under his belt, albeit a brief one, Rooney is unlikely to play such as prominent a role this time around.
Ferguson appears to have gone for quantity as much as quality in finding players to share Rooney's goalscoring burden, but it is still impossible to understate the importance of the English striker to the Old Trafford cause.
Everyone involved with the club will be hoping that Rooney can retain both form and fitness and singlehandedly spearhead the Manchester United attack for the second successive year.
Dimitar Berbatov
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There are absolutely no question marks over Dimitar Berbatov's ability, which is probably a good thing because questions hang over the Bulgarian in almost every other department. He has been accused of being lazy, inconsistent, unreliable, and disinterested since completing a £30.75 million move from Tottenham Hotspur.
While many supporters would be happy to see the back of Berbatov, his manager will be highly reluctant to write off such an expensive signing. Ferguson rarely gets it wrong when it comes to big money signings and will still feel that Berbatov has plenty to offer in a Manchester United shirt.
On paper, he is the perfect foil for the hardworking Wayne Rooney, but in practise the two have rarely hit it off. Berbatov is more than capable of providing the guile with which Rooney can thrive off, but on too many occasions he has cut a frustrated figure at Old Trafford. Berbatov is in danger of forever being associated with the image of him with his hands on his hips.
It is perhaps unfortunate for Berbatov that the hard working, fan favourite Carlos Tevez was dispensed in order to give him more playing time, and he has yet to really emerge from the Argentinian's shadow. There is still plenty of time for Berbatov to force the club's fans to re-evaluate their opinions of him, but he needs to step up and make his mark sooner rather than later.
Michael Owen
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When Michael Owen is fit he scores goals. He scored nine last season despite missing much of the campaign due to injury. Now at age 30, he should be in his prime, but he has not managed to score more than 20 goals since the 2002/03 season.
This has nothing to do with Owen's ability and everything to do with his fitness. If he started every single game for Manchester United this season, he would undoubtedly score 30 goals. Unfortunately, Owen's game has always revolved around his pace and his ability to use it to gain that crucial half a yard.
If he can stay fit, he is still one of the greatest goalscorers in the English game, as his hat trick in the Champions League last year amply demonstrated.
Bereft of the pace he once possessed, Owen is no longer such a threat. He still has the potential to be a tremendous asset for Manchester United, but as he approaches his 31sth birthday, the clock is ticking for Michael Owen. He needs to show that his body is still capable of withstanding an entire season of competitive football. If not, his playing days may be numbered.
Javier Hernandez
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The 22-year-old Mexican striker was snapped up before the end of last season and is highly rated on Old Trafford. Ferguson feels his pace will be a threat and he has found the back of the net a few times in preseason.
Hernandez managed to get off the mark in the Charity Shield against Chelsea, although it is not a goal he will want reminding of, as he almost missed an open goal, somehow deflecting the ball off his head and into the net.
Hernandez has been described as a natural goalscorer and averaged almost a goal every other game for his club side in Mexico and the Mexican national side.
Hernandez will at least be involved in the squad for the majority of matches this season and will be given every opportunity to establish himself in the first team.
Bebe
5 of 8Very little is known about Bebe and some have questioned whether he is even a striker. One thing everyone seems to be able to agree on is that he cost £7.4m, a large sum of money by any set of criteria.
Bebe only signed for Vitoria de Guimaraes five weeks ago, but supposedly impressed so much in preseason that Ferguson was willing to match his buy out clause. His former assistant and the current coach of the national team, Carlos Quieroz, was supposedly instrumental in setting up the deal.
Bebe is tall, good in the air and two footed. His signing still constitutes a major surprise and it will be interesting to see how much playing time he gets this season. Ferguson might look to introduce him to the first team gradually, but given that he has blown a significant chunk of his budget on the striker, he will probably not want to wait too long.
Federico Macheda
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Macheda made an immediate impact when he burst into the Manchester United team at the tail end of the 2008/09 season, scoring a couple of crucial goals.
Injury severely impeded his progress last year, when he managed just five appearances in the entire campaign. He still averages a goal every third game in the Premiership and, at age 18, is a member of the Italy under 21 team.
Macheda was only 17 when he made his Manchester United debut and is still young. Opportunities are likely to be far and few between, with the arrivals of Hernandez and Bebe, and a return to Italy might be essential if Macheda is ever going to play regular first team football.
Macheda remains a real prospect but looks set to be sidelined by the arrivals of Hernandez and Bebe.
Mame Biram Diouf
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Mame Biram Diouf will have to put his Manchester United career on hold, as he has been loaned out to Blackburn Rovers for the entirety of the coming season.
Diouf looked promising in the few appearances he made for Manchester United last season, after becoming eligible to play in January. He averaged a goal every other game in Norway and Sam Allardyce will be hoping he can have a similar impact at Blackburn Rovers.
Diouf hails from Senegal and should at least play enough first team football at Blackburn to be able to renew his work permit. With so many strikers already in the squad, Diouf will have to make a serious impression on loan if he is ever going to force his way into the Manchester United side.
Danny Welbeck
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Alex Ferguson has a long history of introducing youngsters to the first team, and will hope that ultimately Welbeck can follow in the footsteps of Paul Scholes, Gary Neville, and Ryan Giggs.
Wellbeck had a loan spell at Preston North End cut short by injury last season and will spend all of this season at Steve Bruce's Sunderland. If he is to do enough to justify a place in the Manchester United squad next year, he will have to become a regular goalscorer at the Stadium of Light.
While the new home grown rules give clubs more incentive to offer players like Welbeck opportunities, the reality is that a striker has not really come through the ranks at Old Trafford since the days of Mark Robins and Mark Hughes.
If Ferguson really believed in the 19-year-old he would probably not have splashed out on Bebe and Welbeck's footballing future seems likely to lie away from Manchester.
