Manchester United

Jose Mourinho criticises attacking players for 'lacking killer instinct'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 07 April 2017

Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho fails to hide his disappointment when asked about his side's attacking players, admitting that he currently lacks a 'killer striker'.

Jose Mourinho has again bemoaned the lack of natural goalscorers in his Manchester United squad and questioned the club's decision to offload Javier Hernandez two years ago.

The Red Devils have been frustrated with a string of home draws in recent weeks, being held three times in a row at Old Trafford after failing to make the most of chances.

Mourinho has already taken aim at Marcus Rashford, Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in the past week for their lack of goals, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic the only star player to be absolved of any blame following his impressive debut campaign in English football.

Speaking ahead of United's meeting with Sunderland on Sunday, a frustrated Mourinho reiterated his point by telling reporters: "We have some players that are not really players in love with the goal. They are good players, they are creative players, they can create but, naturally, they are not the kind of guy that is a killer.

"I give a simple example. In the way we play at Old Trafford, in the way we dominate opponents, in the way we play in the box, I think Chicharito (Hernandez) would have 20 goals easy. Even coming from the bench for the last 10 or 20 minutes, he would have 20 goals. He is the guy that, naturally, the ball comes here, rebounds here, rebounds there - boom, goal.

"The goalkeeper saves, he goes there - boom, goal. The cross is coming, he anticipates the first-post header, goal. We play well most of the time, not always obviously, but we play well, we create a lot, we don't score enough goals for the way we play and the teams that come to Old Trafford, they know that. They feel that and they defend. We are not strong or good enough to score the goals we should."

United, with nine home draws in all this term, are currently eighth in the overall scoring charts in the Premier League after finding the net 43 times - Ibrahimovic scoring 16 of those.