It is fair to say that Manchester United‘s 2024/25 campaign has not gone to plan as they currently sit 15th in the Premier League and closer to relegation than the top four.
They started the season with Erik ten Hag in charge and swiftly moved on from the Dutchman before appointing Ruben Amorim in November, but the Portuguese boss has failed to turn their form around.
The Red Devils fought back to secure a 2-2 draw with Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday, a game in which they lacked spark at the top of the pitch for the most part.
United do not have a centre-forward who can win them games with moments of magic, dragging them to wins, as they once did with a former Everton striker, Wayne Rooney.
Wayne Rooney’s Manchester United record
Back in the summer of 2004, Manchester United swooped to sign the English number nine from the Toffees for a reported fee of £27m to bolster Sir Alex Ferguson’s attacking options.
As you can see in the graphic above, Rooney went on to score a staggering 253 goals in all competitions for the Red Devils, leading the club to five Premier League titles in total.
He played in a multitude of positions during his time at Old Trafford, but the generational attacker scored 188 goals and provided 92 assists in 374 matches as either a centre-forward or a second striker, which shows that he provided a regular threat as both a scorer and a creator of goals.
Rasmus Hojlund (two) and Joshua Zirkzee (three) have combined for five goals in the Premier League this season, which shows that Amorim does not currently have a striker who is anywhere near as good as Rooney was for the club.
Man United may have their next Wayne Rooney
The Portuguese head coach could, however, have a young talent with the potential to develop into a Rooney-esque talent for the club in the future in the form of 17-year-old prodigy Chido Obi-Martin.
United signed the teenage prospect from Premier League rivals Arsenal in the summer and he made his first two top-flight appearances against Spurs and Everton this month.
The Denmark U18 international, who was described as a “wonderkid” by U23 scout Antonio Mango, has scored 12 goals and provided two assists in 12 appearances for the Red Devils at youth level this season, which has earned him first-team recognition in recent weeks.
|
Chido Obi-Martin (U18 Premier League) |
23/24 (Arsenal) |
24/25 (Man Utd) |
|---|---|---|
|
Appearances |
18 |
6 |
|
Goals |
32 |
5 |
|
Assists |
3 |
1 |
|
Minutes per goal |
45 |
68 |
As you can see in the table above, his impressive form for Manchester United this season comes off the back of his extraordinary campaign for Arsenal in the U18 Premier League last term.
Obi-Martin, who has scored seven goals in three FA Youth Cup matches this season, was once hailed as a “goalscoring machine” by talent scout Jacek Kulig, and his statistics for United and Arsenal back that claim up.
The young star, who scored ten goals in one U16 match against Liverpool in 2023, is a special centre-forward with potential, as further evidenced by Amorim’s decision to include him in the first-team squad in the last two games.
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It is now down to Obi-Martin to make the step up to the first-team and translate his exceptional goalscoring prowess at youth level over to the senior side, as his form for the club’s academy suggests that the potential is there for him to emerge as the new Rooney at Old Trafford in the years to come.
