Before Manchester United welcomed Wolves to Old Trafford on May 13, they had scored just 49 goals in the Premier League.
Leicester had also scored 49 goals at that stage and could be playing their football in the Championship next season.
United moved beyond the 50-goal mark against Wolves but they remain well short of the rate their rivals at the top score at, with Manchester City (92), Arsenal (83), Newcastle (67) and Liverpool (60) not struggling to put opponents to the sword.
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Marcus Rashford has shouldered the scoring burden for the majority of the campaign, scoring 29 of United's 100 goals in all competitions, which makes his absence for any match a genuine concern.
Without Rashford, there is an obvious lack of firepower in the squad and it's little wonder that Erik ten Hag has made signing a striker his priority target. The Dutchman is 'obsessed' with signing Harry Kane and he would be the perfect solution.
Away from Rashford, the attackers have simply underperformed and their contributions haven't been good enough. Bruno Fernandes is the only other player who has broken double figures.
Anthony Martial, Jadon Sancho and Antony - who United paid a combined £216.41million for - have registered just over 20 goals between them and loanee Wout Weghorst has mustered two goals, both of which were rebounds.
Martial, speaking ahead of the weekend's game at Bournemouth, even acknowledged scoring goals has been a problem for the attacking unit.
"You know, we’ve got a great side, we’ve got a great squad. We’re well placed and with a lot of work between now and the end of the season, we can get there [top four]," Martial told United's in-house media.
"It’s always good when you’re a striker to get back on the scorehseet and to help the team with goals and I think it will be really important. I think confidence grows when you score earlier in a game.
"It’s true that we have struggled on occasions throughout the season to convert the chances that we’ve created and let’s face it, we have created a lot of chances. It’s something we’re working hard on in training."
The data confirms Martial's comments, as the expected goals metric shows United have scored around 10 fewer goals than would be normally anticipated. That also suggests the process should regress to the mean with a clinical striker.
It's hoped that, should they each remain at the club, Martial, Sancho and Antony will contribute more goals next season and along with signing a new, world-class striker in the summer window, the problem of struggling in front of goal should be addressed.
There were always bound to be areas for improvement in Ten Hag's first season in charge and if the team can score more goals, whilst also fixing their away form, there will be no ceiling set on what can be achieved.
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