Danny Welbeck has recently come under fire from the media and fans alike due to his lack of goals. His ability (or lack thereof) to find the back of the net has left many fans scratching their heads as to why he is one of the first names on both Manchester United’s and England’s teamsheets.

Now, I’d have thought that a striker that had scored only four goals in his last 40 league appearances for the Red Devils would be swiftly sent on a one way trip to League Two. Obviously, this is not the case, but why?

Fans of every single club up and down the country yearn for that 20-goal-a-season striker; that household name that is almost certain to fire your team to the league trophy. Marcus Stewart was Town’s most recent star with the Midas touch (albeit scoring only 19). His nous and predatory instinct fired us to the dizzy heights of finishing fifth in the Premier League back in 2000/01.

However, a top striker does not always mean top of the table. Darren Bent netted 18 goals for Charlton Athletic in the 2005/06 season, yet despite his efforts the Addicks only managed a 13th place finish.

The difference between Town’s and Charlton’s finishing positions is simple: Ipswich scored more goals. The Tractor Boys hit the back of the net 57 times compared to Charlton’s 41.

It is obvious that a team without a top striker needs goals from other areas of the pitch. You’d often see the likes of Matt Holland, Jim Magilton, Mark Venus and Richard Naylor on the score sheet in 2000/01. Their extra goals earned points that led to a much higher league position than with Marcus Stewart's alone.

I managed to get to the Middlesbrough game on Saturday and was impressed with the display – a well-deserved three points, and a well deserved man of the match award for David McGoldrick. Now do I think he is a 20-goal man? No, probably not. But that’s not a bad thing.

It has been proven by many teams that a top striker isn't essential to success. Examples of this include Reading’s 2011/12 campaign, in which their top striker Adam Le Fondre notched up just 12 goals and finished with his team as league champions. The same is true of Hull City last season, who finished runners-up, with their top scorer, Robert Koren, a midfielder, managing only nine goals.

I’m confident that McGoldrick can get into double figures this season, but as we all know, football is a team sport so there needs to be good performances and solid contributions from the rest of the players to enable him to do so. Maybe then we'll debunk the myth of the 20-goal man.

Surco72 added 16:48 - Sep 17 There are the exception to most points made about any football topic especially the 20 goal striker as you have pointed out with Reading and Hull ,but then start looking wider and the majority and you will see that Palace the other team promoted had Murray 20 plus , in recent championship seasons Saints and Lambert ,Norwich and Holt ,Qpr and Taarabat ,Sinclair and Swansea ,Newcastle and Carroll ,Wolves and Ebaanks Blake ,champions and promotion with a regular scorer . The premier league winners have had a 20 plus scorer for as long as I can remember Man utd - Van Persie ,Man city Aguero , Man Utd Berbatov ,Chelsea Drogba ,Man Utd Ronaldo etc . I would say that a 20 goal striker maybe not essential but to realistically be at the top of the league and challenging you need one and as you highlighted our best season for a long time was when we had Marcus regularly scoring . As for Wellbeck he does not have the pressure on him to score 20 plus goals as Man Utd have Rooney and Van Persie reaching these figures anyway

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denaugbac added 17:10 - Sep 17 Still think we should have tried harder to get DJ Campbell in the close season; so far hasn't started for Blackburn. He could be a 20+ man & his history for ITFC last season on loan shines for me
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theobald1985 added 17:15 - Sep 17 totally agree with Surco72 the exeptions you have mentioned in the article prove the rule you need a decent instinctive natural goalscorer. sometimes these goalscorers dont offer as much in general play but its goals that win games and you have a much better chance of progressing with a 20 goal a season man
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Fatcatevans added 20:03 - Sep 17 Wellbeck is a class act. He has scored 7 times in recent England games and his finishing at club level is improving. He may not score 20 goals a season but is a valuable member of uniteds squad and will feature for the national side for years to come. It's a team game. Some teams win with a prolific scorer, others share them around.
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StNeotsBlue added 01:14 - Sep 19 Danny Welbecks goals or lack of weren't too much of an issue as Man Utd had a 20+ goalscorer in RVP.
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CalneBlue added 07:35 - Sep 19 I can see where you're coming from. We certainly don't want to get hung up on this issue and as long as the team is scoring goals and winning then who cares? I would also argue that the current team is a work in progress and that MM has had to go back to basics to make us hard to beat and bring back confidence. So even if we did have a 20-goal striker he wouldn't get enough chances to score that amount of goals at the moment. But no manager in their right mind would turn down the chance of signing a 20+ goal man. They are quite literally worth their weight in gold and you could say that Campbell's goals kept us up last year. I suspect that we just don't have the funds to afford such a player. To his credit, MM doesn't moan about this as e.g. RK would have done - his approach is pragmatic and he works well with what he has - but I'm sure he would rip your arm off if offered the likes of a Billy Sharp. That said, I hope that McGoldrick can become that man. Why not? Natural goalscorers often reach their peak late twenties and he's still young yet.

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Pessimistic added 16:18 - Sep 20 I agree with Surco 72 and many others. We have a midfield that does not score and that not only adds pressure on strikers to wade in but defenders too! Mick Mills has said that he thinks our defence will score more goals this season than our midfield and I think he will be proved right. All the more reason to believe that without a prolific goal scorer are ambitions are severely muted.

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Pessimistic added 16:19 - Sep 20 Rather "our ambitions will be severely muted. "
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tractorboyz82 added 22:17 - Oct 19 On the way home just caught mick on the radio he said we need goal from all over the park and he said there winger scored today and then said we need our wingers to score does he not realise that tabb tunners skuse hyam are all centre mids we have no width or pace.ive gave Anderson his chance he looks hopeless would rather jet and that's saying somthing.
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