Two Manchester United players need to ‘join the party’, winning games is more difficult without them

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Manchester United are dealing with an unexpected defeat after slipping to a 2-0 home loss.

Ruben Amorim‘s Manchester United have been in improved form lately, but a Premier League win at Old Trafford still evades the team.

Amorim won his first home Premier League match against Everton. Since then it has been a total disaster.

United have lost against Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, Newcastle, Brighton and now Crystal Palace.

Ruben Amorim tried tactical shift

Ruben Amorim made a change against Palace, selecting teenage midfielder Kobbie Mainoo up front.

It came after Mainoo played an advanced attacking midfield role against FCSB in the Europa League. It was a successful experiment.

This was a step too far, with Mainoo unable to execute, hitting the post early, but aside from that, it was a tough afternoon for the 19-year-old.

Speaking to MUTV, former United player Phil Bardsley focused on the players who were snubbed to make way for Mainoo, Joshua Zirkzee and Rasmus Hojlund.

He said: “I thought he did ok there, but they have two centre-forwards on the bench scratching their heads, wondering why they are not getting a run out.

“The strikers have to come to the party if we are going to start winning games.”

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Zirkzee and Hojlund benching understandable

It does not take too much head-scratching to work out why neither Zirkzee or Hojlund started the game, both players have been out of form.

Neither player have scored a goal since early December. It’s now February. And Rasmus Hojlund’s last Premier League strike was in October against Brentford.

Hojlund did earn praise with some positive off-ball movement in Manchester United’s win against FCSB – but it was not enough to earn a starting spot.

And there may have been some fitness and conditioning issues factored in, with this game just days after the trip to Romania.

Ultimately neither player can be surprised. And the point raised by Bardsley is right – that it’s a lot harder to win games without a striker.

Yet this is nothing new. United have been playing without a goalscoring striker for the past two months.