Wayne Rooney's not up to Manchester United's standard - signing a new striker is essential

It is no exaggeration to say that if Manchester United want to achieve their targets this season, they have to sign a new centre-forward before the transfer window closes. We are two games into the new Premier League season and Wayne Rooney hasn’t had a single shot on goal yet.

If United are to convince opponents they are a serious proposition this season they need a threat. Signing a top striker would also lift the dressing room. As much as the squad talk up Rooney in public – ‘Rooney this, Rooney that’ – they will know in the back of their minds that a marquee signing is required.

Rooney’s performance against Aston Villa on Friday was quite alarming as he touched the ball in the box once in 90 minutes. You can’t put it down to a lack of creativity behind him – that’s a problem United have gone to great lengths to address and now they have Juan Mata playing consistently it’s less of an issue.

Everything’s looking nice with United’s play until you approach the penalty box and then we have a problem. United simply aren’t having enough shots at goal at the moment: they had one shot on target in the opening 1-0 win over Tottenham and just two at Villa.

Sir Alex questioned whether Rooney could play that centre-forward role and Rooney spat out his dummy in reaction. But it was a searching question which had to be asked. And I don’t think Rooney has provided us with a rebuttal.

To me the situation is quite simple: Wayne Rooney isn’t equipped to play as a lone centre-forward for a club of Manchester United’s calibre.

Van Gaal might have decided Rooney will be his No. 9 but he doesn’t have the energy or the drive to play in that position; he doesn’t get the ball and run with it like he used to. The contrast with a player like Sergio Aguero is clear. Rooney isn’t even close.

You need a player who can carry the same kind of threat which Aguero did against Chelsea at the weekend, forcing John Terry off the pitch, but Rooney is incapable of doing that for United. Teams will just squeeze up tight behind him, knowing there’s no threat of him running in behind or stretching them.

If anything, he is going to have to adapt his game and become more of a traditional target man, letting other players take on the high-energy stuff. That would be a regressive move and an admission that he is not the player some people still talk him up to be.

And, if you accept he isn’t up to the job of starting as a striker, then does he even play at all? Does he have the quality to move back into a midfield role now Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger are on board? Can he play as a No. 10 with the dynamism of a Mesut Ozil or David Silva? Surely not.

Rooney might be United’s captain and within touching distance of breaking Sir Bobby Charlton’s goalscoring records for England and his club, but I genuinely think he is struggling to maintain his grip on a first-team place at Old Trafford at the moment.

Van Gaal is not the kind of manager to compromise and accommodate a passenger. But if you are looking at areas where Manchester United can improve, up front is number one. They have been addressing all manner of weak spots, investing hundreds of million pounds in the process, and now all the scrutiny is on Rooney and his supporting cast.

In his press conference on Monday ahead of the Champions League play-off first leg against Club Brugge, Van Gaal bristled at claims he only had one striker and cited Javier Hernandez, Adnan Januzaj and James Wilson. It’s not a particularly convincing line-up. Had someone asked him if he had the quality he needed, if that strike-force could go out and win the league, the response might have been slightly different.

Hernandez is good off the bench but he isn’t a player who can start matches and he isn’t a Van Gaal player. He pounces on chances and picks up the pieces, but at the moment United haven’t got any pieces to pick up. Januzaj isn’t really a striker and as for Wilson, he hasn’t had a run of games so we don’t know enough about him.

United are going through a period of transition and we’ve seen at Liverpool how painful and prolonged that can be. They have invested heavily in the squad and things are improving, but the process will not be completed overnight. More signings will have to arrive – and a striker is essential before the window closes at the end of the month.

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