Schneiderlin not fazed by United’s goal drought

REUTERS – Manchester United’s dry spell in front of goal is nothing to be worried about, according to midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin, who says it is just a matter of time before manager Louis van Gaal’s men rediscover their scoring touch.

United failed to score for the third game in a row when they drew 0-0 with Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.

The draw came in the wake of them being knocked out of the League Cup by Middlesbrough on penalties on Wednesday with the game ending scoreless after extra time.

The cup exit was preceded by a scoreless stalemate against Manchester City on Oct. 25.

“We have the players to score goals and we will score goals. It’s not a worry for me,” Schneiderlin told the club’s website (www.manutd.com). “Sometimes it’s just a matter of taking the time to make a good choice.

“Every team is going to go through a period where they don’t score goals and are going to be unlucky.

“It will happen to the teams in front of us for sure. It’s up to us to win games and overtake those teams.”

United sit fourth in the table with 21 points after 11 matches, and Schneiderlin said they are still very much in contention to lift the Premier League trophy.

“Of course we are (in the title race). It’s still early as we head into November so there are a lot of games to be played but we are there,” the former Southampton midfielder said.

“It doesn’t matter if you are second, third, fourth or fifth in November. What matters is to be first at the end of May and win the games.”

Striker Wayne Rooney has failed to score in his last four games in all competitions, and has just two goals in 10 league matches this season, but Van Gaal said he would stick with his misfiring skipper and that deploying Marouane Fellaini as a target man would remain “Plan B”.

“When I put him (Fellaini) on as a striker, he is only a striker in Plan B, not Plan A,” the Dutchman said.

“He has played as a striker once, against Liverpool (when Rooney was out injured), but that was because I had a problem (with injuries) and that is why I made him the striker from the beginning. However, that is not normal.”

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)