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United searching for goals

Manchester - Manchester United's goal-shy players tackle CSKA Moscow at Old Trafford in the Champions League on Tuesday looking to end a goal drought that now stretches to 325 minutes.

Since Anthony Martial's diving header earned United a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture two weeks ago, Louis van Gaal's side have registered successive 0-0 draws against Manchester City, second-tier Middlesbrough, who beat them on penalties in the League Cup, and Crystal Palace.

It is the first time since 2005 that United have gone three games without scoring, but Van Gaal has urged the club's supporters to show the same patience that they demonstrated during previous lean spells.

"I have seen periods and tendencies in Manchester United like in other clubs. It was not always the big Theatre of Dreams," he said on Monday.

"Now we have a bad period when you don't score because football is (about) scoring goals. We have to improve that and I hope we shall score against CSKA Moscow.

"But I know it is very difficult because they are very organised and they shall play more defensively than Crystal Palace."

United's latest stalemate saw them held by Palace at Selhurst Park on Saturday, where the visitors mustered just a single shot on target.

Their drop in productivity has coincided with Van Gaal's decision to move Martial, the Premier League's Player of the Month for September, to the left flank and utilise Wayne Rooney as a lone striker.

Rooney's dismal form has prompted calls for the United captain to be either dropped or withdrawn to a number 10 role and Van Gaal's tweak in the latter stages at Palace, when Martial went up front and Rooney moved out to the left, suggests the Dutchman may be thinking along similar lines.

Whichever attacking configuration he settles on, Van Gaal will hope it enables his team to register a first ever home victory against Russian opposition.


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