Friday 30 October 2015 23:33, UK
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal is concerned Wayne Rooney and his team mates are putting too much pressure upon themselves to score goals.
United are fourth in the table, just two points behind the leaders, ahead of Saturday's trip to Crystal Palace, but have scored the lowest number of goals among the top six, with England skipper Rooney bagging just two.
Van Gaal thinks the problem might be his players are trying too hard and pointed out that, during his time in charge at Bayern Munich, Mario Gomez scored almost a goal a game despite rarely touching the ball.
Rooney had around 50 touches of the ball during last weekend's 0-0 draw against Manchester City, which is his average number this season.
And Van Gaal said: "Players are human beings and they want to score goals but maybe they want it too much and maybe then the choices are not always good.
"Maybe he (Rooney) is doing too much, because you never know as a player how you can improve your shape or your finishing. It can also (create) a lot of doubt and I try to influence that.
Players are human beings and they want to score goals but maybe they want it too much and maybe then the choices are not always good.
"It can be too hard and then your mental state shall be a little bit less. That has an influence on everything and that's the most difficult thing as a manager and player to cope with.
"When I was manager of Bayern Munich, the striker was Gomez and he touched the ball nine times on average in a game - the highest 14 touches - but he scored every game.
"I don't think our strikers touch less the ball - it's how the balls are coming to him, how he decides, how quick he is in dealing with the situation."
