Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Braut Haaland is currently the most talked about player in the world right now. With the striker’s future up in the air, the club’s immediate future playing at the top level in Europe has gone up in smoke as Dortmund fell victim on Matchday 27 to another striker currently making tremendous waves under the radar, Eintracht Frankfurt’s Andre Silva.

It’s quite poetic that the man who may have denied Borussia Dortmund a top-four Bundesliga finish this campaign is also being talked up as the perfect alternative to the Erling Haaland to grace a host of top European outfits in need of a reliable goalscorer, most notably Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United.

Barcelona, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Liverpool and United are all hot on the trails of Haaland, and while Solskjaer may be prioritising the capture of his compatriot, there is no guarantee Haaland will choose to join his former manager at Old Trafford, especially if Dortmund demand an astronomical fee.

United cannot afford to place all their efforts on signing the Norwegian this summer, there’s another goal-machine in the Bundesliga who has enjoyed as good a season as Erling Haaland and is arguably quite more experienced on the European stage, that is 23-goal striker Andre Silva.

Whilst the Haaland fired a blank as Dortmund fell to a 2-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt at the start of April, who occupy the last Champions League spot and now sit seven points ahead of the Yellow Blacks in the Bundesliga table with six games to go, it was Andre Silva continuing his fine form in front of goal putting Dortmund to the sword with a real poacher’s header in the 87th minute from a Filip Kostic cross at the Signal Iduna Park.

Frankfurt’s no.33 has now hit – at the time of writing – 23 goals from 26 Bundesliga games, an astonishing record, with four assists to add to his goal tally. His winning goal against Dortmund means been involved in more league goals (27) than Erling Haaland (26) and only four less than Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, who has struck 35 goals and six assists.

His goal scoring exploits of late, including his strike against fellow Champions League hopefuls Wolfsburg in an enthralling 4-3 win was a pointed message to everyone focusing on the abilities of Haaland, that the Portuguese hotshot is just as good as the Norwegian, and his numbers so far this season testify to that fact. Haaland may well be the talk of the town but Andre Silva deserves as much acclaim and hype too.

Since joining from AC Milan, Andre Silva has produced 40 goals and 13 assists from 65 appearances having been signed as the successor to Luka Jovic, who returned on-loan from Real Madrid in January. The Portuguese striker has delivered when called upon.

Silva’s consistency throughout the current campaign has been nothing short of superb, never going more than two games without a goal in the German top flight. He has also contributed to almost 50 per cent of his team’s league goals. Aged only 25, Silva still has the peak of his career too come if he can continue in this rich vein of form.

The Portuguese frontman is not only potent at club level, but holds a relatively excellent international goalscoring record with 16 goals in 38 caps for his country and looks set to fire Eintracht Frankfurt into the Champions League for the first time since they lost the European cup final to Real Madrid in 1960.

Silva could also go onto become the most prolific top-flight scorer in the club’s history, if he surpasses Bernd Holzenbein’s record tally of 26 league goals which he set in 1977.

And while Champions League qualification may strengthen and improve the Hessians’ desire and ability to keep their prolific striker, you wouldn’t put it against Andre Silva aiming to try it out at an elite European side once again after previous underwhelming attempts at Sevilla and AC Milan. If there is to be any suitors for his signature this summer, Manchester United should place themselves amongst the interested parties.

Andre Silva has shown this season that he is a reliable goal machine. Manchester United are in desperate need of one if they are to take that step further and sustain a proper challenge for the Premier League title next season. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men are the second top scorers in the English top-flight, but its amazing to note that only Bruno Fernandes (24) and Marcus Rashford (20) have hit double figures for goals this season, and they aren’t traditional strikers.

United need to ease the burden on them both going into next season, as Manchester City are showing when the whole attack chips in with goals, you have a greater chance of bettering the rest – despite them playing without a recognised striker for most of the campaign. From looking at the tally of United’s other attackers, it doesn’t make for telling reading, and probably a strong indication why United aren’t challenging City for the title.

Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial and Edinson Cavani have scored 18 goals between them all season, eight goals behind Andre Silva’s tally, and it is evidently clear that Solskjaer must go out this summer and get a striker who is guaranteed goals. It’s been an underwhelming campaign for Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood although the latter has remarkably improved his game without scoring as much as he did last season.

Otherwise, for Anthony Martial its been campaign to forget after hitting 20-odd goals last season, he’s only hit six this season, and to make matters worse he’s suffered a knee injury which could rule him out for the rest of the campaign. His goal involvements has decreased remarkably this season, his xG per 90 reads at 0.40, while last season it read at 0.37 meaning he is contributing less than he was in the previous campaign when United are attacking. 0.09 goals per shot, in comparison to 0.22 last year, Martial’s game has been on the wane for a while now, and Solskjaer may well be losing patience in his main frontman.

It’s clear United need a penalty box poacher, a striker who can come alive in the 18-yard box, they’ve desperately needed one since Robin Van Persie left in 2015. Martial isn’t made for that role, even though his career goal tally for Manchester United is impressive. Edinson Cavani who has spent his career adhering to that poacher’s role with expert aplomb – as shown in his goal against Tottenham – in all honesty isn’t at a similar level right now and the amount of injuries and muscle fatigue he’s suffered so far this campaign is indicative of that despite him being a much needed presence in most games this season. His future isn’t certain at Old Trafford either, with reports suggesting that he is leaning towards continuing his career in Argentina next season.

The Uruguayan has registered seven goals in 20 league games for United, and averages 0.22 goals per shot, around the same figure as Andre Silva’s tally (0.20) but can he be relied upon to fire Manchester United to a Premier League title if he does stay on beyond this summer? Probably not.

That’s where Andre Silva could step in, providing Manchester United do indeed go on to secure Champions League football for next season, the Portuguese hitman will of course represent a much cheaper addition than Erling Haaland’s reported €150million fee. Like Haaland however, Silva has shown he is a striker who can be relied upon to score goals. His npxG (non penalty expected goals) per 90 minutes of 0.59 stands up amongst the best goalscorers around in Europe right now, despite six of his 23 league goals coming from the penalty spot.

The 25-year-old isn’t quite as relentless a penalty-box presence as Haaland but his smart, sharp runs gets him into the right scoring positions frequently and one he’s there, he is more than capable of converting clinically as shown in his superb headed winner against Erling Haaland’s Dortmund. Like the Norwegian and even Robert Lewandowski, the Portugal international is outperforming his npxG of 13.9, and his xGper90 (expected goals) of 18.5 which reflects brilliantly on his finishing and this is already his best scoring season as a professional, considering he’s had chances to shine at Sevilla and AC Milan since his breakthrough at FC Porto. Since the start of 2020, he has scored 33 goals in 53 appearances for club and country across all competitions.

That is a big enough evidence of his exploits in front of goal, albeit disrupted by the pandemic shutdown, to suggest Silva is on more than a hot streak right now. It has indeed taken him time to get to this run of form in his career following an ill-fated move from Porto to AC Milan in the summer of 2017, but now at 25, he appears fully formed and ready for a much bigger stage again.

This campaign has shown also that Andre Silva is more than just a goalscorer, he is a much more rounded and complete presence not just in an around the penalty area but also outside of it. He isn’t afraid to do the dirty work, through his pressing as instructed by his manager Adi Hütter, his relentless energy and his all-round playing linking up with his teammates, especially the likes of Daichi Kamada, Luka Jovic and Filip Kostić. He’s successfully completed 3.12 pressures this season as well as averaging 0.49 tackles plus interceptions which reads better than most centre midfielders in the division. Solskjaer’s need similar workhorses in his weaponry and Andre Silva represents the perfect solution.

Whether his immediate future lies at Manchester United is another matter entirely, though Solskjaer will do well to identify Andre Silva as one of the strikers that could propel the club back to the top of the English football pyramid again. Part of United’s problem this season is the amount of needless and frustrating draws they’ve registered especially against teams in the top six, and with more ruthless and clinical finishing in attack, they could well turn those results into more wins and a more sustainable challenge on Manchester City’s title defence next season. Solskjaer needs to address that issue swiftly and smartly. Andre Silva has done extraordinarily well to rise up from the dark periods in his career to become currently one of the most ruthless finishers in Europe.

With Manchester United looking to add more potency to their weaponry this summer, there’s no doubt that if Silva does indeed end up at Old Trafford for next season, his abilities in front of goal may well be more complemented through a wealth of attacking talents for him to work with and efficiently feed off next season.

Manchester United must act while the iron in Andre Silva’s career is finally heating up.

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