United's attacking end has been slightly lackluster this season, scoring only 9 goals in the first 10 rounds of the league. After a brief flare in the first round, newcomer Schukes seems to have fallen into a slump. Sources revealed that the Dutch international was overweight and mentally lax when he first arrived. Despite the fact that Thanhaug did not look favorably on him, the Inrix Group backed his joining. However, as a series of problems accumulated, Tanhag eventually had to stand in the spotlight.
Shukes joined the Inns for a transfer fee of £4.5 million (about HK$425 million), and the Bologna club was confident in his potential. However, the 23-year-old striker's actual performance did not meet expectations and repeatedly missed good opportunities. After in-depth investigation by the British media, it was found that his overweight and attitude problems might be the crux of the problem.
It was reported that Schukes was overweight by one stone (about 6.35 kilograms) when he first joined the team and had a scatterbrained attitude, much to the dismay of Thanhaug. He was only given 2 minutes of playing time in the Dutch national team tournament this summer. What's even more baffling is that instead of reporting back to United in a timely manner, he chose to continue his vacation. Even when United traveled to Los Angeles for training, he didn't meet up with his teammates.
Shukes has not lived up to expectations in the United game. He stated that he lagged behind his teammates, not making enough runs and making few tackles in a game. Despite playing all 84 minutes of the game, he was still no match for Wesley Coffin in terms of pace, which reflects the problems on the offensive end of United.
