12/08/2017 09:39, Report by Adam Higgins

Jose Mourinho is calling on his Manchester United players to spread out the goals more throughout the team during the new 2017/18 season.  

Prolific striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic led the way last term with 17 Premier League strikers but no other player reached double figures in the competition, with the next highest scorer, Juan Mata, netting six times.

The boss admitted he wants to improve the distribution of goals when he spoke to the media ahead of the Reds' opening league match against West Ham at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Asked if United can reach the levels of his Real Madrid and Chelsea teams in terms of finding the net, Mourinho said: "Real Madrid is out of context because it’s a league, and now even more so, where the top teams are much better than the other teams, where the top teams easily win 3-0, 4-0, 5-0, 5-1, so the 126 goals we scored that season are out of context."

Referring to his former clubs contributing goals from all areas, Mourinho said he hopes the team can ease the burden on the Reds' strikeforce in the season ahead to find other ways to win games.

He added: “In my other clubs, what I had was more people scoring goals – midfield players scoring goals, wingers scoring goals, central defenders good in the air, scoring goals at set-pieces. We always had that.

"My teams always had the goalscorer - the guy that scores more goals - but then we had the winger that scored 15 goals, the midfield player that scored 10 goals and we had the central defender that scored five goals.

“And, last season, that didn't happen much – we were focused on the goals that our striker was scoring, and when the striker was not scoring, the team was in a bit of trouble to win matches.”

Follow coverage of United’s first 2017/18 Premier League game, at home to West Ham on Sunday, in our live match blog on ManUtd.com and on Twitter via @ManUtd.