The last time Manchester United travelled to Wolfsburg they also did so on the back of playing West Ham in the Premier League, although December 2009 was a different time in every sense.

West Ham had just been, well, hammered 4-0 by Sir Alex Ferguson’s team and, in Germany, Michael Owen scored a hat-trick in a 3-1 win – an unlikely hero in an unremarkable fixture which was a classic example of a seasoned Champions League outfit treating the final group game as little more than a glorified reserve outing.

Ferguson handed game-time to the likes of Owen, Anderson, Tomasz Kuszczak, Darron Gibson and even Gabriel Obertan in the Volkswagen Arena, but United nonetheless swatted the then-Bundesliga champions aside with contemptuous ease, despite being forced to play with Michael Carrick and Darren Fletcher at centre-half due to a defensive injury crisis.

Three days earlier, United had coasted to victory against West Ham, with four different names on the score sheet, so although they sat two points adrift of Chelsea at the top of the table, it was business as usual and Owen’s Champions League contribution merely enhanced the feelgood factor at Old Trafford.

It is a wholly different mood and scenario, however, with Louis van Gaal’s team preparing for the same back-to-back sequence of West Ham and Wolfsburg in Lower Saxony on Tuesday evening.

The United manager would clearly give anything for one of his players to emulate Owen by scoring a hat-trick to guarantee victory against Dieter Hecking’s team, but as Saturday’s desperate 0-0 stalemate against West Ham showed, there are few prospective heroes in red shirts right now.

Anthony Martial has scored just once in 13 games since hitting four in his first four appearances for the club, while Memphis Depay’s £25m price-tag has done nothing to prevent him being usurped by Jesse Lingard.

Juan Mata repeatedly flatters to deceive, opponents have cottoned on to the Plan B of long balls to Marouane Fellaini, while Wayne Rooney’s ankle injury rules him out of the Wolfsburg game at a time when his absence is actually being celebrated by some United supporters.

The dismal finishing against West Ham, when United managed just one shot on target from over 20 attempts on goal, suggests that the sidelined Rooney is not the blockage in the system that many believe he has become, but the England captain’s loss of form this season does provide another example of the problems Van Gaal has brought upon himself.

Van Gaal sanctioned the summer departures of Radamel Falcao and Robin van Persie due to his faith in Rooney – neither player has come remotely close to proving the Dutchman wrong at Chelsea and Fenerbahce respectively – and then allowed Javier Hernandez to leave for Bayer Leverkusen in order to accommodate the signing of Martial.

Hernandez’s 13 goals this season for Leverkusen suggest that the Mexican was prematurely offloaded by Van Gaal, but with Martial and Depay regarded as the emerging talents, supplemented by the 20-year-old James Wilson, a decision had to be made and the Mexican was cut loose.

11 forwards let go by Manchester United Show all 11 1 /11 11 forwards let go by Manchester United 11 forwards let go by Manchester United Robin van Persie - sold to Fenerbahce - summer 2015 In 13 league appearances since joining the Turkish outfit Van Persie has scored five goals. It's hardly a stunning return but it's still more league goals than any Manchester United players this season. 11 forwards let go by Manchester United Angel Di Maria - sold to PSG - summer 2015 Di Maria became arguably the biggest flop in Premier League history when just a year after joining for a British transfer record fee of £59.7m he left. So how's the player who pretty much sums up what Manchester United are missing - pace, creativity and experience - getting on at PSG? In his 12 Ligue 1 appearances he's scored four goals - the same at United's top scorer Juan Mata has in the Premier League. But more impressively the Real Madrid player has six assists in the league. With three goals in five games in the Champions League as well, the Argentina international is showing Van Gaal might have made a mistake in letting him go. 11 forwards let go by Manchester United Radamel Falcao - loan not extended - summer 2015 Jose Mourinho backed himself to get the best out of Falcao after the Colombian's awful time at Old Trafford. But the Special One has been too occupied trying to figure out what's wrong with every other Chelsea player to give the striker the attention he needs. It's resulted in just one goal for Falcao this season and no appearances since the end of October. 11 forwards let go by Manchester United Nani - sold to Fenerbahce - summer 2015 It felt like Van Gaal never gave Nani a chance, loaning the Portugal international to Sporting Lisbon soon after arriving and then selling him to Fenerbahce. In 13 league appearances this term the 29-year-old has scored five goals. Considering Manchester United received just £4.25m for letting him go, it might have paid off to have kept him at Old Trafford. 11 forwards let go by Manchester United Javier Hernandez - summer 2015 The Mexico international featured in three games for Manchester United at the start of the season, with his most memorable contribution a penalty miss that left Van Gaal giving Ryan Giggs a look that spelled the end. But since leaving for Bayer Leverkusen in a £7.3m deal the 27-year-old has been on fire. In 18 games for his new side he's scored 13 goals - including goals in six consecutive matches. The player known as Little Pea has actually scored more goals than the entire Manchester United squad since the start of October. 2015 Getty Images 11 forwards let go by Manchester United James Wilson - loaned to Brighton - summer 2015 Van Gaal hasn't consigned Wilson's Manchester United career to the scrap heap just yet but he did send him to the Championship for the season. He's only made two appearances for high-flying Brighton but at the weekend showed just what he's capable of with a brilliant solo goal that sparked a comeback win from two goals down. 2015 Getty Images 11 forwards let go by Manchester United Adnan Januzaj - loaned to Borussia Dortmund - summer 2015 The Belgium international looked set to flourish at Old Trafford when David Moyes put him into the first team but his progress stalled and Van Gaal loaned him to Dortmund to gain some more experience. 10 games are yet to a yield a goal for the 20-year-old. 2015 Getty Images 11 forwards let go by Manchester United Wilfried Zaha - sold to Crystal Palace - winter 2015 David Moyes didn't fancy Zaha and loaned him out and Van Gaal thought even less, sanctioning the forward's permanent sale to Crystal Palace midway through the season having already loaned him to his former club. Three goals last season and two this term suggest Manchester United aren't missing out on much. 2015 Getty Images 11 forwards let go by Manchester United Bebe - sold to Benfica - summer 2014 Probably the weirdest signing in Manchester United's history has unsurprisingly done little since leaving for Benfica. He was loaned out last season where in 18 appearances at La Liga side Cordoba he didn't score a single goal and the team were relegated. Incredibly he's managed to wangle another loan spell with a La Liga side this season and even more surprisingly he's actually scored a goal for Rayo Vallecano. 2015 Getty Images 11 forwards let go by Manchester United Shinji Kagawa - sold to Borussia Dortmund - summer 2014 Despite much fanfare upon his arrival at Old Trafford it never quite worked out at Manchester United for the Japan international and soon after Van Gaal arrived he returned to Borussia Dortmund. Last term he scored just five times but this season is looking far more promising with the same number of goals to his name already. 2015 Getty Images For MAN 11 forwards let go by Manchester United Danny Welbeck - sold to Arsenal - summer 2014 The sale of the England international to one of Manchester United's biggest rivals was perhaps the most controversial transfer deal of Van Gaal's reign. Welbeck has been beset by injury problems since his move to the Emirates although he was fit enough to help dump Manchester United out of the FA Cup last season with a goal in Arsenal's 2-1 win at Old Trafford. Last season he scored eight goals in 34 appearances while he is yet to play this term. 2015 The Arsenal Football Club Plc

United’s run of just seven goals in their last 10 games clearly points to a lack of true class in the penalty area, however, and hints at Van Gaal backing the wrong horse in Rooney and placing too much confidence in Depay, Martial and Wilson, who has now been loaned out to Brighton. The kids are not ready and Rooney, in the words of one former team-mate, has “gone” after 14 years and almost 700 career games for United, Everton and England.

Van Gaal is doing his best impression of King Canute with his captain this season – who remains United’s top scorer with seven goals, despite his poor form – but neither player nor manager can escape the reality that there is little more debilitating for a top centre-forward than leaving their twenties behind.

Alan Shearer, the Premier League’s all-time leading scorer, delivered at a rate of 0.70 goals per game during his twenties, but his ratio fell to 0.45 after turning 30, despite retiring from international football at the age of 29 following Euro 2000.

Van Persie (0.53 to 0.46), Andy Cole (0.54 to 0.31), Owen (0.49 to 0.15), Robbie Fowler (0.45 to 0.26), Eric Cantona (0.49 to 0.31) and Teddy Sheringham (0.51 to 0.27) all saw their numbers slide considerably once in their thirties and Rooney is no different, having scored just once since his 30th birthday in October.

Even the very best struggle to deliver in their thirties, so Rooney’s decline this season should be no surprise, regardless of the failings that have always been held against him – the lifestyle issues that prompted David Moyes, as Everton manager, to warn against the late-night takeaways when Rooney was a teenager, the cigarette smoking, being dropped by Ferguson after a Christmas night out with Gibson and Jonny Evans in 2011.

Wayne Rooney (GETTY IMAGES)

There have also been the injuries – and it will be interesting to see how Sergio Aguero shapes up at 30 following his succession of muscle problems at Manchester City – that have compromised Rooney for United and England at the height of his career.

None of the above will have helped Rooney arrive at this stage of his career in perfect condition, so it is surprising that Van Gaal was prepared to go into this campaign with his team’s fate resting so heavily on the striker’s goals.

Van Gaal has let Rooney down by failing to provide him with the necessary support and competition up front and the price for that could be paid in Wolfsburg.

Had United recruited properly in the summer and secured a world-class striker at the peak of his powers, they would surely not be travelling to Germany with their Champions League participation under threat. Rooney would have been energised, Martial and Depay less burdened by expectancy and the negativity of all those 0-0 draws perhaps avoided by a forward who knows where the goal is.

United would have been transformed with a Robert Lewandowski or a Harry Kane in their ranks, but instead they backed a fading force who will not even be in Wolfsburg when it truly matters tonight.

Two blasts from the past could blow Mourinho away

There is a sense of “what goes around, comes around” for Jose Mourinho as he battles to avoid the sack at Chelsea, with his fate perhaps now in the hands of the club with whom he made his name and the manager he dislodged at Stamford Bridge as the Special One in 2004.

Should Chelsea lose to Porto tomorrow, Mourinho may not even last long enough to face Claudio Ranieri at Leicester next Monday and risk being toppled by the Tinkerman.

How did it come to this?

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho (Getty Images)

Carragher must get starring role now Neville is off the bill

Sky Sports will not find another Gary Neville, no matter how hard they try to replace their star pundit following his move into management with Valencia, but the big winner following Neville’s departure will be Jamie Carragher.