Look through Wayne Rooney's career and streaks have always been part of the picture - both good and bad.
Between St Stephen's Day and the end of this February, Rooney failed to score at all in eight Premier League games book-ended by doubles against Newcastle and Swansea.
Back then he wasn't always starting in the main striker role for Manchester United, but this term Louis van Gaal has entrusted him with the centre-forward role.
So far, there has been no goal return even though he was unlucky to have one ruled for offside against Newcastle on Saturday.
As his career has shown thus far, the goals will come for Rooney, but is it the system that is holding Rooney back or is he the primary problem?
On Off The Ball's Thursday Night Football, John Giles suggested that the lone role up front is not Rooney's best position, making the point that "he's coming deep himself but then they don't have a spearhead. I think they need a proper centre-forward and Rooney to come deep and do his stuff and come from behind and get his goals from there."
His best season in front of goal was the 2009/10 season, before he picked up an injury against Bayern Munich which left him in a race to be fit in time for that summer's World Cup. That campaign saw him plunder 26 league goals as he became the focal point at a post-Ronaldo United. Although he did start as a lone centre-forward on occasion that season, fellow forward Dimitar Berbatov was a regular starter alongside him, giving him a bit more licence to roam.
Rooney has always had a tendency to drop deep into midfield, which has often led to accusations of tactical indiscipline over the years. There is truth to that but it is more of an issue when he is the lone spearhead leaving a void rather than when there is another striker manning the fort in his occasional absences down the field.
You can listen into Paddy Mulligan's view of Rooney and the Premier League's big games via the podcast player:
"He does have a choice," says John's former Ireland team-mate Paddy Mulligan of Rooney's movements. He was in studio with Newstalk's Oisin Langan and I for the Rewind podcast and went on to say: "He should stay up front but it's up to the midfielders and it's up to him to say to Van Gaal 'look, I'm staying up here, my midfielders are not giving me the ball'".
Paddy also feels that if Rooney starts "drifting into midfield, he's copping out".
According to Four Four Two magazine's Stats Zone, Juan Mata provided the most passes to Rooney with a total of eight, with Bastian Schweinsteiger coming next with five.
But if you look at where those passes were received, they were not in areas that could always influence the creation of a shot-on-goal or creation of a chance.
Four Four Two's Stats Zone app is availble on the app store
But of course, the goalscoring burden shouldn't just be placed squarely on Rooney's shoulders alone. The line of three behind (Memphis Depay, Adnan Januzaj and Juan Mata) are all capable goalscorers and should try to make runs beyond Rooney.
He should also try to be a decoy runner for those players, particularly Memphis who likes to cut in from the left to fire from his right foot as he did so well for PSV and against Club Brugge on Tuesday night.
But Paddy thinks the former Everton forward is a "shadow of his former self", albeit with the caveat that he is also suffering from a lack of service.
"I probably feel a bit sorry for anybody who's playing up front for Man United because every ball is square and back and keep possession. The frontmen, like Falcao last year, are making runs and the space is gone and then when they make another run and the space is gone, the ball is just not coming in. Rooney needs quick ball in and midfielders coming onto him."
And if United's coaching staff and midfielders want a map of Rooney's most regular goalscoring positions, there is a pattern from last season as this Squawka.com graphic shows:
Check out more match and season stats and graphics on Squawka.com
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