Cambridge United manager Danny Cowley has expressed his desire to add a goal-scorer to his squad ahead of the new season. The team had one of the tightest defences in League Two last season, conceding fewer goals than four other teams, including Bromley and MK Dons. However, they also struggled to score goals, failing to score in 15 fixtures, which is about one third of all their games. Cowley believes that the team's expected goals (XG) metric, which measures how likely a shot attempt will result in a goal, was better than that registered by two teams who went on to win promotion. He said: "I think our XG last year was one of the highest in the league – it tells you are getting into a lot of good areas and creating a lot of good chances. “Goal conversion is something we can definitely look at – I think for us we would still like to add a No.9. “I think Bradley was excellent today, and led the line really, really well. “Leon [Chiwome, on loan from Wolves] came on and did a good job as well. “But that’s always the challenge – we are a club that when our players do well, like Lisbie and Tovide, our model is then to sell the asset and then to find the next one. “This is just the challenge for us as a football club and we need to keep understanding the model and work the best with what we’ve got.” Cowley added the start of the season will be a “work in progress” as the new signings familiarise themselves with their new teammates and the U’s’ style of play. He said: “There was a lot of good performances – you can see we’ve had a lot of change this summer, and obviously those players – Oscar Thorn, and Timmy [Lo-Tutala] – have only been in the building a couple of days. “We are a team that is just coming together. “We are definitely going to be work in progress, but we are going to work really hard to get off to a better start than we have done in the last two seasons.” He continued: “We have to be quite patient with recruitment – as a consequence we have to wait for the market to come to us and we have to then try to build the team’s understanding and partnerships and relationships to allow them to function successfully.” League standing (final 2025 table -- new season not yet under way): 3rd in England League Two, 82 pts, 22W-16D-8L from 46 games, recent form DWLDW. Goals this season: 66 scored, 33 conceded (+33 goal difference). Title race: 5 points behind leaders Bromley. Next fixture: vs Mansfield Town (at home, 2027-01-02).