Five Premier League tables to highlight how dire Man Utd have been…
You know we love few things more than a good table here at F365. You really should join us in geeking out on the glory of all these Premier League standings…
Sadly for Manchester United fans, very few of our tables make for happy reading. Indeed, they offer multiple insights into why the Red Devils are languishing so low in the actual Premier League table.
We’ve picked out five to highlight where United have floundered and where they simply have to buck up during the summer…
We start with a simple comparison between managers.
Erik ten Hag was sacked – not unreasonably – in October after a rotten start to the season. Following a 2-1 defeat to West Ham, Ten Hag paid for United’s 14th-placed standing with his job.
Ruben Amorim was swiftly appointed, even if he did not immediately start work at Old Trafford. But once he got going on November 11, it was expected that things would soon pick up. They did not.
Since the new manager arrived, United have been worse, something Amorim freely admits is a source of ’embarrassment’. It was expected that the players would take some time getting used to the manager’s 3-4-2-1 system, but either they are just not intelligent enough or Amorim is failing to get his message across. Possibly both. Regardless, this is a terrible look on the man tasked with turning United around…
PL TABLE SINCE AMORIM ARRIVED 👇
Perhaps most alarmingly for Amorim, things aren’t getting better as the players get to grips with his system. They’re getting worse.
If United’s current form was stretched throughout the season, they would be Championship-bound. They haven’t won in the league since March 16, eight games ago. Indeed, their last victory over a club who hasn’t been relegated was on January 26. With Champions League chasers Chelsea and Villa left to play, there is a very real possibility that United could go the last four months of the season without a single league win.
Granted, United’s priority has been the Europa League for a while now, but they can’t simply bin off their league responsibilities. This is appallingly bad, but if we stretch it out to the last seven, they would be rock-bottom…
PL FORM TABLE 👇
So what’s been the problem?
Well, United are not in this mess because they don’t see enough of the ball. They, like Spurs, are in the top six for the amount of possession they have enjoyed, or rather, endured. Only Manchester City can claim to have had in excess of five percent more possession than United.
PL POSSESSION TABLE 👇
So, what the f*** are United doing with the ball?
Not scoring many goals, obviously. Relegated sides aside, only Everton have scored fewer. The Red Devils are not creating an abundance of big chances – in that metric, they rank 12th – but with the opportunities they do make, they are appallingly wasteful. They have scored 40 goals from an xG of 49.4. Only Palace are performing worse in that respect. So Amorim could say that things ought to be better if they finished their chances, but he seems to recognise that he would be fooling no one.
In open play, United’s attack looks especially impotent. All that money spent on attackers, plus the supposedly prodigious talent brought through the academy, and they’ve scored 21 open play goals fewer than a generationally-bad Tottenham…
GOALS FROM OPEN PLAY TABLE 👇
As poor as United generally are over 90 minutes, through the first 45, they have been relegation fodder.
If matches ended at half-time, United’s local derby next season might have been Stockport. They sit 18th in the first-half table. At one point, they had gone 23 matches without scoring a first-half goal from open play. Even Southampton, the team currently celebrating not being the Premier League’s worst ever, have held more half-time leads.
Struggling to score is a particularly bad habit when you can’t keep clean sheets, especially at home. United have conceded the opening goal 12 times at Old Trafford this season – a record low for them – with 10 of them coming in the first half.
FIRST-HALF TABLE 👇
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