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On January 12, Manchester United had just risen to the top of the Premier League and it looked like they could mount an unlikely bet on the title.
But just seven weeks later, following Wednesday night’s draw with Crystal Palace, they are now 14 points behind Manchester City and instead face a fight to secure a top-four result.
The stalemate at Selhurst Park perfectly encapsulated Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s recent troubles. United are not losing games, just one loss in 10, but they are struggling to win them at the same time and they don’t seem to have offensive verve and inventiveness.
It was United’s sixth goalless draw in the league this season (seventh in all competitions) and United have drawn three consecutive games 0-0 for the first time since Louis van Gaal was in charge in October 2015.
After goalless draws with Real Sociedad, Chelsea and Crystal Palace, they have not scored a goal in nearly five hours of action.
Forwards Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Mason Greenwood and Edinson Cavani look lacking in ideas or confidence, while Bruno Fernandes appears to need a break and Paul Pogba remains out.
To make matters worse, United are facing a trip to Manchester City on Sunday, which will offer a terrifying glimpse of how far United is from their local rivals. Here, Sportsmail takes a look at what has made them so forceful recently.
An exhausted Bruno Fernandes
The alarm sounds. Fernandes has not scored a goal or provided an assist in three consecutive games for Manchester United.
That doesn’t seem like a major problem, but when you’ve been as clinical in front of goal as he has since he arrived from Sporting Lisbon, then there’s reason to call it a sterile streak.
Fernandes has scored 34 goals and added 21 assists in 62 Red Devils appearances and there’s no denying that they depend on his creativity in the final third.
But has United become so dependent on him that when he has a day off the whole plan falls apart? That seems to be the case for the last three games.
It’s no wonder Fernandes looks like he’s starting to feel a bit tired and heavy-legged. Your performance levels are likely to decline at some point.
In a season of relentless games and coaches having to rotate players every three to four days, Fernandes has continued to play minute by minute for United.
The midfielder has started every but one game in the Premier League this season and has played 90 minutes in 19 of the 29 games United have played so far.
He also started every but one Champions League group game and played in both Europa League games with Real Sociedad, strangely captaining the team in the second leg at Old Trafford despite being 4-0. up on the global.
But is there a case for Solskjaer to give him more rest?
Surprisingly, United have never lost a game in which Fernandes has started or missed out since joining in January 2020.
In fact, they have won eight and tied one of the nine. When it started, United averaged just over two goals per game. Without it, that number is higher than 2.4.
So while United may seem toothless without their Portuguese playmaker, Solskjaer can actually kick back and give him more free time to make sure he’s fit and ready for the end of the season.
Strikers who fail
Solskjaer knew he had a problem with his forwards three weeks ago when he demanded that they go ahead and produce more in front of goal.
Fernandes has been carrying most of the offensive load with Rashford, Martial, Greenwood and Cavani all failing to provide a regular source of goals.
Rashford, Greenwood and Cavani started at Selhurst Park, but United never seemed to score. They didn’t have many clear opportunities, but at the same time they also didn’t seem to create anything for themselves.
Martial was never involved again. Abandoned entirely from the team at Chelsea, although Cavani was lost through injury, the Frenchman has never been further from being United’s main man.
Rashford’s impressive form earlier in the season from the left wing has meant that Martial plays in the center forward position, a role he can play but is not entirely comfortable with.
But Martial, who cost United £ 58 million in 2015, enjoyed his most prolific time in front of goal last season, scoring 23 goals and producing nine assists in all competitions, but is now in disgrace, so that its absence is still quite disconcerting.
Cavani was hired over the summer as a seasoned boss at the top end of the field and looked buoyant in the early days of his United career.
But the Uruguayan is not going to be a long-term solution, nor does he seem capable of scoring more than 20 goals in the seasons that remain at the top of his game.
Greenwood has shown great promise and it’s easy to forget how raw he is still after breaking onto the scene last season. But if United is going to fight for the title, then it shouldn’t be trusted as much as it is now.
United’s attackers’ stats are a pretty grim reading. Only Rashford (18) has double-digit goals scored this season in all competitions and also leads the table in assists with nine.
But the goal conversion rate of the four attackers is more concerning. None of them are above 20 percent with Rashford (19.8 percent), Martial (11.5 percent), Cavani (18.9 percent) and Greenwood (6.6 percent) proving to be wasteful.
All four also have a great shot conversion rate below 45 percent this season, with Rashford having the highest goal participation rate at 31.8 percent.
United have been closely associated with a move by Erling Haaland in the summer and that would help a lot. They need someone who knows how to put the ball in the back of the net and the Norwegian certainly knows how to do it.
Missing Pogba
Pogba’s relationship with United deteriorated in early December after his agent, Mino Raiola, dropped a bombshell and insisted his time at Old Trafford was “over”.
Despite that, their form took a turn afterwards and their victory at Fulham in January sent United back to the top of the Premier League and capped off another fine display.
But just when it looked like he was showing signs of the player United thought bought from Juventus for £ 89 million in 2016, Pogba suffered a thigh injury which means he hasn’t played since February 6.
One of the most notable differences in Pogba’s performances before the injury was that Solskjaer managed to find a way to put him and Fernandes on the same side.
His inclusion in the deepest midfield pair behind Fernandes brought an additional creative element to the United team.
Pogba was not trusted to play the two deepest midfield roles in games against the ‘Big Six’, and Solskjaer preferred to play with two from Scott McTominay, Fred and Nemanja Matic. Instead, Pogba was widely deployed.
But in games against teams that are willing to sit deep and absorb the pressure, Pogba playing center would pose another headache.
But United have had that stolen from him in the last month and now Solskjaer has to play with his most capable midfielders defensively who don’t offer as much creativity going forward.
Solskjaer said Pogba is still “a few weeks” away from returning just a week ago, so it appears United will not be at least in the Manchester derby.
There is not much depth behind attacking four
It’s a problem that Jurgen Klopp has had to deal with in recent seasons at Liverpool and Solskjaer has it too.
On Wednesday night, when the United manager went to his bench looking for a goal, he had very few options to consider.
In terms of attack threat, he only had Daniel James as a regular first-team player to call with Martial completely absent from the team.
Arrival in January Amad Diallo was on the bench but is still getting used to English football and cannot be expected to make an intervention to win a match at the moment and Shola Shoretire, 17, has only been training with the first team. for a time. weeks.
Solskjaer’s lack of confidence to give either of the two promising couples a chance was exposed in his post-match interview when asked why he had left both of them on the bench.
He said: ‘We had Marcus there, Mason out, Bruno out, Scotty came to give us a goal and he almost had a chance right away. We got Dan in a bit of a groove.
‘With those out there, that’s most of our goals that we had.
Of course we had Shola or Amad, but which of those five would you take? That was my dilemma in the last 10, 15 minutes. I felt like Mason, Bruno and Marcus could score a goal. ‘
But the players he did bring in, Scott McTominay and James, have 23 goals in 180 United appearances between them. It hardly changes the game.
Nightmare match streak
Just as United’s control over a guaranteed top-four result is starting to slip, they have a tough streak of games on the horizon to make matters worse.
There’s no tougher game in world football than a trip to Manchester to face City, but that’s what awaits United on Sunday afternoon.
Then United host West Ham, one of the teams in the Champions League places with a real shot at finishing in the top four, before another home game against Brighton.
Solskjaer’s team will then travel to North London to face Tottenham and former boss José Mourinho, who will likely think the Champions League is not beyond his team just yet if they can put together a streak of form.
Then United have a home game against Burnley, always a difficult test for a team’s attack, especially if they are already failing, and then an away game against northern rivals Leeds.
In early May, United host Liverpool at Old Trafford, which could define the season for both teams.
Klopp’s team will be chasing all the points they can get by then as they try to finish their terrible season on top by qualifying for the Champions League.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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