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Things have gone bad before at Old Trafford, but not like this.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has already had his fair share of tough moments during his brief tenure as Manchester United manager, but one of the worst starts in Premier League history is now starting to get tough.
Three games and only three points is the current situation, with a staggering 11 goals conceded.
United have so far been beaten by Crystal Palace, destroyed by Tottenham, while almost managing to get a very lucky win against Brighton.
But it was Sunday’s game against Spurs, at the hands of their former coach José Mourinho, that United unraveled in spectacular fashion. All the uncertainties emerged on the scene, exposing United as a club with a lot of work to do.
The first signs are enough to send waves of terror through the fanbase, as Sportsmail takes a closer look at some of the recent statistics and damning figures from its disgraceful campaign thus far.
More goals conceded after three games …
It’s just not good enough for Manchester United to concede an average of just four goals in every game. The club has now sent in the most goals after three disputed Premier League matches.
United have become completely porous and seem to have lost all the confidence that led them to third place last season.
Much of Solskjaer’s initial reign at the club was based on a deft counterattack game, in which goals were scored at a relentless pace regardless of the opposition’s response.
The 11 goals in three games that United have conceded so far this season can be contextualized when compared to Fulham. The West London club are the first favorites to come down, but have only conceded the same number of goals as United after playing one more match.
Solskjaer’s side, worryingly, seems to be without answers when it comes to adjusting the ranks. The goals do not flow in the opposite direction and now it seems that defending as a group is out of the window.
It’s not much less than a century since we last saw United concede in this way. The club’s 11 goals conceded are the most they have had against them in the first three games of a top-tier league season since 1930-31 (13 goals).
A historically bad start at Old Trafford
Solskjaer will be willing to find places in the record books, but this is not a statistic that is kindly reflected at all.
The bad start we have observed is quite unique. It is only the fifth time in United history that the club has lost the first two home games of a league campaign.
We have to go back to the 1986/87 season to look at the last time Old Trafford had two losses in two games.
This marked the beginning of the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson, whose gloomy beginnings are often and rightly overlooked due to the incredible periods of glory that would follow later.
Solskjaer is desperate for the same kind of time and patience, although in the modern game this is really in short supply.
The shooting boots are gone
When times get tough, elite teams generally come out shooting and simply outnumber their opponents due to a superior caliber of players.
So far, for United, this just hasn’t happened.
A very short preseason certainly couldn’t have helped matters, but so far United is recording alarmingly fewer shots on goal per game than its rivals, or indeed much of the top flight.
Currently United have only nine shots on target to their name, out of three games played.
Only West Brom, Sheffield United, Crystal Palace and Newcastle have done less, and the top two of these teams have yet to win a game.
Fulham are struggling to overtake United with 13 accurate shots to date, raising even greater concern.
For further comparison, Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have recorded 28 shots on goal so far, an average of seven per game. Manchester City, despite a bad start, have produced 16.
Famous for his attacking prowess during his playing days, Solskjaer needs United to hit the mark again and fast. This perhaps offers some explanation for the arrival of Edinson Cavani.
No passing
Within their ranks, Solskjaer has some of the best passers and football brains in Europe, but figures show that United are seriously lacking in the decisive areas.
Looking at the passes made in the last third of the field, where the business actually happens, United have amassed just 152 so far, giving them a starting average of 50.7 per game.
Relative to the rest of the top flight, the Red Devils are well below average, sandwiched between Sheffield United and West Ham.
Despite having Paul Pogba in top form pulling the strings with Bruno Fernandes at his side, United are falling short.
Liverpool tops the passing table to the final third with 269 (67.3 per game), while Manchester City is second with 190 (63.3 per game).
Donny van de Beek’s summer signing could soon tackle this area for United, although it says a lot that the great players already on the squad are failing to wake up a team that showed capabilities last season of deft and cohesive play.
Paying the fine
When Paul Pogba cut Ben Davies to leave the referee with no choice but to aim for the penalty spot, United became the seventh team in Premier League history to concede penalties in three consecutive home games.
United began the season with a controversial handball that allowed Crystal Palace to seed all three from 12 yards, and the play has become more sloppy.
Experts debated after the Spurs game that the progressive errors are due to United not having a coherent plan on the field.
Liability appears to be waived in several areas, causing players to take additional risks and pay the price as a result.
Jeepers Guardians
What is concerning for United, when it comes to penalties, David de Gea has simply failed to save them.
Once considered the best goalkeeper on the planet, De Gea remains indisposed and statistics now show that the Spaniard has been unable to save the last 18 penalties he has faced in the Premier League.
The last time De Gea successfully thwarted an opponent from the spot was in October 2014, against Everton’s Leighton Baines.
Six six six
As the net fluttered over and over at Old Trafford on Sunday, United recorded only its third instance in the Premier League era when six goals were dispatched.
According to Opta, the three times the Red Devils have been sore at the six-goal end have always come in the month of October, including Sunday’s kind of disaster.
In 1996 against Southampton and in 2011 against Manchester City, they conceded six goals. Solskjaer, however, joins the esteemed company, with United under the tutelage of legendary boss Ferguson on the previous two occasions.
Nevertheless, Ferguson’s United were at best completely unmatched, and such results were simply anomalies, albeit worrisome.
Even during the dark days of David Moyes or the aimless wanderings of Louis van Gaal, United never conceded so badly. Perhaps this is a sign of things to come.
The £ 200 million defense in 16th place
Ferguson’s glorious United teams have always been built on a solid four defenders and, most importantly, an impenetrable mid-center pair.
It cannot be said that the club has not invested in defenders, having handled the checkbook frequently to bring some of the most exciting players to the red half of Manchester.
Just 12 months ago, United showed their financial strength to make Harry Maguire the most expensive defender on the planet at £ 80 million. Such was the need for the England international that United broke the record set by Liverpool by signing the imperious Virgil van Dijk to get their man.
Maguire has since been named captain of the club, although he looks like a truly lost player after his return this season.
Against the Spurs, the 27-year-old seemed disappointed by the miscommunication, and a clip of him dragging his own teammate Luke Shaw in just the fifth minute went viral online. Tanguay N’Dombele scored as a direct result.
In recent years, Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof cost £ 30 million, while last summer United paid out £ 50 million for Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
By signing Maguire and Wan-Bissaka, Solskjaer himself has personally sanctioned £ 130m of defensive spending.
This is without taking into account the other fees paid several years ago by the likes of Shaw (£ 31.5 million) and David de Gea (£ 18 million). The price tag for United’s defense far outshines that of the rest of the division, but it appears to have regressed in its progress.
The back four and the keeper who sent six goals against Spurs cost a combined total of over £ 200 million. And that’s perhaps the most shocking stat of all amid this terrible start to the season.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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