It’s been yet another disappointing season for Manchester United. An early Champions League exit was compounded by an 8th-placed finish in the Premier League. It’s more than a shame given the third-placed finish last year as the team has yet again failed to improve. Many fans may point to injuries as the source of the problem, but an absurd transfer policy mixed with just generally poor football is really what’s to blame.
Yes, there’s an FA Cup final on the horizon, though winning one piece of silverware hardly makes up for such an abysmal year. The odds of United coming away victorious are extremely slim as well – Golden Mister betting site has the team at 9.00 to win…we can’t remember a time when a final was so one-sided!
So, what went wrong and how can it be fixed? We’ve looked at the most damning stats behind the season to shine a light on the struggles at Manchester United.
Scott McTominay Is The Joint Second Top Scorer In The EPL
This isn’t meant as a slight to Scott McTominay – who was one of the few United players who can hold his head up high after this season – but it shows an underlying problem at the club.
We just don’t score goals.
Bruno Fernandes and Rasmus Hojlund were our top Premier League scorers with only 10 goals each. McTominay came next, level on goals with Garnacho and Rashford. It’s absolutely pitiful – and no player scored over 20 goals in all competitions this season.
Comparatively, and we hate to bring City into the conversation, but they had the Golden Boot winner in Haaland (27 goals) plus Phil Foden bagged 19 goals and Alvararez netted 11. That’s in the Premier League alone – Arsenal also had three players score 12 goals or more, as did Wolves for God’s sake!
You won’t win anything if you can’t score goals. Well, you might, but only if your defence is strong enough – which brings us to the next statistic…
United managed just 9 clean sheets in 38 Premier League games
It’s kind of strange to say that 9 clean sheets is technically the 5th most by a goalkeeper in the league this season. That’s what it says on FootyStats, but when you look at things a bit deeper you’ll see that 9 in 38 games for Andre Onana represents a 24% clean sheet rate.
Manchester United failed to keep a clean sheet in 76% of their games this season.
You need goals to win games, and the emphasis on them is even greater when you keep leaking at least one per match. It’s the ninth-best clean sheet percentage in the league and is nowhere near our biggest rivals. Arsenal had 47% with City at 34%. If we want to mount a title challenge in the future, we need to sure up our defence and stop letting in so many goals a game.
32% of home games ended in a loss
Our home form was 8th in the league. Eighth! It’s shambolic when Old Trafford has traditionally been a stronghold. Teams used to fear coming here and we’d win so many games. Last year we won 15 out of 19 home games and lost one.
This year we won 10, lost 3 and drew 6 for a 53% home win percentage. A measly +3 goal difference is nothing short of embarrassing for such a great club at home. Teams like Aston Villa and Newcastle are over-performing at home and sit at 4th and 5th in the Home Table. They’re showing the power of making your home ground a fortress – it’s why they both finished so far above us this year.
Again, we won’t be consistent in the Premier League or come close to winning a title with a home record like this. It’s one of the most damning stats from the season and one of the big factors making fans wonder if it’s time for Erik Ten Haag to go.
The team averaged 1.51xG per game this season
For those who aren’t aware, xG is a popular metric displaying how creative a team is during a match. It stands for “Expected Goals” and shows how many goals a team is expected to score based on many factors – like the attacking positions they get themselves into.
A high xG means you’re creating loads of chances and getting into plenty of scoring positions. United’s xG in the Premier League this year was 1.51. We’re only expected to score 1.51 goals a game – that’s only the 8th best in the league.
Comparatively, at the top of the table, you have Liverpool at 2.29xG, City at 2.23xG and Arsenal at 1.85xG. These teams are far more creative than us and they’re expected to score more goals. It’s another damning stat showing the complete weakness in attack we’ve had all year.
It’s not fun looking at these stats, but it does indicate where the team can improve over the Summer break. We need more creativity in midfield to supply attackers – and we probably need better attackers too. Throw in a good defensive midfielder and a stronger defence and we’re in a good place. Unfortunately, based on previous transfer decisions, we’re not confident any of these things will happen. Maybe we’ll get lucky, but some big changes are needed to bounce back from a bitterly disappointing season.
