Manchester United’s 1-0 defeat to Wolves on Sunday was a heavy come down after the highs of Thursday’s dramatic Europa League win over Lyon. Ruben Amorim rotated his side – but the poor performance highlighted season-long issues and alarming stats…
It’s officially Man Utd’s worst Premier League season
Man Utd’s loss to Wolves leaves them on 38 points with five games to play.
Even if they win their final matches, they will not be able to surpass the 58 points they finished with in 2021/22 when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick were at the helm.
Another unwanted record for Man Utd…
It was defeat number 15 in the Premier League this season on Sunday for Ruben Amorim’s side.
That’s a new record, too – surpassing the 14 Premier League losses they had under Erik ten Hag last season.
Another defeat at Old Trafford for Man Utd
It’s 15 losses overall but the defeat to Wolves means United have now lost eight Premier League home games this season, their most defeats at Old Trafford in a league campaign since 1962/63 (when they lost nine).
Toothless United misfire again
After the Wolves match, Amorim said: “If you don’t score goals, you don’t win games”. Can’t argue with that.
United have failed to score in nine of his 22 Premier League games in charge. Only relegated Leicester have drawn more blanks in that period.
Hojlund’s miserable run goes on
Amorim insisted that lack of goal threat is a “team problem” but £64m striker Rasmus Hojlund inevitably draws focus on days like these.
The Danish striker, who laboured without success against Wolves, has started 31 of Man Utd’s games this season as their main striker, and has six goals to show for it – and only one this calendar year.
It’s one goal in his last 28 games for Man Utd for him now.
Attack, attack, attack!
Hojlund, in his defence, can point to some pretty poor supply he’s had this season.
In fact, during Amorim’s tenure, only Bruno Fernandes ranks in the top 50 Premier League players in terms of their Expected Goals total.
Man Utd sit in the top half for crosses, penalty-area entries, opposition-box touches and passes in the final third under Amorim.
It’s the final ball which is missing, or someone to get on the end of it.
And if you can’t score… Don’t concede
Amorim’s Man Utd side are comfortably the leakiest of any iteration since Sir Alex Ferguson left the club 12 years ago.
Conceding more than 1.5 goals a game puts him even ahead of Rangnick’s sorry interim reign in 2022, and only makes their struggles in front of goal more pronounced.
United have conceded only two goals fewer than Tottenham since Amorim’s arrival, and unsurprisingly have the fifth-worst goal difference in the league since that time.
Pereira shows what impact mid-season arrivals can have
Coming into a job mid-season with a team out of form, low on confidence and battling issues around the club isn’t easy. Amorim has certainly struggled. But his compatriot Vitor Pereira has shown teams can be revived.
Since his first game on December 22, only Liverpool (43), Arsenal (33), Newcastle (33) and Manchester City (31) have won more Premier League points than Wolves’ 29. That total puts them level with Champions League-chasing Aston Villa.
And it’s 13 more points than Manchester United in that time.
Amorim’s new normal?
After the delight of Thursday’s dramatic win over Lyon, Amorim cut a far more dejected figure on Sunday afternoon. “These days are really disappointing,” he said.
But unfortunately for the Portuguese, it has been feelings like these that have been more common than the joy of victory.
Amorim has lost 11 of his 22 Premier League games in charge of United (W6 D5). That’s as many defeats as he suffered across his final 114 league matches with Sporting CP.
Man Utd’s reliance on Bruno underlined
Bruno Fernandes has come in for some stick this season. As the Man Utd captain, he’s often fronted up to the media after poor performances – and then received criticism he should be doing more on the pitch.
But against Wolves we caught a glimpse of what Man Utd would be without their main man. The answer was pretty underwhelming.
Immediately after his arrival as a sub in the second half he injected some purpose to their play, instigating a move Hojlund should have scored from and then skewing his own chance off target.
United have now failed to win each of their last six league games without the midfielder in the starting line-up (D1 L5).