Manchester United failed to record victory against one of the Premier League’s top fives sides on Sunday – it was the fifth time in six matches in this particular group that the Reds have come away with fewer than three points. Defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea, together with draws against Arsenal and Liverpool, leaves José Mourinho’s team with the worst head-to-head record between the top six. Progress at Old Trafford is genuine, but save for victory over Spurs, it is largely based on beating those below United in the table. With Champions League qualification far from guaranteed, this pattern is Mourinho’s most critical challenge over the next five months.
Indeed, points against direct opposition for Champions League places will have a multiplied impact on this season’s final placings, with United facing four matches against opponents in the top five before the end of May. That’s 12 potential points for United – and 12 that could go the other way. To make United’s cause just a little more challenging, three of those fixtures will be away from home: at Spurs, Manchester City and Arsenal, with Chelsea visiting Old Trafford in mid-April.
In the head-to-head record among the top six United averages just a single point per game, with a negative goal difference as well. In contrast, Sunday’s opponent Liverpool remains unbeaten against the top six group.
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Data: Statto
More broadly, in a season where competition for the European places is perhaps more intense that at any time since 2008/9, some forecasts suggest that it could take more than 76 points for United to claim a Champions League spot. Or to put that another way, an average of 2.11 points per game from here in. Mourinho’s team averaged 1.9 points per game from the first 21 fixtures of the league campaign.
Beyond the top six, United’s record against the top half of the Premier League is below par too, with the Reds ranking eighth in the head-to-head among that group. Mourinho’s flat-track bullies rank third in games against teams from the bottom half. If improvement is required, and in truth there has been much stronger form from mid-November onwards, it must come against the country’s better teams.
The challenge for Mourinho in that narrative is the precious little evidence that points to strong performances against the Premier League’s form teams. Back in September the Reds lost a thrilling derby against City at Old Trafford, in a game the Blues thoroughly dominated for a half, before United staged a strong finish. In selecting Jesse Lingard and Henryk Mkhitaryan, two players struggling for fitness, and Marouane Fellaini, suffering from a three-year loss of form, Mourinho got his first big challenge of the season wrong.
“The two halves were completely different,” he claimed. “In the first half we were below the level to play this match. You have to be completely ready in terms of the speed of your thinking and decision-making. The second half was completely different. We were a team that had the courage and honesty and dignity to chase the result.”
By October, with United’s domestic and European campaigns off to a rocky start, Mourinho parked the bus at Anfield, approaching a difficult tie with the kind of opportunistic safety-first pragmatism for which he is infamously known. The visitors enjoyed just 35 per cent possession on Merseyside, which was United’s lowest in a Premier League match since Opta began recording the data more than a decade ago.
Heavy defeat followed in short order at Chelsea, where Chris Smalling, Daley Blind and Antonio Valencia contributed heavily to Mourinho’s humiliating return to Stamford Bridge. “We made incredible defensive mistakes,” said Mourinho. “And then you pay for that.” The Reds certainly did, and Antonio Conte’s Chelsea hasn’t looked back.
United’s home tie with Arsenal in mid-November came amid a run of disappointing draws, where Mourinho’s team was beginning to come together, but often failed to secure maximum points. Olivier Giroud’s last-minute equaliser earned Arsenal a point that the Gunners barely deserved, prompting Mourinho to call his outfit the “unluckiest team in the Premier League” in a rare moment of Moyseian self-doubt.
It wasn’t true, of course. United’s problem through the autumn was in failing to capitalise on superiority, not ill fortune. Victory over Spurs in a tight game at Old Trafford before Christmas brought Mourinho his only victory over a top six side to date.
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There is no guarantee of easier fixtures to come though. Mourinho’s team travels to the Etihad Stadium just three days after a Europa League Round of 32 away fixture at Saint Etienne. Should United qualify for the League Cup final the City fixture will be postponed, possibly to a mid-week in April or, if the TV companies get their way, May.
United then faces Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea inside a pivotal month from mid-April to mid-May. First up, Champions-elect Chelsea visit Old Trafford on 15 April, where Mourinho must improve United’s record of having failed to beat the west Londonders in eight games.
Mourinho’s side visits the Emirates in early May, in what is almost certain to be a pivotal fixture in the battle for Champions League places. Then comes the trip to White Hart Lane, a ground that has held many happy memories for United supporters over the years. This, however, is a very different Spurs than the one Sir Alex Ferguson once brutally dismissed as “lads, it’s Tottenham.” In Mauricio Pochettino Spurs probably boasts one of the top five coaches in European football, together with a squad that is worthy of second place in the Premier League.
The good news for United is that aside from those four games – against City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs – Mourinho’s side faces a favourable fixture list over the next 17 games. While there is necessarily a lot of cup football to come, the Reds play Stoke City, Leicester City, Hull City and Watford before that trip to the Etihad. Then there are games against Bournemouth, Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion, Everton, and Sunderland before the fixture with Chelsea. More than enough winnable fixtures for a Mourinho side that is happy to beat up on the league’s lesser lights.
United will need plenty of points in those games, of course, but its the fixtures against direct rivals that will surely determine whether Mourinho’s team feasts at the top table of European football next season – or not. It’s likely to be very tight.
Might want to amend your title since it is confusing. Man Utd are not the Reds, Liverpool are… Utd are the Red Devils…
You see, you’ve failed to spot your classic mistake. United are the Reds. Liverpool are the Bindippers. Or just Dippers for short
Or Scouse c***s.
Twenty one League games in and United has managed to score more than two goals in a game only four times – with three against each of Sunderland, Bournemouth and Swansea, and four against Leicester.
In six games against the top five teams United has never managed to score more than one goal in any game.
Finishing has been an issue all season, it’s not been ruthless or clinical enough. Zlatan has been averaging a goal a game in recent weeks but others need to contribute more. I heard a caller on MUTV saying how unlucky Pogba was because he said he had hit the woodwork seven times this season. Hitting the woodwork that many times is not just about bad luck, it’s also about bad finishing.
This is United and standards and expectations are high and rightly so..
Of course its obvious that finishing is the problem,goals change games see Sunday and v Hull just recently ,which says it aint going to improve just yet ,maybe thats why Jose concentrates on the defending.Even with Ibra on top form Utd have no natural finisher,even with the ‘favourable’ fixtures on the horizon ,if Rashford ,Martial,Pogba ,Herrera,Rooney dont step up and the odd one from defenders that 4 th place is going to be a tough ask.
One thing that has bothered me, watching mutv during this run, is the notion put forward by the likes of Ben Thornley and others that we’ve had our slump this season so all we have to do is sit back and wait for the 5 teams above us to have theirs and we’ll be champions.
Football doesn’t work that way. We could have another bad run, a team above us could get by with just minor stutters. We aren’t somehow insulated from another bad run merely because we have already had one this season.
Pogba’s weakness is obviously not his physicality or improving technical skills. Managers like Klopp also study the psychological makeup of opposing players, and in the case of Pogba, his weakness could be his ego, even on the pitch. Why else would Pogba still “fight” with the ball even with 3 Liverpool players surrounding him? Because he always thinks he can overcome them. He may sometimes pass but more often than not, due to his ego and to an extent his self belief, he will rather try to fight it out with 2 or 3 players crowding him. On always hitting the woodwork, maybe all he’s got to do is stand 5 degree angle more to the left. Haha. Again it could be the perfectionist in him to want to score perfect tight corner shots with no inches for error. Come on Pogba, continue to learn. Still young, man.
Minor comment: Arsenal are bottom of the table with 5 pts and United has 6.
I wonder if Mourinho figure out that the Top 6 is a brutal war of attrition that does not affect the title outcome, but dominating bottom 15 teams does win you titles… I believe LvG performed very well against Top 6, but could handle a cold night at Stoke 🙂
Not on a points per game basis… and the Gooners have got a better goal difference.
Still Clinging On
Phil Jones celebrating away from everyone else…somehow feels a good metaphor for his style of defending.