In terms of goals conceded, Manchester United have one of the better defensive records in the Premier League. In fact, only five teams have let in fewer goals.
Indeed, United’s total of seven clean sheets is bettered only by Arsenal (10), Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City (all eight).
However, when the layers are peeled back, Erik ten Hag’s side have a worrying ineptitude to how they defend – and it really could cost them this season.
Take the Fulham game last Saturday. The Whites had 17 attempts in their victory and that was only the fourth-most by an opposing side at Old Trafford this season.
Sure, United kept clean sheets against Wolves (23 shots) and West Ham (22) – and beat them but were thumped by neighbours City (21) in October.
What’s more, bottom side Sheffield United (447), relegation-threatened Luton Town (428) and West Ham (420) are the only three Premier League clubs to have faced more shots on goal than Manchester United’s tally of 417 in 2023-24.
On 14 occasions, United have faced 16 or more shots. Again that is the worst in the division alongside Sheffield United and Luton, and hardly the statistics of a side aspiring to be title chasers.
As the old adage goes, if you don’t shoot, you don’t score and it appears that plenty of opponents are getting more than their fair share of opportunities to score against this United defence.
Speaking on Sky Sports, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said Ten Hag seems caught between two styles and therefore “defends like a side I have never seen before” in that they both press high and adopt a low block.
Ex-United captain Gary Neville agreed, suggesting that new investors in the club will want evidence of a team “going in the right direction.”
A deserved victory for Fulham on United’s patch at the weekend will have done little to convince Sir Jim Ratcliffe and company that Ten Hag’s team are actually managing that.
But Jurgen Klopp has sprung to Chelsea’s defence by insisting they did not “bottle it” in the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool.
Mauricio Pochettino’s team came in for heavy criticism after losing in extra time to a Liverpool side featuring the teenagers Bobby Clark, James McConnell and Jayden Danns and doing too little to win the game after Klopp brought on rookies.
Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville branded the big spenders “blue billion-pound bottle jobs” but Klopp disagreed with that assessment.
He drew on his own experience of being beaten in finals – including his first three with Liverpool and the 2013 Champions League final with Borussia Dortmund – to stand up for Chelsea.
He said, “I understand that people have to talk about it, but I was in the other seat as well, losing a final. And people say a lot of things about you that you don’t like to hear. In my case, some of them were true, some were not true, just guessing what might have happened.
“I’m the one who knows what it’s like to lose five or six finals in a row. I can imagine how it was for Chelsea, everybody tells you, ‘By the way, you lost the last five and that’s a new record.’ It’s not nice I really felt for them. They didn’t deserve to get all the blame (because) they played a really good football game, in a final where nobody plays their absolute best football. You just have to beat the opponent, and that’s what we did.
“That’s why this ‘bottling’ thing is really not mine. I really don’t understand it. They wanted it badly and didn’t get it, and I saw in the faces of the players and Poch after the game that it felt horrible. I don’t think anybody deserves these kind of feelings but in finals it is like that, that one feels like that and the other one is happier. Tricky, but it is the world we are living in.”
