Manchester United‘s attacking impotence is so extreme that they could be relegation fodder.
That sounds dramatic, but it runs much deeper than the fact they have the Premier League‘s third-worst scoring record with nine goals.
The stats back up the horror show that has been obvious to every fan: United cannot finish their dinner in front of goal.
From Diogo Dalot‘s open-goal miss against West Ham, to Alejandro Garnacho doing the same against Fulham, to Joshua Zirkzee‘s sitter against Southampton – Ruben Amorim‘s first job when he arrives will be finding some scoring boots.
United have missed 25 big chances this season – the most of any team – and have only put away six. That’s a paltry conversion rate of big chances – the worst in the league on 19 per cent.
Manchester United’s finishing stats have them on par with Premier League relegation battlers
United have missed more big chances than any team and have the worst conversion rate
Erik ten Hag bemoaned his side’s ability to finish off good opportunities in front of goal
Only Southampton, Crystal Palace, Ipswich, and Everton have stuck away fewer, but they have created a lot less.
United are getting in the right positions and creating opportunities, but finishing them off has been the principal issue.
They rank fifth in the table for expected goals with 16.76 but have only scored nine, a strong indictment of their waywardness in front of goal, as per Opta.
In fact, the Red Devils only score around one of every 16 of their shots. Only Palace do worse than their 6.38 per cent conversion rate, and Brentford are close to three times better.
This should not be the case. It’s easy to roll your eyes at newfangled terms such as ‘expected goals per shot,’ but United are sixth by that metric, meaning they are carving out plenty of presentable opportunities.
If only somebody could take them. United’s worst finisher by some distance is Bruno Fernandes, at least statistically. In the league, the Portuguese has whacked 32 shots goalwards but only one has gone in: his penalty against Chelsea on Sunday.
Most of their forwards are underperforming compared to their expected goals tally and their top scorer in the league is Alejandro Garnacho with… two goals. Nobody else in the team has netted more than one.
Southampton are the only other side to have just one player score two or more, for them in the form of Cameron Archer. newly promoted teams are not the sort of company Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants his side to be keeping.
Bruno Fernandes has score once out of his 32 shots in the Premier League, but did net twice against Leicester in the Carabao Cup
Only Crystal Palace have a worse shot conversion rate than the Red Devils in the league
Even Garnacho is netting less than he should, as his expected goals tally is 3.46 and he has had 29 shots to produce those two goals.
The winger has missed a total of six big chances, the worst of any United star, while Fernandes has squandered five and Zirkzee has mishit four.
Rasmus Hojlund’s role has been diminished this campaign, as he has only been afforded 343 minutes of Premier League action, but he is currently United’s most deadly man. The Dane has scored once out of four shots, but you’d expect United’s supply to be better to give him more opportunities.
There is light with the shade, however. A glimmer of hope for Amorim.
Namely: you can’t accuse United of not being creative. They’re fifth in the league for shots on target with 54, so they are getting themselves in places where they’re confident having a pop at pop.
Fernandes is their creator-in-chief with 15 chances created – seven of which have been ‘big chances’ – while Amad Diallo, Marcus Rashford, and Garnacho have all chipped in with double figures in this department.
But taking those opportunities has been a defining shortcoming of their last 18 months. You don’t even need to take it from me or the stats; here’s Erik ten Hag bemoaning it after his final match in charge against West Ham.
‘We have to look in the mirror, we don’t score in a good game from our side. Create loads of chances and concede none, but when you lose in this way it’s a bad feeling.
Rasmus Hojlund has only managed four shots in the Premier league, sticking away one of them
Joshua Zirkzee has failed to bury a number of big chances after joining from Bologna
‘Six or seven 100 per cent chances we should have scored. But when we don’t score we have to stay calm. All over I don’t have so many criticisms about my team, other than not scoring.
‘It’s not fair to pick one player [Dalot] out. I can also say Garnacho, twice, Hojlund one time, Rashford, Bruno. So many were missing chances.’
Amorim’s in-tray is overflowing, but this has to be a priority.
