In three games since the firing of Jose Mourinho, Manchester United has outscored their opponents 12-3 and picked up nine points out of a possible nine, jumping up into 6th place in the EPL Table. But is Ole Gunnar Solskjær a miracle worker? Or are the Red Devils just getting lucky? Here's a look at their three wins:
At Cardiff City (currently 16th place out of 20) - W 5-1
vs Huddersfield Town (currently 20th place out of 20) - W 3-1
vs AFC Bournemouth (currently 12th place out of 20) - W 4-1
Two things immediately jump out at me. First, none of their wins are against teams in the top half of the table. Similarly, today's match against 15th place Newcastle United also fits that mold. It's hard to say that Man U is BACK until they actually beat someone of significance. Second, Man U conceded in all three of these matches. In fact, they haven't pitched a clean sheet since November when they had a 0-0 draw at home against 14th place Crystal Palace. Maybe conceding doesn't matter if you're going to score four goals a game, but better teams are going to punish what still appears to be a leaky back line.
Lastly, here's a look at players who have scored under Solskjær:
Paul Pogba (4)
Marcus Rashford (2)
Anthony Martial (1)
Jesse Lingard (2)
Ander Herrera (1)
Nemanja Matic (1)
Romelu Lukaku (1)
What's worth noting here: Paul Pogba had just three goals with Mourinho at the helm and now already has four under Solskjær. Lingard has doubled his output going from two to four goals on the season, and Marcus Rashford has nearly done the same going from three to five.
Newcastle United hosts Manchester United today at noon.
No comments:
Post a Comment