The place’s it going flawed for Manchester United’s defence? – The Athletic

Manchester United should not superb at defending in the meanwhile.

This isn’t an outrageous assertion to make. You don’t need to be a soccer genius to see their defensive deficiencies on the pitch.

Even a look at their broad defensive numbers makes for bleak studying. Within the Premier League, United rank 14th for the quantity of targets and anticipated targets (xG) that they’ve conceded this season. Granted, 9 of these targets got here of their two most up-to-date video games in opposition to Leicester City and Liverpool respectively, however as outlined previously by The Athletic, the trend was already there to see earlier in the season.

As you’ll think about, this defensive fragility has meant that United are struggling to maintain clear sheets — which is a document that dates again for fairly some time.

Of their previous 20 video games in all competitions, they’ve stored just one clear sheet, away to Wolves on the finish of August. Sure, United have had a couple of powerful video games, domestically and in Europe throughout that point in comparison with different sides, however no Premier League staff has stored fewer clear sheets of their previous 20 video games in all competitions.

Additionally they haven’t stored a clear sheet at Previous Trafford since April 15, in opposition to Granada within the Europa League. Earlier than that that they had stored 9 of their earlier 15 video games in all competitions.