The concerning statistics behind Man United’s biggest issue | OneFootball

Interim head coach Ruud van Nistelrooy could not have asked for a better, more entertaining debut in the Manchester United dugout.

The struggling Red Devils, who parted ways earlier in the week with the much-criticized boss Erik ten Hag, secured a 5-2 victory over Leicester City, advancing to the EFL Cup quarter-finals.

This result was surprising, given United’s recent difficulties in scoring. However, Van Nistelrooy, who scored 150 goals in 219 appearances for the record 20-time English champions, felt that his team benefited from a bit of luck that had eluded them in recent weeks.

“We scored some great goals,” he told Sky Sports. “The first one was an absolute beauty from Casemiro.

“I have to also say that we had some luck as well. Two posts and the ball comes to Casemiro’s feet, then the deflected free-kick from Bruno [Fernandes], but it’s his first one for a long time.

“So five goals, but as I said before, the chances against West Ham and Fenerbahce, we created so many more and bigger chances, and we couldn’t finish.

“All of a sudden, we had some luck on our side and that made it a great night.”

What’s even more remarkable is that in his 128 matches as Manchester United manager, Ten Hag’s team scored four goals or more in a game only twice. In contrast, Van Nistelrooy’s side achieved this feat in just 45 minutes. Aside from an exception against League One side Barnsley, Ten Hag has never led United to score five goals against a Premier League team.

Before the Wednesday evening show at Old Trafford, goals had been hard to come by, which was evident in United’s last game under Ten Hag. They suffered a 2-1 defeat to West Ham, missing five clear-cut scoring opportunities.

At halftime against West Ham, they could have been leading 4-0. Diogo Dalot made a glaring miss, Alejandro Garnacho hit the crossbar, and he squandered another excellent chance after cutting in from the left. Meanwhile, Bruno Fernandes continued his league drought by heading a nice pass from Casemiro over the bar.

In contrast, Garnacho and Fernandes (who scored twice) as well as Casemiro (who also scored twice) managed to find the net in their match against Leicester.

However, returning to Premier League action, United’s finishing issues go beyond mere bad luck; it’s a significant problem. Only Crystal Palace and Southampton, with six goals, have scored fewer goals in the Premier League than United’s total of eight this season.

The Red Devils have underperformed their expected goals (xG) by 6.8, with an xG of 14.8, the worst differential of any team in the 2024-25 season. Since 2022-23, only Everton, with a -26 differential, have underperformed their xG more than Manchester United, which has a -17.9 differential (123 goals from an xG of 140.9).

While expected goals (xG) is not the ultimate measure of a team’s performance, it does reveal some concerning trends. Notably, since Sir Alex Ferguson’s departure, Ten Hag’s Manchester United has averaged 1.45 goals scored per game in the Premier League. This is only a slight improvement over the 1.38 goals per game recorded by Ralf Rangnick’s United team.

The underlying issue seems to be a lack of composure in the final third and precision at crucial moments. Although we saw a potential breakthrough against Leicester City, some may argue that this was partly due to Steve Cooper fielding a weakened side, making their upcoming match against high-flying Chelsea a more significant test.