Ranking Manchester United managers since Sir Alex Ferguson on points per game | OneFootball

Highlights

From 1986 to 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson oversaw a period of immense success for Manchester United. Fans of the English club could nearly be forgiven for taking their regular triumphs for granted as the legendary manager delivered 38 trophies during his 26 years at Old Trafford.

The Red Devils won 13 Premier League titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, and two UEFA Champions League titles under Sir Alex, among other various honours. Since he departed 10 years ago, however, silverware has been much harder to come by. Indeed, the club have won just four major trophies in the last decade.

With that lack of success in mind, it's little wonder the club have hired and fired head coaches with reasonable regularity as they look to finally find someone good enough to bring United back to the top. Including interim managers, the Red Devils have had eight different men in the hot seat at Old Trafford, all with varying degrees of competence. Erik ten Hag is the latest man to feel the pressure of the job, and with his position very much under threat, we've decided to take a look at who has actually been the best-performing boss in terms of points per game (PPG) since Sir Alex retired.

To put things in perspective, the 81-year-old oversaw 1473 games averaging an impressive 2.01 points per game. That's a remarkable rate to maintain over such a long stretch of game and at the other end of the spectrum, the interim managers listed below obviously only took charge of a handful of matches. So just bear that in mind when looking at the rankings which have been used taking data from Transfermarkt.

8 Ralf Rangnick - 1.45 PPG - 29 matches

Ralf Rangnick arrived in December 2021 and was only ever intended to be an interim manager until the end of the 2021/22 season. However, there was a plan for the Austrian to continue in a consultancy role at Old Trafford for a further two years on top of his initial position as a coach.

His time in charge did not go well, though, as he picked up an average of just 1.45 points per game across 29 matches. As a consequence, United finished the season in 6th place with 58 points, which was their worst points-total record in their Premier League history. In the end, Rangnick didn't even stick around to take on the consultancy role as he left England to become the Austria national team manager. Of all the Man United managers in the post-Ferguson age, he was by far the worst PPG.

7 David Moyes - 1.73 PPG - 51 matches

When David Moyes arrived from Everton, there was every hope that the steely-eyed Scot would be the perfect replacement for Sir Alex. In hindsight, however, that position was always likely to be a bit of a poisoned chalice for whoever came in.

Such was the success of his predecessor, Moyes was never going to find it easy but his poor record meant he only lasted 51 matches in charge of the Red Devils. In that time he picked 1.73 points per game, winning just 27 times. His 10-month spell won't be fondly remembered by many. Still, he has since gone on to remind many of his quality during his time as West Ham United boss.

6 Ryan Giggs - 1.75 PPG - Four matches

With Moyes sacked, club legend Ryan Giggs came in to try and steady the ship for the rest of the season, acting club's interim player-manager. He stood in the dugout for the final four games of the 2013/14 campaign and did okay without changing too much.

Indeed, with a record of two wins, a draw and a defeat, Giggs managed 1.75 points per game – which was marginally better than what Moyes managed. He stuck around at the club for another few years, working as assistant manager under Louis van Gaal but left in 2016 when he was overlooked for the main job which went to José Mourinho instead.

5 Louis van Gaal - 1.81 PPG - 103 matches

As alluded to above, Van Gaal took the reigns from Giggs after Moyes' poor season in charge and oversaw managerial duties for two seasons between 2014 and 2016. He only finished as high as fourth and then fifth in the league but managed to win the FA Cup, at least beating Crystal Palace in the 2016 final.

That was the first major honour won by any manager at United since Ferguson retired. With that being the case, the Dutchman deserves some credit for his time in charge and his average of 1.81 points across 103 games isn't the worst by any means either. Even so, he was sacked two days after his triumph at Wembley.

4 Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - 1.84 PPG - 149 matches

Of all the managers on this list, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer spent the most time in charge of the Red Devils in the post-Sir Alex Era, so he must have done something right. Well, he didn't win any trophies but he did get them back in the Champions League at least, finishing third and second in his only two full seasons in charge.

He, of course, got the job off the back of a brilliant 19-game spell in charge as interim where he averaged 2.32 points per game. In the remaining 149 games of his time as official manager, that dropped to just 1.79 – meaning he averaged 1.84 points per game across 168 games in total. At least, for a little while, he returned some of the good feelings to Old Trafford but that only carried him for so long as the results dried up and he was consequently sacked in 2021.

3 José Mourinho - 1.97 PPG - 114 matches

In his first season as Man Utd boss, Mourinho won the double. Indeed, he won the League Cup and the Europa League, beating Southampton 3-2 and Ajax 2-0 in the respective finals. He is the only manager to win two major trophies in one season since Sir Alex left. He also won the Community Shield at the start of 2016, which United qualified for after Van Gaal's FA Cup success.

In the Premier League, his best success was leading the club to second in 2017/18. He has since called that finish

one of the best in his career because "people don't know what is going on behind the scenes". He left mid-way through the next season having averaged 1.97 per game across 114 matches. Although he doesn't have the best PPG, the Special One is at least the most successful manager on this list in terms of trophy haul at Old Trafford.

2 Erik ten Hag - 2.01 PPG - 77 matches

Look at that, of all the permanent managers on this list, Ten Hag has the best record. In fact, with 2.01 points per game, he is performing at the exact same level as Sir Alex. However, the Scot managed to maintain that across 1473 games, whereas Ten Hag's 77-match rein (at the time of writing) is considerably shorter.

Ten Hag did at least win a trophy in his first season, the Carabao Cup, and managed to get his team back into the Champions League with a third-placed finish. Unfortunately, in his second campaign, things have begun to wobble significantly. For instance, the Red Devils have lost five times at home already this season and, for the first time in 60 years, have lost more than half of their opening 15 games. He needs to change things quickly or else his name will plummet down this list – that's if he doesn't lose his job first.

1 Michael Carrick - 2.33 PPG - Three matches

So, the best manager in the post-Sir Alex Fergusson era (if you take this with a big pinch of salt) is Michael Carrick. The former midfielder oversaw just three games at Old Trafford when Solskjaer left in 2021 – winning twice and drawing once, meaning he went undefeated.

While he tops this list for now, there is time for him to improve (or more realistically tarnish) his record of 2.33 points per game. After all, he spent time as assistant manager between 2018 and 2021, so is well-known to the club, and has since done a fairly impressive job at Middlesbrough in the Championship, so it's not unreasonable to suggest that he could one day return to United as manager on a permanent basis. Still only 42 years old, it will certainly be interesting to see if the former midfielder does get another shot in the hot seat for the club he played 464 times for.