When Man United have lost their 10th game in each season since Sir Alex left | OneFootball

Highlights

It's been over a decade since Sir Alex Ferguson left Manchester United. Indeed, 11 seasons ago, he lifted the 2012/13 Premier League title with the Red Devils and then bid his farewell.

As we all know, the years since, have not been particularly joyous for the club. Starting with David Moyes' 10-month spell in charge, manager after manager has arrived at Old Trafford and been unable to deliver the goods in any sustained sort of way.

The club have won just four trophies in the post-Ferguson era, which include the Europa League, FA Cup, and two League Cup trophies. The latest came last season under Erik Ten Hag, and it did look as though he could be set to guide United back into a period of success.

However, this term, things have started to fall apart. We may only be in the early stages of the 2023/24 season, but Man United have already lost ten games. This is the quickest the club have done so since Sir Alex left. A report in The Athletic, via Reddit, revealed how long it took the club to lose their tenth game in every season since Sir Alex Ferguson. We've gone into more details for you to enjoy below.

2013/14 - 37 games

As mentioned above, Moyes came in with the considerable task of being the first man to try to run the ship in the post-Ferguson era. It didn't go well for him as he oversaw just 51 games with an average of 1.73 points per game (compared to Sir Alex's 2.01 from 1473 games).

His debut season was a disaster and the Scottish manager was sacked in April with the Red Devils seventh in the Premier League table at the time. Only in three other seasons has the club lost their tenth game earlier than the 37 outings it took Moyes and co. No wonder he didn't last long.

2014/15 - 41 games

After Ryan Giggs had stepped in as interim, Louis van Gaal arrived permanently ahead of the following campaign. United were slightly improved under the Dutchman as proven by the fact that it took four more games before reaching their tenth defeat of the season.

This still isn't great but it was enough to see him given another season in charge. Van Gaal also led Manchester United to a fourth-place finish in the league, which was an improvement of three places and six points higher than the previous term.

2015/16 - 39 games

In his second campaign with the club, it's safe to say it was a mixed bag. His tenure weirdly ended at a high point as he delivered a first trophy since Sir Alex left, with Man United beating Crystal Palace 2-1 to win the FA Cup.

Still, he was sacked just two days later. This would have been in part due to the team finishing fifth in the league as well as not getting out of the group stages of the Champions League. To lose their tenth match of the campaign, it took Van Gaal two games fewer than the season prior.

José Mourinho arrived next in what was quite a peculiar season for the Red Devils. He became the first United manager to win a major trophy in his debut season, by winning the League Cup. He then went one better and made this a double with a triumph in the Europa League.

The club's form in the Premier League was a different story, though, as they slumped to a sixth-place finish. Even so, their efforts across all competitions meant that they only lost nine games across the entire campaign – meaning Mourinho is the only post-Ferguson manager not to lose ten games in a single season.

In 2017/18, the club performed much better domestically as they finished second in the league. Surprisingly, Mourinho later claimed that that was one of his "best achievements" in football due to all the issues "behind the scenes" at Old Trafford.

He didn't enjoy much beyond that, though, suffering a Champions League exit to Sevilla at the last-sixteen stage, and losing the FA Cup final to ex-club Chelsea. His tenth defeat of the season came in a semi-respectable 49 matches.

2018/19 - 43

Mourinho remained in charge for the next campaign but was sacked with just seven wins in the first 17 Premier League games. He was replaced by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who initially arrived as interim but eventually got the job permanently.

After the slow start to the season under the former boss, Solskjaer managed to win 14 of his 19 matches in charge. As a consequence, it took United 43 matches until they lost their tenth game of the 2018/19 campaign.

2019/20 - 36

While he had a bright start to life in charge at Old Trafford, form under Solskjaer soon fell off a cliff. After all, in his first 17 games he had an 82 per cent win rate, and then from games 18 to 41, this dropped to 20 per cent.

This meant that in his first full season in charge, the club struggled, losing their tenth game of the campaign after just 36 outings. Even so, they still managed to finish third; albeit in a trophyless season.

2020/21 - 55 matches

Solskjaer was given more time to get things right at Old Trafford and delivered a pretty decent season in 2020/21. While the club didn't win any silverware, they managed to improve in the Premier League, finishing second – although 12 points behind champions and rivals Manchester City.

They didn't lose their tenth game of the campaign until the latter stages, with that defeat coming after 55 matches. Ten Hag and Mourinho are the only other post-Ferguson managers to have done better than that.

2021/22 - 40 matches

In the summer of 2021, Solskjaer signed a three-year contract but he lasted until just November before being sacked. Michael Carrick took over as caretaker until Ralf Rangnick arrived in December as interim manager.

The Austrian accumulated a paltry 1.45 points per game during his 29 matches in charge until the end of that season – the fewest of any manager after Sir Alex. With the combined efforts of Solskjaer, Carrick and Rangnick, the club suffered their tenth defeat after 40 matches that term.

2022/23 - 56 games

Ten Hag took the reins ahead of the 2022/23 season and has been calling the shots at Old Trafford ever since. In this campaign, the club looked much improved at times, winning that aforementioned Carabao Cup and getting back into the Champions League.

With the ship somewhat steadied and seemingly heading in the right direction, it took 56 games before the Red Devils lost their tenth game under the Dutch manager. However, this season appears to have been a false dawn.

2023/34 - 21 games

We now come to the current season and while there is plenty of football still to be played, things do not look promising. After all, Ten Hag and co have lost ten games already this term, despite having played just 21 times.

Three of those defeats came in their first five Champions League games, six came in 14 Premier League games, and one came in the League Cup against Newcastle United. This is the fastest-ever to that unwanted feat in the post-Ferguson era.