Man Utd struggling to shake off ‘schoolboy’ tag after reaching unfortunate 2024 milestone | OneFootball

It would have felt like a sense of déjà vu for Manchester United supporters after seeing their club humbled by an energetic Liverpool team at Old Trafford before the September international break.

Erik ten Hag’s men were very much second-best as they fell to a 2-0 defeat, their second consecutive loss, after three Premier League matches played this season.

It was a result that fiercely unearthed calls for Ten Hag’s position to be questioned just a few months after he sensationally kept his job following an unlikely FA Cup triumph over national champions and neighbours Manchester City.

However, despite new personnel being introduced, United’s performances harkened back to some of the lowlights from the 2023/24 campaign. Indeed, after narrowly beating Fulham 1-0 on the opening day, they’ve failed to register a goal in 180 minutes, which leaves them with the league’s worst attack.

Being goal-shy is an understandable concern, as games are won by putting the ball into the net more times than the opposition. It’s the Red Devils’ inability to prevent the opposition from peppering their goal that should have Ten Hag’s utmost attention, as lessons aren’t seemingly being learned.

For one, United currently possesses the Premier League’s joint-fourth-worst defensive record: five goals conceded, which places them alongside Chelsea, West Ham, Crystal Palace, and Leicester City, with only Ipswich (7), Wolves (9), and Everton (10) ahead.

If we break this down even further, United have faced 35 shots, which puts them in the middle of the pack. Ten were on target, with only Forest (eight), Liverpool, Tottenham (both seven), and Man City (six) faring better. So for them to have conceded half of their shots on target faced could be due to bad luck or, more likely, poor positioning and defensive shape being exploited and punished.

It doesn’t get any better when considering United’s Expected Goals on Target Conceded is 5.88 and their Expected Goals Against is 4.32. “Some of the things you see out there, you wouldn’t see at the schoolboy level,” could have been uttered by Gary Neville anytime this month, but he made that statement at the back end of last season.

Indeed, this calendar year doesn’t paint a rosy picture and is perhaps a nadir for the record 20-time English champions. Of the Premier League sides that have exclusively played in 2024 — excluding the relegated and promoted three — United have faced the most shots (401) and are the only side to clear the 400 barrier.

Furthermore, only West Ham (45.09) possesses a higher Expected Goals Against than United (41.39), albeit Ten Hag’s team has shipped in 36 goals, which is worlds away from Arsenal and Man City, who have conceded 10 and 15 goals in 2024, respectively.

When questioned about these defensive frailties earlier this year, Ten Hag brushed off such concerns, stressing, “as long as we get results, no.” But it’s looking very much like old habits are dying hard, and results aren’t coming, especially as they’ve lost as many as two of their first three league games in a season for the second time under him (also 2022–23), as many times as they had in their previous 29 campaigns combined (2018–19 and 2020–21).

They last lost three of their first four games back in the 1986/87 season when under-fire manager Ron Atkinson was dismissed in November, leading to Alex Ferguson’s appointment.