Erik ten Hag in focus after Manchester United suffer 3-0 defeat at home to Tottenham; Bruno Fernandes sent off before half-time but familiar issues on show again for Dutchman's struggling side; we explore the stats...
Monday 30 September 2024 11:26, UK
It was a miserable Sunday for Erik ten Hag, as he stood in the rain watching his Man Utd side being thrashed by Tottenham. Gary Neville labelled it one of the worst performances under the Dutchman's reign. And the stats show why the pressure is piling on him…
Tottenham were once the team dismissed as flaky, easy to roll over and lacking character. But Sir Alex Ferguson's famous pre-match dismissal of the Londoners before a game at White Hart Lane would be more suitably addressed to the home side at Old Trafford these days.
Even before Bruno Fernandes' red card, Tottenham were sweeping through United's defences, with Micky van de Ven's early run past five red shirts before crossing to the unmarked Brennan Johnson a perfect demonstration of the wide open spaces available to the visitors.
Tottenham have racked up a higher Expected Goals total at Old Trafford than Man Utd in the Premier League this season.
The 4.67xG tally Ange Postecoglou's side had is the worst conceded by United for 258 Premier League games.
The nine chances created by Dejan Kulusevski was the most by a visiting player in the top flight since Opta started tracking that metric in 2003/04.
Theatre of Dreams? It certainly is for opposition teams right now.
With Man Utd's defence as leaky as the roof at Old Trafford, Ten Hag has presided over eight Premier League defeats at home in the last 20 outings there. They hadn't lost any of the 20 before that.
If you have a season ticket there, you'll have had to sit through consecutive 3-0 horror shows, with Spurs strutting their stuff on the back of Liverpool's demolition job at the start of the month.
(That scoreline, by the way, has become a recurring theme - Ten Hag has lost five home games 3-0.)
The last time United lost consecutive home league games without scoring was in 2021 - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's final two home games before being sacked.
What's the final message to these Man Utd players before they head out onto the pitch? Whatever it is, it isn't working.
There were just 155 seconds on the clock when Johnson tucked in Spurs' opener.
United didn't even last that long at the start of the second half. Dejan Kulusevski struck 118 seconds after the break as Ten Hag's team talk went out the window again.
It's just the second time United have conceded twice inside three minutes of both halves in a Premier League. The other occasion was under Ten Hag, too - in February 2023 against Leeds.
Ten Hag also saw his side concede after 88 seconds in August 2023 against Nottingham Forest. Slow starters? It's a habit that shouldn't be dismissed so casually.
It's not just out of possession where Man Utd are in bad shape. Their long-standing finishing issues continue to limit any progress Ten Hag would hope to make.
United are the biggest underperformers for attacking stats in the Premier League this season, bagging five goals from an Expected Goals total of 10.6.
There was no big chance created by the home side against Spurs on Sunday but their conversion figures of 17 out of 19 - 10.53 per cent - continues to rank as the second-worst in the league in that metric. Only relegation-threatened Southampton (8.33 per cent) have a worse conversion rate of Opta-defined big chances.
Bruno Fernandes' goal drought has been well-documented, but new signing Joshua Zirkzee has missed all four of his big chances, Alejandro Garnacho has missed four out of five and there are plenty of other offenders when it comes to final-third threat.
Five goals from their first six games is United's second-worst return (2008/09), while only Southampton - who allowed United to score three - are the only side with fewer goals than Ten Hag's men, who have drawn a blank in a league-high three games so far.
Brentford are among nine sides to have scored more league goals than United since Ten Hag was appointed.
Not a record in a good way, obviously. Ten Hag logged Man Utd's worst Premier League finishing position with eighth place last season. They're currently 12th with just seven points, their joint-fewest after six Premier League games. A new low beckons.
These stats didn't come cheap for Man Utd. They have shelled out over £600m on signings for Erik ten Hag and the head coach can't escape the fact that Sunday's squad was very much the team he had built.
Six of the starters against Spurs - Andre Onana, Noussair Mazraoui, Matthijs de Ligt, Lisandro Martinez, Manuel Ugarte and Joshua Zirkzee - were signed by Ten Hag. Two more - Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho - were handed their debuts by him.
With fellow Ten Hag signings Mason Mount, Rasmus Hojlund, Christian Eriksen and Casemiro coming off the bench, 12 of the 16 players used by United against Spurs were either signed by Ten Hag or brought into the team by him.
