Man Utd on their way back to former glory under Solskjaer, but stats show De Gea and misfiring forwards letting him down

OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER spent £140million last summer in a bid to get Manchester United back to the top of English football.

Despite that incredible spending, the Red Devils are a whopping 27 points off the pace after 22 games in the Premier League.

Even so, Man Utd‘s board are bang behind the Norwegian boss. What are they thinking?

We take a look…

PASS THEIR BEST

ALTHOUGH  results haven’t always gone Ole’s way, United do quite a lot right.

Importantly, Solskjaer’s returned United to their passing traditions.

Under Jose Mourinho last season, one in eight of all United’s passes went long.

This term, they’ve been keeping it green, going route one less often than any other Premier League club.

CASE FOR THE DEFENCE

NOW, let’s look at how all that money was spent in the summer…

The bulk of it went on the defence, where £50m full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka joined new club captain Harry Maguire in an £80m deal.

And only three players have made more tackles per 90 minutes than Wan-Bissaka.

The former Crystal Palace man also takes the Biss when it comes to one-on-ones.

Full backs have to bear the brunt of tricky wingers’ dribbling but not many in Wan-Bissaka’s position are better than him at stopping them in their tracks.

There’s only one player in the entire Premier League who hasn’t been dribbled past a single time this season.

And maybe Wan-Bissaka should take credit that it’s the man who plays just inside him – United centre-half Victor Lindelof.

BACK PHWOAR

ALTHOUGH that pair are there to stop the opposition playing, Maguire is often the one who starts it all off for his team.

The England man is an outstanding ball-playing centre-half, that we already knew.

But this term, Maguire is directly creating more scoring chances than any other player in his position.

KEEPING THEM OUT OF IT

SO United’s summer signings have been a success, on the whole.

Behind them, though, David De Gea has failed to live up to his reputation.

The Spain international is joint-fifth for how few goals he’s let in this season, with 25.

But they’ve come from 83 shots on target, putting him only 13 th in the Premier League for save percentage.

Also, some keepers – like West Ham’s Lukasz Fabianski and Crystal Palace’s Vicente Guaita – are routinely saving goals they have no right to prevent. Not De Gea.

When scientifically measuring the difficulty of the shots taken against his goal, in every seven or eight games the Spain goalkeeper concedes one goal MORE than expected.

Handily for United, though, Dean Henderson – currently on loan from Old Trafford at Sheffield United – is right up there in third place.

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RED-FACED FORWARDS

IT’S not only in front of their own goal that Solskjaer’s had problems this term.

Using the same scientific measures of chance quality, we can see how many goals a player should be scoring.

And at times, United’s forwards have been more red-faced than dead-eyed.

It’s a manager’s job to set his team up in a way that will create chances at one end and keep
them out at the other.

Ole’s got that bit right. It’s just that his players are going wrong in the boxes.