Man Utd's worst start in 40 years: six points from six
Six points from six games is Man Utd's worst league start in 40 years. The results, the goals, and why the problem is bigger than any one bad afternoon.
Six points from six games. After yesterday's 1-1 with Spurs, that is Man Utd's worst start to a league season in 40 years, and the last time it was this bad was 1986, when Ron Atkinson didn't make it to Christmas.
Here's how we got here:
- Hull 2-0 United, away
- United 5-2 Ipswich, home
- Everton 2-2 United, away
- United 0-1 City, home
- Fulham 1-1 United, away
- United 1-1 Spurs, home
One win, three draws, two defeats. Nine scored, nine conceded.
Take Ipswich out and look again
The 5-2 against Ipswich, with Bruno's hat-trick, is the only thing holding this table together. Remove it and we've scored four league goals in five games. Against Hull, a newly promoted side, we didn't score at all, and against City at home we didn't either.
That's the part that bothers me more than the points. Draws away at Everton and Fulham are not a disaster on their own. Not creating anything against a promoted side on the first day, and then not scoring in the derby, is a pattern.
The draws that should have been wins
Yesterday is the one that'll stick. Spurs had been bottom and without a league win. Bentancur was sent off on 78 minutes with us already ahead through Mbeumo, and we still conceded in stoppage time, Solanke turning in Tonali's cross. Twelve minutes plus added time against ten men, and we couldn't see it out.
Everton went the other way: we needed Šeško's goal on 88 minutes to get a 2-2, which felt like a point gained at the time and looks like two dropped now.
Why the money makes it worse
This squad has had money spent on it. The midfield alone took around £155 million this summer, on Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Baleba. That's why six from six is harder to explain away than a bad run usually is: nobody can say the club didn't back the squad. The question is whether it backed the right areas.
Carrick has been in the job since May on a two-year contract. Six league games isn't enough to judge a head coach. It is enough to say that whatever the plan is, it isn't working yet, and the next run (Atlético away, then Leeds away) is not the run you'd pick to turn it round.
The full reaction to yesterday is here: Man Utd 1-1 Spurs. And if you're new, here's what this blog is about.