Should Manchester United be concerned about defending their title?
Are they as formidable as last season?
In addition to being the champions in 2007-08, Man United were also the best team in the league, both, offensively and defensively. The scored the maximum goals and conceded the fewest – also ending up with the maximum number of clean sheets as well.
The following table gives the goal scoring and conceding details of the top four. Man United led on all counts:
2007-08 EPL Season
And now here’s the same table for the 2008-09 season so far. Numbers in brackets show the expected number had the clubs maintained last years averages. We are only 11 games into the season and the averages will change, but there is enough of an early trend to worry United fans and bring a cheer to their Chelsea counterparts.
2008-09 EPL Season so far
United are still as good as last year in banging in the goals but their defense seems to be slipping. The numbers point to a clear fall in their defensive standards from last year. Their performances against Liverpool and Chelsea where they couldn’t defend one-goal leads corroborate what the numbers have to say. Last year, United were winning these games, holding on to one goal leads splendidly. Not so this year.
The other interesting thing shown by the numbers is the huge leap taken by Chelsea – both offensively and defensively. Liverpool have the same number of points, but Chelsea under Scolari have started doing what Abramovich always wanted – decimate the opposition with their attacking prowess. And at the same time they seem to have improved on their defense – supposed to be the highlight of Jose’s reign. Wonder what the great one has to say now
But more importantly, are we seeing a worrying trend for United?
What do you think?
Your forgetting that United have missed their 3 first choice midfielders for almost the entire year. This means that United doesnt control the possession like they did last year, which then puts more of a strain on the defense which is why your seeing lower totals across the board.
Also, Wes Brown is no longer the first choice RB, so theyre missing someone who was more liable to stay back and take up defensive positions more so then Rafael whose more inclined to attack and Gary neville, whose still nto 100% percent.
Also,except for having more fouls against them, I dont think weve seen TOO much of a drop in the defenses performance. So either the refs are being stricter with them when ti comes to contact or their gettign lazy idk, but its not all on the defense.
What I’ve noticed so far this season is that Ferdinand is making quite a few defensive errors. We’ve also been rotating the right back position quite frequently this season between Neville, Brown and Da Silva. This could be a reason for our defensive instability but I also think we’ve lacked a bit of a killer touch up front e.g. Everton. We should’ve buried them in the first half but we let them back into the game.
Ronaldo still seems to be re-discovering his killer self, Berbatov is still settling into the team (though he seems to be improving game after game).
Also, I think the fact that we’ve had a makeshift midfield for sometime now is also contributing to our lack of control over a game for the full 90. I’ll only really start panicking if we find ourselves in this predicament in March so for now I think we’re still finding our feet. Give us sometime and hopefully we’ll bounce back.
Far to early to make any judgements. As the above posters point out, the midfield disruption has been a factor. The Hull game was a bit of freak. Utd are creating a lot of chances and will score plenty of goals and with the midfield injury list reduced I have no concern over the defence.
The main factor is that Utd have not been digging out results (like Liverpool) but have won a number of games much more comfortably than the scorline has suggested. The extra goals will come and someone will get a hiding soon.