Shocking Truth: Let’s Compare Man United’s Start to This Season With 2015/16
Nov 11, 2016 at 3:54 PM
It’s safe to say it hasn’t been plain sailing for Jose Mourinho at the start of his first season as manager of Manchester United.
There have been inconsistent runs of form both from the side and the players. He has overseen an expensive transfer window which has seen the world record signing of Paul Pogba, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were all high profile recruits.
The indications are that it might take a little time for this side to click this season, but the big question is how much time will it take for Mourinho to lead United back to the top – if there are going to get there.
In the meantime, progress needs to be seen on the field, so let’s have a look at how the side’s start to his Premier League season, compares to the last one.
Manchester United Premier League after 11 games 2015/16:
Points | Goals | Goals Conceded | Clean Sheet | Appearances |
21 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 11 |
Manchester United Premier League after 11 games 2016/17:
Points | Goals | Goals Conceded | Clean Sheet | Appearances |
18 | 16 | 13 | 4 | 11 |
There are a couple of things that stick out as a huge difference between Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United side, and Mourinho’s incarnation.
That comes at the back. In the early stages of last season you’d frequently see United involved in tight games and winning them – if you look over the course of the season there were very few teams they ran riot against.
That’s probably one thing this current United side has in its locker in that when it clicks it can take games away from their opponents pretty quickly. Look at the wins over Leicester City and Swansea City this season as an example.
But they are that little more open, despite having demonstrated they can defending well, stay compact and be very difficult to open up. There is a rise in the amount of goals conceded, and they have also kept fewer clean sheets.
The start of the season saw them pick up three wins from as many games – suggesting that they were setting the foundation for a possible title challenge. Even after the 0-0 draw with Liverpool in October, Mourinho suggested his side were contenders.
But two wins from their last eight games suggests things could be a bit more of a struggle as they sit eight points off the top of the league in sixth place – one place off where they finished last season.