Why don't we win games by 3+ goal margin anymore?

Samid

He's no Bilal Ilyas Jhandir
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In the past 14 months we've only won one game by a 3+ goal margin, 3-0 in a dead rubber against Brentford last season.

1 in 43 games. Before that we had 10 in 56 games since project restart, which I don't think is particularly good but obviously much better than the current slump.

3+ goal margin wins since November 2021: City 16, Spurs 9, Liverpool 7, Arsenal 7, Man Utd's opponents 6(!), Chelsea 5, Newcastle 5, Man Utd 1.

Will we ever win big again?
 
I have Rashford and Martial in my FPL team now, so we're not scoring three next match day, that's for sure
 
more down to players' nature.

Our main goal threats, rashford and Martial, are not natural goalscorers. they are 15 league-goals per season strikers at best and are never 30+goals per season strikers.
Ronaldo was finished.
our wingers, Antony, Sancho, Elanga, Garnacho are not players that can score 10+ goals in the EPL. while other top teams have wingers that can bang in 10+ goals per season.
Eriksen has regressed into 2-3 league goals a season midfielder.
Fred and McTominay are never goalscorers.
We don't have a Terry/Vidic/Ramos goalscoring cb.

only Bruno is by nature a decent scorer in respect of his playing position but he is doing poorly in that respect this season so far.
 
Because we signed a well past his best Ronaldo and then allowed him to demand the ball gets played to him relentlessly.

The result was catastrophic not only did we stop scoring we also starting conceding at an alarming rate due to us constantly giving the ball away either through Ronaldo or trying to find Ronaldo.
 
We haven't been very good, quite frankly. You need to be good to win games and even better to win by lots of goals.
 
It's either:

  • We don't create enough chances
  • or, we don't finish enough chances
l wonder how our stats look in terms of big chances creation and expected goals.

Of course the lack of a goals-scoring striker/forward has impact, but I think the issue is more structural/tactical than individual quality.
 
Utd have Rashford and Martial as the main strikers, that’s why.
 
We signed a pensioner who scored all the goals and made sure nobody else got a pass. The result was we scored less with Ronaldo than we did without him. Hahaha
 
our players' mentality play a role as well.

every time we have a lead, our players instinctively drop deeper and go into defensive mode and go into no-confident "randomly clear the ball to opposition" mode for unknown reason. mourinho syndrome won't last that long right?
 
Ronaldo to blame
Collapse in Ole's final season
Greenwood
Shite manager in Rangnick
EtH not having fully built his team yet and lacking a striker.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I’ve no idea but it helps explain why watching United has been such a chore these last few years. Even when we win we’re only ever a goal away from agonising stress.
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Same. Our titles were built on the back of easy wins against sides that were happy to leave OT without getting completely hammered. Based on that, the lack of fear factor is, in some way, responsible. That and the fact that there's been nothing to fear because we've largely been shite.
 
Why cant the teams I bet on win by 3 or more goals so I dont have to sweat them every week?
 
Imagine if we let Cavani and now Ronaldo go but we don't sign a striker in January....
 
Samid said:
In the past 14 months we've only won one game by a 3+ goal margin, 3-0 in a dead rubber against Brentford last season.

1 in 43 games. Before that we had 10 in 56 games since project restart, which I don't think is particularly good but obviously much better than the current slump.

3+ goal margin wins since November 2021: City 16, Spurs 9, Liverpool 7, Arsenal 7, Man Utd's opponents 6(!), Chelsea 5, Newcastle 5, Man Utd 1.

Will we ever win big again?
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Well we were terrible last year, struggled to ever control games (vital to scoring a lot), and had a leaky defense. Ronaldo was our only real goal threat.

This year we’ve clearly been lacking finishing and our only decent striker has only just recently gotten fit again. I’d say give it some more time.
 
Eckers99 said:
Same. Our titles were built on the back of easy wins against sides that were happy to leave OT without getting completely hammered. Based on that, the lack of fear factor is, in some way, responsible. That and the fact that there's been nothing to fear because we've largely been shite.
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It’s also in general much more difficult to play against the bottom table teams. The influx of cash and talent into the league in the last decade has meant much fewer cake walk games as every team aside from maybe the two promoted sides have some quality players
 
The overall standard of teams in the lower half of the table is much higher now than it was ten years ago.
 
We now lose by big numbers in the last 43 games. There's a lot to fix after the collapse by every player and some that were sadly finished or ejected.

We've improved defensively in the 5 months. Rashford has restored his form but we need much more. Our last reasonable scoring season we had Bruno on 28 goals, Rashford 21, Cavani on 17, Greenwood 12.

Greenwood and Cavani now gone. We need Antony, Gakpo? Martial, Sancho to make the difference and we essentially have Sancho still missing, and Gakpo or whoever not signed yet. I think there's more to come from midfield with Eriksen , Bruno and Casemiro. Probably will be next season we start winning by bigger margins often or the later end of this.
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
It’s also in general much more difficult to play against the bottom table teams. The influx of cash and talent into the league in the last decade has meant much fewer cake walk games as every team aside from maybe the two promoted sides have some quality players
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Yeah, that's definitely a factor as well - the league as a whole is much stronger these days. I still think teams turn up at the Etihad half beaten but 'lesser' teams are generally much better at executing a tactical plan to stay in the game until at least half time. One of our biggest problems has been taking early chances and making it less of a crap shoot.
 
Eckers99 said:
Yeah, that's definitely a factor as well - the league as a whole is much stronger these days. I still think teams turn up at the Etihad half beaten but 'lesser' teams are generally much better at executing a tactical plan to stay in the game until at least half time. One of our biggest problems has been taking early chances and making it less of a crap shoot.
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On average, the number of goals scored each season doesn't seem to indicate it's been harder to score
 
I think this requires no more analysis than us not being good enough to win comfortably. We're not really an established top 4 side at present. Which means we're a team somewhat stronger than midtable sides, but not lightyears better. I'm not talking in theoretical terms, in the sense we have players like Varane, Bruno etc that are top draw, but purely objectively our results are of a Europa outfit over recent years. Teams like this do tend to have scraps every week, they're not battering teams.

Traditionally the teams that would make up Europa are decent but not great, it's only the fact the league that has become more competitive that means the big clubs are ending up in there. But this competitiveness is another reason we don't batter sides.
 
Tarrou said:
because we’re crap at football
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The team have played a poor brand of football consistently which has nullified the ability to create clear cut chances. You can stick a top goalscorer in a Solskjaer managed team and the result will still be the same.

Teams who have scored the most in recent times in being Liverpool / City has come from the foundation of their general play. Until United play a better brand of football the criteria for a lack of goals will remain hence the GD this season. Even though ETH has made some improvements there's still many more required.
 
OmarUnited4ever said:
It's either:

  • We don't create enough chances
  • or, we don't finish enough chances
l wonder how our stats look in terms of big chances creation and expected goals.

Of course the lack of a goals-scoring striker/forward has impact, but I think the issue is more structural/tactical than individual quality.
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20 goals scored out of 21.85 xG. Slight underperformance. But 21.85 xG out of 14 games is really bad.

You can tell we are progressing with Ten Hag, and I have faith we'll eventually get there, but it wouldn't surprise me to go through a Van Gaal esque period. Look at Arsenals progression - they seriously struggled with chance creation until this season even though they did well with control last season and had good periods.

Of course, a big part is personnel, and Martial has missed the entire half season, and he isn't even all that great, but is miles better than the chopping and changing we've needed to do in the first half. Personnel should improve it a lot for us, as should just time and more training. But also I feel like as ever, changes from Ten Hag will be needed too.
 
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