Five years and counting - Why Man Utd won't win anything until they fix their dreadful defence
FT Desk
- 15 Mar 2022 22:01 GMT
- 3 min read
As is often the case at Old Trafford these days, Manchester United’s defence were left looking at one another with a resigned look on their faces, arms waving in the air. Once again an opponent had scored a goal that looked entirely preventable.
However, unlike some inconsequential consolation goal in the Premier League, this was Renan Lodi heading Atletico Madrid into the lead in their second leg tie against the Red Devils in the Champions League. And he’d done so entirely unopposed.
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Indeed, while the post-mortem of Man Utd’s elimination from the premier European competition may revolve around Bruno Fernandes’ ineffectiveness in midfield or Cristiano Ronaldo’s failure to score goals under Ralf Rangnick, Tuesday’s defeat bore all the marks of problems that have dogged the Old Trafford side for the entire season.
Man Utd seem incapable of keeping clean sheets or defending their own goal at all and they haven’t gotten any better under their new manager.
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We advance to
the next round of the
@ChampionsLeague
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| _ |_— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) March 15, 2022
Man Utd’s defensive problems
Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat to Atletico now means that Man Utd have conceded eight goals in their last four games and over the course of Rangnick’s time at the club the Old Trafford side have conceded an incredible 28 goals in just 20 games.
That, unsurprisingly, means that the team are currently conceding 1.4 goals per game in all competitions and when it comes to the Premier League that average stands at 1.06 goals conceded per match.
Five years without a trophy for Manchester United 💀 pic.twitter.com/73gRdO6cxg
— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 15, 2022
While there are legitimate concerns over Man Utd’s attacking line next season or where Paul Pogba will be playing his football after the summer, the biggest issue this team is facing right now is the complete lack of quality defenders.
The club tried to fix that by singing Raphael Varane in the summer, but it’s now clear that Rangnick or his eventual successor will likely need to bring in new full-backs on either wing and a potential replacement for Harry Maguire too.
