14 goals conceded in 5 games: Man Utd's Champions League dream undone by defence

Tom Weber

29 Nov 2023 14:44 CST
3 min read

Harry Maguire, Andre Onana, Man Utd — © ProShots

When the draw was made, Manchester United will have looked at their Champions League group and expected to comfortably finish in the top two.

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Yet, five games into their European campaign, the Red Devils are on the brink of crashing out after twice failing to beat Galatasaray and losing to Copenhagen and Bayern. The main reason behind their precarious position has been their terrible defence.

While their league form has been equally blotchy this season, at least United have been defensively solid for the most part and surprisingly so given that their nominal first-choice backline has rarely been available. In recent times, Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Jonny Evans have all been preferred to Raphael Varane, which is pushing the World Cup winner towards the exit.

In the Premier League, United have kept five clean sheets so far; in the Champions League just one, a 1-0 over Copenhagen at Old Trafford that was salvaged by late Andre Onana penalty heroics. However, besides that one outing, United and Onana have been nothing short of terrible defensively.

Backline undoes Champions League dream

The Red Devils have shipped a whopping 14 goals in their five European outings this season, an amount that illustrates exactly why the Manchester giants have embarrassingly floundered on the biggest stage.

It all started against Bayern when Andre Onana conceded four goals in a game in which he also committed a massive howler. Erik ten Hag's men were then hit for three by Galatasaray on home soil before their 1-0 over Copenhagen.

The return fixture against the Danes saw a spectacular collapse as 10-man United again conceded four, leaving them bottom of the group. Galatasaray repeated their previous trick in Istanbul when they came from 3-1 down to draw 3-3 against the Red Devils with Onana guilty of not one but two major mistakes.

Man Utd's Champions League campaign has been a comedy of errors and a string of poor defensive performances has seen them become one of the laughing stocks of the season.