The alarming statistics behind Manchester United’s sorry season

Manchester United’s miserable season reached a new low on Monday with a 4-0 hammering against Crystal Palace.

Manager Erik ten Hag described it as “definitely the worst defeat” of United’s campaign and here, the PA news agency looks at the key statistics.

League position

Defeat at Selhurst Park was United’s 13th of the league season – already a club record in the Premier League era, with three games remaining – and left them eighth in the table.

Should that remain the case – and their remaining fixtures see title-chasing Arsenal and sixth-placed Newcastle visit Old Trafford before a closing trip to Brighton – it would be United’s lowest Premier League finish.

They won nine of the first 11 titles after the competition’s rebranding in 1992, and were runners-up in the other two seasons, and never finished outside the top three in 21 Premier League campaigns under the management of Sir Alex Ferguson.

They were seventh in the first season after his departure, which saw successor David Moyes sacked with four games remaining in the first season of a six-year contract. They lost 12 games that term, a number they matched in 2021-22 but had not surpassed until Monday night.

In the decade since Ferguson left they have also finished second and third twice apiece, fourth and fifth once each and sixth three times, with this season on track for a new low.

Defensive record

Monday’s rout was the fourth time United have conceded four times in a game this season, following 4-3 losses to Bayern Munich and FC Copenhagen in the Champions League and Chelsea in the league.

Add in the 11 times they have let in three and those 15 games account for 49 of the 81 goals they have conceded in all competitions – the most for the club since the 1976-77 season.

With 55 of those coming in the league, they are threatening another Premier League-era club record, having never conceded more than 57 in a season – that came in the 2021-22 campaign that saw Ole Gunnar Solskjaer sacked as manager before Ralf Rangnick’s unsuccessful spell in interim charge.

They have only eight league clean sheets, ranking 11th of the 20 teams, and 12 in 48 games in all competitions – meaning they have conceded three or four in more games than they have kept clean sheets.

They are on course for their first negative Premier League goal difference, currently on minus three – Solskjaer and Rangnick’s side finished on zero and they have never been in single figures otherwise. According to the competition’s official data suppliers Opta, they have spent more time behind in games – 931 minutes and nine seconds – than ahead (929mins 47secs).

European exit

United also crashed out of the Champions League in the group stage for only the sixth time, with their lowest ever points total.

Of the 33 seasons with a group stage, starting from the 1991-92 European Cup, United have appeared in 26 and this season finished bottom of their group for only the second time.

The other came in 2005-06, with six points compared to this season’s four.

They finished third with six points in 1994-95, with eight in 2015-16 and nine in both 2011-12 and 2020-21.

Only Belgian side Antwerp, with 17, conceded more than United’s 15 goals in this season’s group stage – a total matched by both Celtic and Red Star Belgrade.