Manchester United struggles are cause for concern

Yes, now we have been here before. It was the start of last season that Manchester United began like ass, got utterly thwacked by Brighton, manager Erik Ten Hag made them run just a few more miles in training, after which it was fantastic for some time. It was mostly fantastic because Marcus Rashford changed into the Human Torch, and Casemiro arrived and rolled back the years. Well, one among those things continues to be happening, but up to now it hasn’t been enough this season.

United once more got paddled by Brighton at home, taking place, 3-0, on three vicious moves by the Seagulls before getting a late consolation. Sure, the match may need been different had Rasmus Højlund’s equalizer at 0-1 counted as an alternative of being ruled out by VAR due to it rolling an inch or two over the endline. But a team like United isn’t purported to collapse over one moment. Even in the event that they’ve been doing exactly that for a few years now.

Whatever aspect that United supporters wish to get anxious about can be correct. Their attack on Saturday was incredibly Rashford-dependent again. United had 14 shots total. Rashford had nine of them. He didn’t rating on any, which United badly need. Christian Eriksen looked great last season with an all-action Casemiro next to him. United don’t have an all-action Casemiro in the intervening time, and Eriksen created exactly no probabilities on Saturday.

Casemiro is one other problem. Here’s what some people consider his season up to now:

Casemiro was nowhere on Brighton’s first two goals as they stormed through United’s midfield and into their box. You’ll be able to see him huffing and puffing behind Welbeck each in midfield after which within the box because the cross to Welbeck goes right by him:

Possibly Sofyan Amrabat helps with this when he’s up to the mark. Possibly that more solid foundation, should it occur, enlivens Eriksen and Fernandes again.

There’s also some query about why Ten Hag spent the week leading as much as the Brighton match picking a fight with Jadon Sancho. In case you missed it, after the Arsenal loss, Ten Hag decided to air out Sancho within the press about his performance in training. Sancho didn’t take kindly to it, ended up arguing with Ten Hag in person and thru the press, and is now training by himself. This was right after United lost one other wide-attacking player in Antony, who is perhaps a hunk of abusive garbage and on his solution to prison (contagious at United, it seems). Did United really want this? Without each of them, United reverted to a 4-3-2-1, which Brighton found no problem cutting all through as Scott McTominay, Casemiro, and Eriksen all tried to determine where they were purported to be.

It’s still only five games in, and Ten Hag has turned this ship around before. Still, the metrics from last 12 months suggested they were form of lucky to complete third, especially as their xGA was much higher than the actual goals they let up. The eight they’ve let within the previous three matches might suggest that market correction is coming in the shape of a baseball bat to the back of the skull.

The upcoming fixtures are a bit of kinder, but Brentford and Palace are able to biting anyone on their day, and Brentford have made a habit out of constructing United look awfully silly. Possibly Rashford will start scoring every game as he did last 12 months. It appears to be United’s only solution.

What else went down in Round 5?

4. That is all Man City need

Y’know, I used to be just considering that the one thing Manchester City could use is a devastating one-on-one winger who can dribble his way right into the penalty area every time he rattling pleases. Wouldn’t or not it’s great for everyone in the event that they had that form of toy? Just great, here’s Jérémy Doku.

Doku was principally unplayable against West Ham, and right back Vladimir Coufal will likely be seeing individuals who aren’t there for just a few weeks after this one. Doku had two shots on track, created three probabilities, had 0.68 price of expected assists, while terrorizing the West Ham defense. Whereas when Jack Grealish plays on the left of City’s attack, you already know exactly what you’re getting (and it’s quite good). Doku felt like he could go anywhere and do anything on Saturday. It’s a brand new trend for City, who appear to be specializing in carrying the ball more fairly than simply passing teams to death. Up to now this season, City have averaged 30.0 progressive carries per match. It was 26 last 12 months. They still can pass and pass and pass, but they’ll dance around a blockade now in the event that they must.

Whether Doku grabs an everyday role or simply changes games from the bench, Pep has a brand new tool to deploy that defense could have to resolve together with all the opposite ones Guardiola has found this season, reminiscent of Julian Alvarez as a #10 or Phil Foden running all over the place or Kyle Walker as a straight right winger and likewise a fullback at the identical time. Some guys have all of it.

3. Alisson is perhaps turning into the boogeyman for opposing strikers

Liverpool are off to a flying, although extremely weird start. It’s easy to discover after they’ve been terrible this season. They were awful in the primary half against Bournemouth, Newcastle, and Wolves. They won all three games. How long this trend can proceed is anyone’s guess, though with the array of attacking talent the Reds have, a comeback is all the time a possibility.

A few of that is on account of the brilliance of Alisson, who definitely kept them in games against Newcastle and Bournemouth when it may need gotten away from them. Alisson was the one reason Liverpool even hinted at crashing the highest 4 last 12 months, saving some nine goals from expected, the most effective mark within the league.

This season, it seems like strikers are already spooked by Alisson before they even shoot. Liverpool have given up 5.9 xGA in five matches this season. However the post-shot xGA, which accounts for where the shot is placed and not only where it’s taken from, is just 4.3. Last season, the post-shot xGA for Liverpool was higher than their simply xGA, which meant Alisson needed to be immense. This season, he’s needed to do less work up to now because attackers are making their probabilities worse than they need to. Y’know, like this:

This was something of a staple of Liverpool’s title-winning season, when Alisson turned every striker into Mr. Bill after they got into the box. Or it was just general voodoo. Either way, it’s helped Liverpool dodge some serious damage from their growing pains as they fight and retrofit a complete midfield.

2. Arsenal admit what corners must be

There was a book not so way back, Soccernomics, that suggested that every one the maths said that teams should just take all their corners short and begin an attack from there as an alternative of sending in cross after cross. That getting the ball near the endline and nobody inside 10 yards was more advantageous.

Actually, Arsenal thought so, as a Sean Dyche team is all the time built with several frost giants in defense and most crosses are going to be swatted away easily. So Arsenal took a unique approach:

When desirous about Arsenal’s lineup, it’s not exactly rife with tall players. So this was the sensible approach. It was also a highlight of Fabio Viera’s performance, who was brought into replace the wayward Kai Havertz. It got lost within the shuffle of Mikel Arteta also changing goalkeepers, and perhaps that was intentional. Viera didn’t manage to place any of his 4 shots on net, though he was denied an assist in the primary half by a marginal VAR offside call. He was definitely more energetic than Havertz has been, and didn’t hide as Havertz has done at times. This will likely be something price watching over the approaching weeks.

1. Is that this the most effective goal ever scored by an MLS export?

Jhon Duran moved from the Chicago Fire to Aston Villa in January. He managed a pair sub appearances each last season and this. It’ll be hard to interrupt up the Ollie Watkins-Moussa Diaby axis up front, but doing this once in a while will no less than give manager Unai Emery something to take into consideration:

And I used to be the one who thought he must have stayed in Chicago for yet one more season to tear up MLS and drive up his value and salary. I’m good at stuff.

Follow Sam on Twitter @Felsgate and on Bluesky @felsgate.bsky.social