Ole Gunnar Solskjaer remains in the Old Trafford hot seat for now but pressure on the Norwegian coach is beginning to build with results having taken a turn for the worse this week.
A poor result away at Everton on Saturday afternoon could seal Solskjaer’s fate, with Mauricio Pochettino loitering in the background and widely expected to be announced as his successor should the axe fall.
If this proves to be the case, there will be a number of immediate issues that Pochettino will be expected to try and address upon his arrival at the club. One of the more pressing matters will be improving United’s largely underwhelming attack.
Despite possessing some of the most exciting and lethal forwards in the Premier League, only four sides have scored fewer goals than United’s total of eight so far.
Interestingly, United actually rank inside the division's top six for shots attempted per 90 minutes so far this season, but they drop into the bottom nine in the league when it comes to those shots actually hitting the target, and this is the crux of their attacking issue.
Solskjaer’s side at present is not creating shooting chances of a high quality, which is why despite being frequent shooters, they’re not scoring a lot of goals, or often not even hitting the target. In fact, according to Expected Goals (xG), United’s shot average of 0.06 is the worst in the division.
What this means in layman's terms is that, on average, each of United’s efforts this season has only had around a six per cent chance of actually finding the back of the net. For comparison, Tottenham rank top in this department with an average of 0.14.
Some of these issues could come down to the fact that they’re struggling to break down teams who are happy to sit back and let them control possession. Unable to work the ball close to goal, United's players may be more inclined to attempt shots from distance which obviously carry less threat when compared to shots taken from inside the penalty area.
The numbers would back up this theory with only three teams posting a higher average shot distance than United so far.
At Spurs, Pochettino had an attack force that could rival United’s current crop with the likes of Dele Alli, Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Lucas Moura all within his ranks. Yet, compared to United so far this season, he proved much better at creating a system that allowed his players to break down teams sitting deep and therefore allowed them to create better quality chances on goal.
During Pochettino's final full season in North London (2018-19), Spurs had an xG shot average of 0.12, which is twice the average of United's at present. It’s even higher than United’s average from last season of 0.10. In that season, Tottenham also had a lower average shot distance at 17.1 (yds) compared to United’s of 18.3 (yds).
Should United relieve Solskjaer of his duties and bring in Pochettino, then one of the Argentine’s first tasks will be to implement a system that once again gets United’s best attackers creating good quality chances closer to goal.
