When Ole Gunnar Solskjaer handed Mason Greenwood his first Premier League opportunities back in 2019, many observers believed the club had unearthed yet another star from the club’s conveyor belt of talent.
Having impressed at youth level, it didn’t take long for the youngster to find his feet in the first team, scoring his first league goal in the 3-3 draw at Sheffield United having already found the target in the Europa League and League Cup.
As his manager continued to trust him in more games over the course of the interrupted 2019-20 campaign, Greenwood repaid this faith with 10 Premier League goals - 17 in all competitions - as United finished third and qualified for the Champions League.
Primarily deployed on the right side of a front three, Greenwood would often find joy operating in the half-space between central defenders and full-backs to great effect.
However, having been expected to kick on this season, goals have dried up for the 19-year-old England international.
As it stands, his sole Premier League strike came in United's 3-1 win over West Ham at the London Stadium in December.
The player himself has not allowed himself to be weighed down by his lack of output, instead choosing to focus on other aspects of his game.
“It’s not all about goals,” Greenwood told the United website. “Obviously I love scoring goals but my overall play has been improving.
"I’d probably say I’ve done better this year with my general play, assists and stuff like that. I think my defending off the ball and on the ball is improving and I’m pleased with that.
“Obviously I’d like to be scoring more goals and when those two things combine together I’ll be back."
Statistically speaking, he makes a more than good point; Greenwood is not doing anything majorly different to last season when the goals were coming with far greater frequency.
According to football stats site fbref, Greenwood’s expected goals (xG) last season was 3.6, whereas this time around it is currently 3.5 with still a quarter of the campaign remaining.
While he may well be under-performing in terms of goals this season, the drop-off isn’t as stark as it may first seem, given that he was actually significantly over-performing last term.
Looking at the Premier League data, his Goals minus Expected Goals (G-xG) figure last year was +6.4. This term, it's -2.5, an almost nine goal swing.
The data indicates Greenwood is still finding the same positions and getting the same quality of chances as last year but just seems to be missing the clinical edge that served him so well previously.
This is further evidenced by the fact he is noticeably less accurate with the chances he gets with 20 of his 38 shots last season hitting the target as opposed to 10 from 40 so far this campaign
His goals per shot figure last season was 0.26, this term it's just 0.03.
Eventually, the expectation will be that things will level out, so United and the player himself need not have great concerns about his goal-scoring ability going forward.
At just 19, Greenwood also still has ample room for improvement on his underlying metrics. Long term, there should be no concerns that last season was a flash in the pan.
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