Man United rank among the WORST for shots faced & giving the ball away

Manchester United somehow have the fourth-best defensive record in the Premier League but the stats underlying that are damning. And they're only getting worse.

Thirty-one shots Brentford had against the mighty Man United on Saturday. Thirty-one. It's a surprise Andre Onana's hands didn't fall off in that 1-1 draw.

The Bees' sum of 31 efforts was the highest they had had in one match in five years. A decade before, they mustered just 12 in a 0-0 draw at Oldham. A frustrating afternoon for their striker at the time, Clayton Donaldson.

This is only the tip of the iceberg and with clashes against Chelsea, Liverpool, and later Arsenal in the scramble for a European place, something has to change.

Mail Sport looks at the key problem areas for United - and offers a few solutions.

Too many shots faced

Only three teams have allowed the opposition more shots this season - West Ham (517), Luton Town (518), Sheffield United (525).

The Red Devils have been peppered with 498 shots and the rate of attempts faced is accelerating.

Since the start of February, Sir Jim Ratcliffe's beloved outfit have been bombarded with 220 shots - an average of 22.2 over 10 games and, you imagine, more shots than Marcus Rashford faced in his 12-hour tequila jamboree in Belfast in January.

By contrast, Manchester City have been miserly in giving opponents a chance, allowing just 238 shots so far.

And it's no coincidence that the top four teams in the Premier League all rank in the best four for fewest shots faced.

'But that doesn't mean United allow teams quality chances,' I hear you cry. 'United defend deep and let teams shoot from distance.'

And there is merit in that. If you permit a digression into the wonderful and bewildering world of xG, only Arsenal have a better record in terms of the quality of chances faced.

The average expected goals for a shot faced by United is 0.103, meaning only around one in ten of the chances they allow opponents are anticipated to go in.

But if you're clutching on technicalities and fine margins with xG. Aston Villa (0.135) and Tottenham (0.129) are the worst-off in that table.

When you're gifting the volume of chances that United are, that is hugely detrimental. It must stop.

Too many opposition touches in their penalty area

Simply put, United allow their opponents to swan around in their box too much.

Brentford had 84 touches in United's penalty area on Saturday - the most any team has had in almost four years of Premier League football.

The last time a team managed that was when Manchester City beat Norwich 5-0 in July 2020, when Pep Guardiola got on the ball 87 times in the area. Is that the sort of comparison United want to be getting into?

Across the campaign, United have allowed 394 opposition touches in their penalty area. Only West Ham (428) have permitted more. Arsenal, at the other end of the spectrum, have allowed 122.

There's something you can't quantify with this: mental drain. Spending so much time on edge, trying to snuff out a threat in your safe space, is psychologically taxing for a team and fatigues defenders.

It doesn't allow the team a chance to relax as a high-quality chance could erupt at any moment. And it afford the other team the chance to cement their defensive position in the final third and adopt a dominant shape.

The fewer touches a team allows opposition closer, to goal, the better off they are in general. It's no surprise that Manchester City (176) and Liverpool (181) are the next-best teams behind Arsenal with this.

Giving the ball away in dangerous areas

United are shooting themselves in the foot by surrendering possession in vulnerable positions.

They rank fourth in the league for high turnovers against - the number of times they've given the ball away less than 40 metres from their own goal.

Ten Hag's charges have gifted possession away in such areas 261 times this season. Only Tottenham (307), Wolves (301), Nottingham Forest (297), Fulham (296), and Burnley (288) have done worse.

This is harmful for United and clearly they're not adept at recovering quickly enough. These turnovers have resulted in 46 shots for the opposition, a total only surpassed by Wolves, Spurs, and Luton.

It has also led to five goals, which isn't a terrible outcome but sees them lag behind the elite. City have conceded one from such scenarios, with Liverpool and Arsenal on three.

United's ability to recover has arguably been limited by absences of Raphael Varane earlier in the season and Lisandro Martinez for most of the campaign with injury, their two most mobile centre-backs.

When teams press, they often look uncomfortable and ill-equipped to find a way out.

Before their pre-season game against Borussia Dortmund, Ten Hag signalled at a tactical shift towards being a strong team on the counter-attack - and defending against them.

'What fits this team is transition, both ways,' he said. It's hard to see the evidence of that, but injuries have played a big part in limiting how he can carry out his vision.

Solutions

What these issue really boil down to is a lack of control - control of space and of the ball.

Jamie Carragher diagnosed the nut of the problem earlier in the season on Monday Night Football.

'They've got no pace at the back and they have a lack of legs in midfield. Another big problem for them is when they've got the ball.

'These players can't receive the ball in the positions they take up so actually there is a massive problem for Manchester United when they've got the ball.

'How many times have we seen Manchester United players having to run 40 yards back towards their own goal?'

Gaps between the front, midfield, and defensive lines are too broad, so tightening them up and getting them to work as a cohesive unit is part of the task for Ten Hag.

Lots of the time, Bruno Fernandes will press quite aggressively but not be backed up by his midfield partners, leaving a hole for the opposition to play into.

There's no shame in shoring up the side by playing a system with two holding players. The burden usually falls on Casemiro, who has dollops of tactical nous but at 32 doesn't have the legs to cover the width of a pitch like he used to be able to.

Having a partner alongside him such as Kobbie Mainoo would give Fernandes more freedom to press and maraud without worrying about the counter-attack.

But only so much of this can be solved on a tactics board. Ten Hag and his myriad of coaches will have thought all of this through much deeper than us. The onus is also on the players to show desire week in, week out.

In the 4-3 FA Cup win over Liverpool in March, when United came from behind twice and counter-attacked from their own box to claim a breathless 121st-minute winner, they showed what they are capable of with the thunder of Old Trafford behind them.

Fernandes slotted in at centre-back. Amad Diallo cavorted the length of the pitch, scored, and got sent off with a second yellow after removing his shirt. And it didn't matter. This was football in its purest form of beautiful mayhem.

And then against Brentford, they were insipid. As Jamie Redknapp put it: 'They have been so bad tonight. I cannot believe the lack of effort, the lack a spark desire to win individual battles to make things happen in that team.'

For all Ten Hag can fiddle with big ideas, an old-fashioned principle needs to surface week in, week out: maximum effort.