I think as a Manchester United fanbase we need to stand up against the mainstream media narratives that are only peddled to get clicks. According to the media, our season so far has been an unmitigated disaster to the level that 3 games into the season we should be seriously considering the managers position.
Yet as a fan, I can hand on heart say that for the vast majority of the time this season I have been really enjoying our games. I’ve been entertained, I’ve seen good football from our side. Forget the results for a second and take each game on performance.
We dominated against Arsenal, it’s an absolute travesty that we lost that game. Arsenal would have been lucky to get away with a draw. Arteta probably can’t quite understand how his team got three points in that game. 62% possession, 22 shots to their 9, we beat them in just about every metric used to measure performance. While the eye test would also have you believe we were the better team. A daft GK error, which could have been a foul, and a blatant penalty not awarded to us.
After the Arsenal game were we a club on the brink of disaster? Absolutely not. We then played Fulham and in the first half we were fantastic, we should have been 2-0 up inside 15 minutes, and 3-0 up at halftime due to our missed penalty at the end of the first half. Fulham were the better team after halftime, but on balance a draw is probably just about fair, but we had the better of the chances and should have been clear and over the horizon by halftime. Again though this was an enjoyable game overall.
At this point was the season a disaster? Again absolutely not. Although maybe some slight concerns over a lack of finishing our chances to get the points our performances deserve.
The Grimsby game was one of those perfect storm disasters, the media painted it up before a ball had even been kicked. The Mainoo negativity probably didn’t help the atmosphere, and the players who were rotated in, definitely didn’t put down a marker or make a claim for a regular start. Yet ultimately despite our lackluster performance we lost due to an absolute horror show from our keeper that even Massimo Taibi would have been ashamed of.
Beaten at his near post, a slapstick error coming for a cross, and the softest wrists ever seen in the penalty shootout, getting his hand to 5 penalties and still not keeping any of them out. At this point the media smelt blood in the water, albeit only there because they laced the water with blood, and they kicked into a frenzy.
Today we played Burnley off the park, and the scoreline does not represent the game in the slightest. 62% possession again, 26 shots to their 6. Again a very entertaining game, and enjoyable to watch. Again we need to sharpen up our finishing and cut out the errors to gift teams goals.
Overall the performances, bar Grimsby, have been very good and we have been enjoyable to watch. Considering that the pundits would have you believe that United are playing awfully and Amorim’s tactics don’t work in the EPL, the evidence suggests that they are talking out of their rear ends.
We are averaging the highest number of shots per game in the league, we are 5th for possession, we have the 5th fewest shots conceded per game, and we are 2nd for the amount of xG we have created, and we are 3rd for expected points. All of the stats suggest that we are playing well and the eye test backs that up.
Where our problems lie is in the same two issues from last season. We aren’t taking our chances (hopefully as we build more confidence and our new forwards fully settled in this changes), and we keep gifting goals mostly through goalkeeper errors. With a bit of luck we sign Lammens and he fixes this.
However our biggest problem as a club is how easily we as a fanbase are manipulated by the mainstream media. We fall into their trap every time and we let them steal our enjoyment of our club.