The Manchester United defence is under a lot of scrutiny at the moment, having conceded seven goals in their last two matches and, surprisingly enough, they did not lose in either of those matches.
A crazy 4-4 draw with Aston Villa on Sunday, November 8, took Man United to eight points from 10 matches. They are still in the 18th position in the league table, and the Manchester United defence keeps looking increasingly vulnerable, making Michael Carrick’s position untenable.
Manchester United defence: What is Going Wrong?
The Manchester United defence has conceded 19 goals in 10 Premier League matches so far, which is the third highest after Crystal Palace (24) and Coventry (20). They are the only side other than Coventry that have failed to keep a single clean sheet in the first 10 games of the season so far.
In the match against Aston Villa, the Manchester United defence looked at sixes and sevens for the majority of the time. There were individual errors from Senne Lammens, Leny Yoro and Diogo Dalot, which helped the Red Devils concede goals, but the defensive organisation overall was pretty bad.
There was hardly any structure to the Manchester United defence most of the time. Players ran into each other at times inside the penalty box, leading to confusion and chaos. Neither Yoro, Ayden, Heaven, nor Kobbie Mainoo is older than 20, which means that there was no experienced leader to take care of the defensive organisation inside the Manchester United half.
The way Virgil van Dijk organises the defence for Liverpool by shouting to other players, or Gabriel does for Arsenal, is entirely missing for Manchester United. As a result, very seldom is there a structured line of midfielders ahead of the defensive line taking care of the first wave of attacks from the opposition.
Harry Maguire is approaching 34 and cannot be expected to play all the time. When Maguire is there, the defensive organisation is partially better. However, he did not feature in the matches against Roma in the UEFA Champions League or Aston Villa, and as a result, the defence was in disarray.
Meanwhile, Matthijs de Ligt has not played in a single match this season and appeared in only 14 last season. Lisandro Martinez has committed silly errors at times.
So, basically, the Red Devils are just carrying him at the moment. Additionally, Diogo Dalot has played frequently as a left-back in Luke Shaw’s absence, which has aggravated the situation.
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Extra Time Notes
Michael Carrick might not be in charge of the team when Manchester United take on Liverpool on November 22. The Manchester United defence should be held in part responsible if the 45-year-old Englishman is sacked from his job during the international break.
Unless the Red Devils decide to buy at least another centre-back in the January transfer window, the situation is unlikely to improve for them. At this point in time, every other team fancies its chances of scoring against Man United.
Even if a top manager assumes charge of the team, the problem is unlikely to improve instantly. It remains to be seen whether there is any notable improvement in the Red Devils’ defensive organisation in the near future.
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