Manchester United drew 2-2 with AFC Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium in a Premier League match last Saturday. Bruno Fernandes scored a brace to salvage a point for the Red Devils, but their recent form continues to leave a lot to be desired.
United is languishing at the seventh position in the league table with 50 points from 32 matches, having obtained just three points in their last four matches. Should they continue like this, they might well have to endure their worst-ever finish in the Premier League era.
Manchester United Has Never Finished Worse Than seventh in Premier League Era
United finished seventh under the tutelage of David Moyes in the 2013/14 season. Incidentally, it was their first season after Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down as their manager after being in charge of the team for 27 years.
Since then, it has been an underwhelming decade for United that have not seen them come even close to winning the league title. Successes like an FA Cup win and a UEFA Europa League triumph came under José Mourinho, but they were few and far between.
More importantly, however, Manchester United mostly looks like a mid-table team these days in terms of their playing style and approach. They have failed to dominate proceedings even against the likes of Bournemouth and Brentford, with due respect to the latter. Not to mention that they have looked underwhelming against other big teams and have been dominated by Manchester City and Liverpool mostly.
Their win over Liverpool in the FA Cup semifinal seems to be a fluke now and they still have matches left against Arsenal and Newcastle United in the league. Both of them will fancy their chances of putting it past Manchester United, given the latter’s current form.
Failing to ensure participation in any of the European competitions next season will be quite calamitous for the club. United have virtually no chance of playing in UEFA Champions League next season and even the Europa League seems to be out of their reach at the moment.
Several Players Might Be Spending Their Last Season at United
Quite understandably, a number of United’s players have come cropper this season. Marcus Rashford, who scored 30 goals for the club last season, has scored only eight from 39 matches this season.
The likes of Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial, Mason Mount, Christian Eriksen, Sofyan Amrabat and Tyrell Malacia have mostly spent the season on the sidelines owing to injuries or lack of form.
The likes of Harry Maguire, Casemiro, Johnny Evans and Raphaël Varane are all on the wrong side of 30, and might be spending their last season at Old Trafford. It remains to be seen how many of them are still at United next season.
In such a scenario, it can be said without any doubt that the Red Devils will part with a good number of their players at the end of this season. In fact, they will have to build the ream around youngsters like Kobbie Mainoo, Rasmus Højlund, Alejandro Garnacho and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
Moreover, Erik ten Hag has done little so far to justify his position as the manager of one of the leading clubs in the world. We will have to wait till the end of the season to how things pan out for the Red Devils.