I posted a couple of threads in the Newbies section which did an analysis of United's results over a 7 game rolling and 5 game rolling basis (i.e how many points, goals scored, goals conceded and goal difference over each 5/7 games throughout the PL season) to give a longer view of our form over the whole season. I think most will see that the conclusions that people have made about our season are enforced with the analysis but there are a couple of interesting things I've noted. Firstly, the analysis on a 7 game rolling basis. I've put the lines where the major injuries/Bruno's signing first affect the results. I've also highlighted the best and worst line for each column. No guesses as to where the best stats are...
The first thing to notice from the table is just a reminder about how awful the start actually was. The defensive numbers are not too bad at around a goal a game, perhaps a little above, but to put that into context Chelsea have conceded about 1.3 goals a game over the whole season. The goal scoring however was horrific (5 goals in 7 games being particular awful) and as a consequence we were only getting about a point a game over the first 10 games. Pogba started 5 of the first 7 games but Martial missed 5 consecutive games after the draw against 10 man Southampton. This 5 game period was our worst 5 game period throughout the whole season.
Pogba started against Arsenal in game 7 of the season but only made 2 sub appearances after that until the restart. Strangely United's goal scoring went up shortly after Pogba's injury, with United scoring 27 goals in 14 games from the away win against Norwich to the home win against the same opposition. Up until recently, this run also saw out best 7 game period until the most recent 7 games. This period included those two massive back to back wins against Spurs and City. During this period however, the goals conceded numbers also start to go up. This is in large part due to the back to back draws against Sheffield United (3-3 which is the only PL game United have conceded more than 2 in) and Aston Villa (2-2). These two games were 2 of the 3 times, that we started Fred and Pereira at CM with Matic, McTominay and Pogba all injured. The other was Wolves at home which is significant for a different reason.
After that home win against Norwich, came the big injury to Rashford which was followed by back to back defeats to Liverpool away and the real low point, the 2-0 home defeat to Burnley. You can see the numbers dropping just before Rashford's injury which was a period of 3 defeats in 4.
I don't need to point out the obvious with regards to Bruno Fernandes and the impact he has had on the team. You can see that all the numbers improve from the first game after he signed. The last 3 lines are all exclusively Bruno and the last 7 games see the highest points and goal difference as well as joint best goals scored and goals conceded. The goal scoring didn't massively improve immediately in the league before the last two games against Sheffield United and Brighton but the run prior has included games against Wolves (H), Chelsea (A), Man City (H), Everton (A) and Spurs (A) so the tally is more than acceptable in those games due to the excellent goals conceded numbers. This is as much to do with the return from injuries of Matic and McTominay but I think that Bruno's pressing and creativity keeping us higher up the pitch more has surely contributed.
So no surprises, without Martial, Pogba and Rashford, we have struggled and the introduction of Fernandes has taken us to easily our best form all season. The potential is there for United to improve these numbers further. This can be seen even more when you look at the results over a 5 game rolling basis (I'll put that table in the next post). Defensively we were never that bad (a goal a game conceded is decent) but currently we are at an excellent level (similar to Wolves' recent run) with 6 clean sheets in the last 8 (and the two conceded were avoidable). This is also the reason for the significantly improved goal difference (+12 in the last 7 games) which doubles the best we had managed pre Bruno.
| Points | G | A | GD | |
| Game 1 to 7 (Martial injury after game 3 - misses 5 games) | 9 | 9 | 7 | 2 |
| Game 2 to 8 (Pogba injury after game 7 - makes 2 sub appearances pre restart) | 6 | 5 | 8 | -3 |
| Game 3 to 9 | 6 | 5 | 8 | -3 |
| Game 4 to 10 | 9 | 7 | 7 | 0 |
| Game 5 to 11 | 8 | 6 | 7 | -1 |
| Game 6 to 12 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 0 |
| Game 7 to 13 (3-3 draw vs Sheffield United - game 13) | 9 | 11 | 9 | 2 |
| Game 8 to 14 | 9 | 12 | 10 | 2 |
| Game 9 to 15 (2-1 win vs Tottenham - game 15) | 12 | 14 | 10 | 4 |
| Game 10 to 16 (2-1 win vs Man City - game 16) | 14 | 15 | 10 | 5 |
| Game 11 to 17 | 12 | 13 | 10 | 3 |
| Game 12 to 18 | 12 | 13 | 11 | 2 |
| Game 13 to 19 | 12 | 14 | 11 | 3 |
| Game 14 to 20 | 14 | 13 | 8 | 5 |
| Game 15 to 21 | 13 | 11 | 8 | 3 |
| Game 16 to 22 (0-2 defeat to Burnley - game 22) | 13 | 13 | 7 | 6 |
| Game 17 to 23 (Rashford injury after game 22 - misses 7 games) | 10 | 11 | 8 | 3 |
| Game 18 to 24 (Bruno's debut in game 24) | 9 | 10 | 9 | 1 |
| Game 19 to 25 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 3 |
| Game 20 to 26 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 2 |
| Game 21 to 27 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 3 |
| Game 22 to 28 | 11 | 10 | 5 | 5 |
| Game 23 to 29 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 3 |
| Game 24 to 30 (Pogba and Rashford back from game 30) | 12 | 9 | 4 | 5 |
| Game 25 to 31 (Game 31 - 3-0 vs Sheffield Utd - Bruno, Pogba, Rashford and Martial all start) | 15 | 12 | 2 | 10 |
| Game 26 to 32 | 17 | 15 | 2 | 12 |
| Game 27 to 33 | 17 | 18 | 3 | 15 |
| Game 28 to 34 | 17 | 18 | 3 | 15 |
Game 29 to 35 | 17 | 19 | 5 | 14 |
| Game 30 to 36 | 17 | 19 | 5 | 14 |
| Game 31 to 37 | 17 | 19 | 5 | 14 |
| Game 32 to 38 | 17 | 18 | 5 | 13 |
The first thing to notice from the table is just a reminder about how awful the start actually was. The defensive numbers are not too bad at around a goal a game, perhaps a little above, but to put that into context Chelsea have conceded about 1.3 goals a game over the whole season. The goal scoring however was horrific (5 goals in 7 games being particular awful) and as a consequence we were only getting about a point a game over the first 10 games. Pogba started 5 of the first 7 games but Martial missed 5 consecutive games after the draw against 10 man Southampton. This 5 game period was our worst 5 game period throughout the whole season.
Pogba started against Arsenal in game 7 of the season but only made 2 sub appearances after that until the restart. Strangely United's goal scoring went up shortly after Pogba's injury, with United scoring 27 goals in 14 games from the away win against Norwich to the home win against the same opposition. Up until recently, this run also saw out best 7 game period until the most recent 7 games. This period included those two massive back to back wins against Spurs and City. During this period however, the goals conceded numbers also start to go up. This is in large part due to the back to back draws against Sheffield United (3-3 which is the only PL game United have conceded more than 2 in) and Aston Villa (2-2). These two games were 2 of the 3 times, that we started Fred and Pereira at CM with Matic, McTominay and Pogba all injured. The other was Wolves at home which is significant for a different reason.
After that home win against Norwich, came the big injury to Rashford which was followed by back to back defeats to Liverpool away and the real low point, the 2-0 home defeat to Burnley. You can see the numbers dropping just before Rashford's injury which was a period of 3 defeats in 4.
I don't need to point out the obvious with regards to Bruno Fernandes and the impact he has had on the team. You can see that all the numbers improve from the first game after he signed. The last 3 lines are all exclusively Bruno and the last 7 games see the highest points and goal difference as well as joint best goals scored and goals conceded. The goal scoring didn't massively improve immediately in the league before the last two games against Sheffield United and Brighton but the run prior has included games against Wolves (H), Chelsea (A), Man City (H), Everton (A) and Spurs (A) so the tally is more than acceptable in those games due to the excellent goals conceded numbers. This is as much to do with the return from injuries of Matic and McTominay but I think that Bruno's pressing and creativity keeping us higher up the pitch more has surely contributed.
So no surprises, without Martial, Pogba and Rashford, we have struggled and the introduction of Fernandes has taken us to easily our best form all season. The potential is there for United to improve these numbers further. This can be seen even more when you look at the results over a 5 game rolling basis (I'll put that table in the next post). Defensively we were never that bad (a goal a game conceded is decent) but currently we are at an excellent level (similar to Wolves' recent run) with 6 clean sheets in the last 8 (and the two conceded were avoidable). This is also the reason for the significantly improved goal difference (+12 in the last 7 games) which doubles the best we had managed pre Bruno.
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updates?