Goal Difference

[Di Maria's angel]

All of three games in and our GD is nearly as good as it was in 15/16. And is almost half of every season since SAF left.

Season 2013/14: +21
Season 2014/15: +25
Season 2015/16: +14
Season 2016/17: +25
Season 2017/18: +10 (3)

Keep the good times going.

Another interesting statistic is that this the first time since 2013 that we've kept three clean sheets in a row. Really has been the perfect start to the season.

 

[Adisa]

15/16 was really a disgrace.

 

[EvilIrwin]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

 

[rio's upper lip]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

But it IS a good idea to try and win as many of the early games as you can. Do you want United to drop points just so we can "build momentum like the Fergie days"? Sorry, but that's ridiculous.

We've had a few seasons over the years where we came out of the blocks absolutely flying and stayed top until the very end. 06/06 and 12/13 springs to mind. Too early to tell if this is one of those seasons, but three wins on the trot is NEVER a bad thing. If you want to be scared of United losing games later on and having opposition fans rubbing it in, that's on you.

 

[King Eric 7]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

I like the marathon analogy, but I don't think it's 100% apt in this case. I'd rather have points on the board and be off to a flyer and deal with the injuries/losses later. Our rivals will have the same issues anyway. Having a good start means that when we do drop points, we're not in the position of losing too much ground to the leaders and having to play catch up. When we play Liverpool at Anfield in October, it would be nice to think that win, lose or draw we will still be ahead of them in the league. Let's just hope we're in that position come October.

I'd like to think that as fans who've seen how the season can pan out, we don't get too carried away with a decent start. Mourinho is trying his best to temper expectations at this stage but we should be wise enough to know that the season is long and points will be dropped along the way and players will get injured / go through bad spells.

 

[SirAF]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

Are you serious, mate?

The days of starting slow and building momentum are long gone - Ferguson admitted that himself years ago. Who forced that change in attitude? Jose Mourinho.

 

[sammsky1]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunately when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

Whereas Mourinho title winning teams start fast and just keep running a la Mo Farah!

 

[TsuWave]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

Yeah man I agree, we should have taken a couple losses at the start so we could gradually build momentum like Fergies teams. Personally would have taken a 2-1 loss to West Ham and maybe a 3-0 loss to Swansea and a draw yesterday, then maybe start winning after the international break

I'm just being a dickhead

 

[Skills]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

The last 3 titles have been won in the first half of the season.

 

[DWelbz19]

The goals conceded is always going to be fine; we've conceded the least or second least for two seasons running and look set for a third. We have an excellent manager defensively and a very good crop of defenders (plus the best GK). Very promising signs.

 

[Oyibo]

I recall Chelsea's early Premiership title wins being based on the following :

A kind first quarter fixture list
A subsequent series of 1-0 wins that left them say 4 points clear at the top by November.
Subsequent confidence to build on, and face the better teams in the league.

Fingers crossed...

 

[Z_Wolf]

I recall Chelsea's early Premiership title wins being based on the following :

A kind first quarter fixture list
A subsequent series of 1-0 wins that left them say 4 points clear at the top by November.
Subsequent confidence to build on, and face the better teams in the league.

Fingers crossed...

That is basically how I envision our season turning out. The fixitures and the way we've started sure point in that direction.

 

[pacifictheme]

Whereas Mourinho title winning teams start fast and just keep running a la Mo Farah!

While i agree with the point, mo farah is a classic momentum builder when it comes to running. Blows them away in the last two laps.

 

[2cents]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

Pretty sure all three of Mourinho's titles in England have had Chelsea out in front from the early stages.

 

[esmufc07]

Are you serious, mate?

The days of starting slow and building momentum are long gone - Ferguson admitted that himself years ago. Who forced that change in attitude? Jose Mourinho.

I always believed it to be a widely held myth that we started slow, so I did some digging,

92/93 - 35/21, 49/21 (C)
93/94 - 52/21, 40/21 (C)
94/95 - 45/21, 43/21
95/96 - 35/19, 47/19 (C)
96/97 - 34/19, 41/19 (C)
97/98 - 43/19, 34/19
98/99 - 34/19, 45/19 (C)
99/00 - 43/19, 48/19 (C)
00/01 - 43/19, 37/19 (C)
01/02 - 33/19, 34/19
02/03 - 35/19, 48/19 (C)
03/04 - 46/19, 29/19
04/05 - 37/19, 40/19
05/06 - 41/19, 42/19
06/07 - 47/19, 42/19 (C)
07/08 - 45/19, 42/19 (C)
08/09 - 41/19, 49/19 (C)
09/10 - 40/19, 46/19
10/11 - 41/19, 39/19 (C)
11/12 - 45/19, 44/19
12/13 - 46/19, 43/19 (C)

Conclusions;

- Out of 21 full PL seasons under Fergie, we had a better first half of the season 9 times, a better second half 12 times.
- In the 13 title winning seasons we had a better first half of the season 6 times, a better second half 7 times.
- Interestingly (as you mentioned in your post), Pre-Mourinho we won the title 8 times. Out of those 8 titles, we had a better second half of the season 6 times. Post Mourinho, we had a better second half of the season in just 1 of our 5 title winning campaigns. This ties in with what you said about starting slow and building momentum changing when JM first arrived in the PL. You had to be ready from game 1.
- How crap was our second half of 03/04. We were actually above Arsenal after 19 games. Then Rio got suspended and we fell to pieces.
- I bloody miss Fergie.

 

[sammsky1]

While i agree with the point, mo farah is a classic momentum builder when it comes to running. Blows them away in the last two laps.

Yeah. On reflection the analogy doesn't quite work.

What I was trying to explain was how these elite 10000 m runners essentially just keep sprinting the entire long race!

 

[SirAF]

I always believed it to be a widely held myth that we started slow, so I did some digging,

92/93 - 35/21, 49/21 (C)
93/94 - 52/21, 40/21 (C)
94/95 - 45/21, 43/21
95/96 - 35/19, 47/19 (C)
96/97 - 34/19, 41/19 (C)
97/98 - 43/19, 34/19
98/99 - 34/19, 45/19 (C)
99/00 - 43/19, 48/19 (C)
00/01 - 43/19, 37/19 (C)
01/02 - 33/19, 34/19
02/03 - 35/19, 48/19 (C)
03/04 - 46/19, 29/19
04/05 - 37/19, 40/19
05/06 - 41/19, 42/19
06/07 - 47/19, 42/19 (C)
07/08 - 45/19, 42/19 (C)
08/09 - 41/19, 49/19 (C)
09/10 - 40/19, 46/19
10/11 - 41/19, 39/19 (C)
11/12 - 45/19, 44/19
12/13 - 46/19, 43/19 (C)

Conclusions;

- Out of 21 full PL seasons under Fergie, we had a better first half of the season 9 times, a better second half 12 times.
- In the 13 title winning seasons we had a better first half of the season 6 times, a better second half 7 times.
- Interestingly (as you mentioned in your post), Pre-Mourinho we won the title 8 times. Out of those 8 titles, we had a better second half of the season 6 times. Post Mourinho, we had a better second half of the season in just 1 of our 5 title winning campaigns. This ties in with what you said about starting slow and building momentum changing when JM first arrived in the PL. You had to be ready from game 1.
- How crap was our second half of 03/04. We were actually above Arsenal after 19 games. Then Rio got suspended and we fell to pieces.
- I bloody miss Fergie.

Thorough post, mate! Cheers for digging up the numbers.

 

[OneUnited24]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

People keep drawing the City comparison but were they all that good? I remember watching a few of their early games and wasnt overly impressed. They had the win against us which really brought peoples accolades but overall i thought they faltered to deceive.

Also i think this season we will need to 85+ points to win the league so a good start is vital

 

[LoneStar]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

Mourinho teams always start off fast and never drop from there. Besides I think we have good squad depth to continue this, so don't think injuries will be a major problem. Having said that, it'll be interesting to see how we react to a defeat. Fergie's teams were great in that.

 

[Lentwood]

Let's see where we are after Stoke (A) If we win that fairly comfortably then I will let myself believe a title challenge could be on the cards. Not because it's 4/4 but because over the last few years Stoke have been a team we have struggled against. It also means we will have taken 12pts from teams we dropped 6 against in total last season

 

[The holy trinity 68]

I am not bothered about goal difference if we win the league or at least come close. If we have a great goal difference and don't even come close to the title then it is pointless.

Obviously at the moment we look strong and not conceding any goals so far kind of shows that we are going to be difficult to beat. Which should give us a chance of challenging for the title but it was like that last season and the league went to pot for us. This season though we are converting chances that we would have missed last year.

 

[beergod]

A Mourinho team will always have good GD if the side has the attacking power to manufacture the opening goal. He always sets up to not leak goals and then piles up the GD from matches where teams open up when chasing a goal.

 

[krazyrobus]

A Mourinho team will always have good GD if the side has the attacking power to manufacture the opening goal. He always sets up to not leak goals and then piles up the GD from matches where teams open up when chasing a goal.

Agreed. The one thing i always hated about a Mourinho team was once they broke the ice against you, you were fecked because you had little confidence in scoring against that team. I lost count of the number of Chelsea matches I watched where I didnt bother watching the second half once they have scored. Particuarly his first stint with Chelsea.

 

[LeftyBlaster]

Mourinho teams always start off fast and never drop from there. Besides I think we have good squad depth to continue this, so don't think injuries will be a major problem. Having said that, it'll be interesting to see how we react to a defeat. Fergie's teams were great in that.

This is what I'm hoping will happen for us this season. Hope the internationals don't derail the momentum.

 

[Frank Grimes]

Having lost out on a league title and top 4 to Man City in recent times on GD it is always something to be wary of.

 

[Ikon]

SAF always used to say that he counted superior goal difference as an additional point, which it is if you think about it.

 

[Robertd0803]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

Until Jose Mourinho and Chelsea changed that line of thinking.

But it IS a good idea to try and win as many of the early games as you can. Do you want United to drop points just so we can "build momentum like the Fergie days"? Sorry, but that's ridiculous.

We've had a few seasons over the years where we came out of the blocks absolutely flying and stayed top until the very end. 06/06 and 12/13 springs to mind. Too early to tell if this is one of those seasons, but three wins on the trot is NEVER a bad thing. If you want to be scared of United losing games later on and having opposition fans rubbing it in, that's on you.

Oddly we lost to Everton the first game of 2012/2013 which tends to be forgotten thankfully.

SAF always used to say that he counted superior goal difference as an additional point, which it is if you think about it.

Certainly worked for City in 2012

Lets keep winning end of argument. Rivals have already dropped points so makes winning all our games already even more important because its going to be very close at the end of the season.

 

[sunama]

15/16 was really a disgrace.

You can say that again.
LVG has a lot to answer for and some people in here still argue that he should've been allowed to continue. Zombie passing and boring football.

 

[mark_a]

I don't think our start has been a sprint. We've won 3 winnable games and seem to have shown improvement in the areas we definitely needed improvement in. We've not played any of the big teams yet, so it's too early to get carried away.

But our achievement and good start should be noted, just as the pundits were busy wheeling out the "United haven't done X since 1973" to draw attention to stuff under Moyes and LvG.

We still need to improve and we have much tougher tests ahead.

For perspective, maybe check out the Liverpool discussions? A couple of decent results and beating Hoffenheim (described as "Free-scoring", no mention of "free-conceding"!) and "it's on!"

 

[DownRiver]

Since I can't make a new thread, I wanted to post here.


Team P GD Pts
1 Liverpool 33 55 82
2 Man City 32 62 80
3 Tottenham 32 26 64
4 Arsenal 31 26 63
5 Chelsea 32 21 63
6 Man Utd 32 18 61

People are taking out their calculators for the sole purpose of finding how many points we need and finding all scenarios that could put us in the top 4.

However, goal difference is key in such a tight race. Yes, Mourinho caused the damage long before Ole etc etc etc. However, right now we won't make up 4 goal difference with Chelsea (let alone Arsenal) with so few games left. Is there a possibility of not getting into the top 4 based on GD?

 

[EvilChuck]

It's great but City this time last season had the pundits falling over themselves thinking they will walk the league. It's never a good idea to start a marathon with a sprint, Fergies teams famously always start off slow and build momentum. Unfortunaly when Utd eventually lose a game and injuries start occurring, the doom and gloom will make it's return and will hit fans like a brick wall due to the great start.

How prophetic

 

[Bestietom]

Since I can't make a new thread, I wanted to post here.


Team P GD Pts
1 Liverpool 33 55 82
2 Man City 32 62 80
3 Tottenham 32 26 64
4 Arsenal 31 26 63
5 Chelsea 32 21 63
6 Man Utd 32 18 61

People are taking out their calculators for the sole purpose of finding how many points we need and finding all scenarios that could put us in the top 4.

However, goal difference is key in such a tight race. Yes, Mourinho caused the damage long before Ole etc etc etc. However, right now we won't make up 4 goal difference with Chelsea (let alone Arsenal) with so few games left. Is there a possibility of not getting into the top 4 based on GD?

We still have to play Chelsea at Old Trafford, but we need spurs and Arsenal to drop points also. I think another 15 points will get us 4th place. But we need to aim for all wins now.

 

[Woziak]

We still have to play Chelsea at Old Trafford, but we need spurs and Arsenal to drop points also. I think another 15 points will get us 4th place. But we need to aim for all wins now.

15 will not be enough because of GD we need 16 highly unlikely!