Manchester United legend Roy Keane has revealed where he believes Ruben Amorim’s side will finish this season – and fans may want to look away now.
A poor start or an unlucky one?
The Red Devils are currently eleventh in the Premier League table after enduring a frustrating start to the new campaign.
Two wins – against Burnley and Chelsea – have been balanced by losses to Arsenal and Manchester City, with a draw away to Fulham capping off the opening five fixtures.
But United’s performances, specifically from an xg (expected goals) and chance creation perspective, should have seen them beat Arsenal, as opposed to losing 1-0 courtesy of an Altay Bayindir howler, and get all three points against Fulham rather than just one after Bruno Fernandes missed a penalty.
With these extra five points, United would be second, just three behind league leaders Liverpool and the narrative surrounding Amorim would be drastically different to the one currently unfolding.
However, football is not played on a spreadsheet and mistakes have been a feature throughout the Portuguese coach’s tenure at Old Trafford.
It was his decision to favour Bayindir for the opening match against Arsenal, despite the Turkey international’s obvious frailties, and many of the wounds from last season were reopened by Fulham in the second half.
The 2-1 win over Chelsea on the weekend was pivotal and United’s performances was radically improved from the disappointing Manchester Derby defeat the previous week.
The Red Devils began the match like a bat out of hell with the early pressure forcing Robert Sanchez’s dismissal. But it is hard to analyse a performance which saw the opposition reduced to ten men for half the match, even if Casemiro levelled proceedings just before half time.
United remain very much a work in progress and Amorim is still a manager very much under pressure with doubts continuing over the viability of his trademark 3-4-2-1 system.
And a former player certainly believes this season is unlikely to end without any great improvements on the pitch – or the table.
Midtable mediocrity for Man United
Keane believes a midtable finish would constitute a “decent” campaign for his former side when asked where he thought they would end the season.
“I think about eighth or ninth would be decent for United, I really do – you’re not sure what you’re gonna get. It helps when the goalkeeper gets sent off, and you have people like Bruno [Fernandes].
“But I think that’s not enough, I still think United are looking at eighth or ninth,” the 54-year-old pundit told Sky Sports.
Keane is the quintessential throwback pundit, the type to believe football has gone ‘soft’ in the modern era and ridicule the idea of ‘xg’ or using other underlying statistics to justify a lack of points on the table.
But it’s exactly these metrics which the hierarchy at Old Trafford are pointing to to justify their continued faith in their head coach. Whether this is wise move remains to be seen – but the club’s former captain is certainly not convinced.
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Darragh Fox
Darragh is a writer for The Peoples Person who spent three years as a history graduate slowly realising football was by far the most interesting thing to write about.
