Manchester United have made history. A 9-0 win against Southampton has put them in the history books of the Premier League, once more, as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made the most of everything that went their way – a red card after two minutes of play, an own goal, a penalty and then another red card. But still, despite all of that, it could be interesting to see at some underlying numbers and have a different kind of look at this game.
A Look Into Expected Goals
Obviously, whenever we see such a drastic scoreline in any game, it is to be expected that it wildly overperforms the team’s expected goals. And of course that has been the case with Man United in this match. The Devils have scored nine goals from 13 shots on target and it is clear that is not sustainable. When looking at Statsbomb’s expected goals model, Man United were expected to score 3.7 goals from the quality of their chances. But the way the match went, the fact Southampton were way below their standards and the fact United’s shots were going in with ease, this is what we get. Also, it should not be forgotten, one of United’s goals was actually a Jan Bednarek own goal, which means that did not count to Man United’s xG. Just to be mentioned, Southampton’s xG amounted to 0.5 in this match.
Shaw Creates From Advanced Positions
It was interesting to see how Man United’s crux of chances created was coming from the left side of the pitch. The bigger part of assists for either goals or shots was coming from that side. And while Marcus Rashford enjoyed a great game, but did other things rather than create, it was Luke Shaw who was coming up to advanced positions of the left flank to create. The left back created five chances, two of which turned out to be goals, getting him a brace of assists. This game is not the ideal one to make bigger conclusions, but it has been obvious since the turn of the year that Shaw’s performances have gotten better. Also, Bruno Fernandes was there to create four chances, most of them also coming from the left, as Southampton had issues containing United attackers.
United Suffocate The Saints
It was always to be match easier when your oppinent plays with ten or nine men for the entirety of a match, but it was still interesting to see how effective United’s press was in this match. The Devils had around 75 per cent of ball possession, which was also to be expected considering everything, but their press also managed to suffocate the opponents. Solskjaer’s team had made 96 pressures throughout the 90 minutes, which is a low number, but also expectedly so – you cannot press often when you have the ball all the time. But when they did press, it was very effective, as 44 pressures turned out the be successful. That is 45.8 per cent and even Mason Greenwood managed to get seven successful pressures from just 12 such events. It really was a torrid night for Southampton players.
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