Which of Man Utd’s FPL assets are impressing under Amorim?

Manchester United’s first five results in the Premier League under Ruben Amorim have been a mixed bag.

The Red Devils drew their first match and won big in their second, then losing twice on the trot before snatching a crucial derby victory last time out.

In between, there have been two UEFA Europa League successes and one EFL Cup loss.

With more appealing fixtures on the horizon, we’ve taken a look at some of the key stats from those five matches – both overall and on a Gameweek-by-Gameweek basis – as well as assessing their best players from an FPL standpoint.

THE BIG PICTURE + BEFORE AND AFTER

As mentioned above, United have ended their first five league matches under the new boss with the following record:

They were 10th in the league following a 3-0 win in the Gameweek prior to Amorim’s opening match, but now sit 13th ahead of Gameweek 17.

Their nine goals in the five matches since, at a rate of 1.8 goals per 90, trumps their 1.1 per 90 (12 goals in 11) under Erik Ten Hag and then Ruud van Nistelrooy at the beginning of the season. That figure is admittedly a little skewed by a Gameweek 13’s 4-0 win over Everton, their biggest victory so far.

Meanwhile, seven goals conceded (1.4 per 90) works out to a slightly worse defensive rating than under previous management. A dozen goals were allowed in those first 11 matches.

United also had five clean sheets before Amorim took charge but only one (at home against a goal shy Everton) since then.

All in all, those stats suggest the team may be playing more freely but taking their time to adapt to Amorim’s new defensive set-up, which features lines up three centre-backs in between two wing-backs.

It’s still very, very early days of course – and we’re talking a very small sample here.

ATTACKING STATS

Above: Man Utd’s attacking stats before Ruben Amorim’s arrival (left) and after (right)

Dig a little deeper and you’ll see Amorim’s men have fired off 54 attempts, which is among the lowest tallies in the league and also a worse rate per 90 (10.8 versus 14) than before.

The percentage of those attempts that are big chances, though, has remained about the same – suggesting perhaps that the players are creating better chances and shooting more selectively, resulting in a better goal conversion rate. 

This is further evidenced by an ever so slightly worse minutes per chance figure and a notably worse minutes per xG figure in their last five compared to their opening 11 fixtures, but a higher proportion of their total shots being on target.

Related to that last stat, United are fifth in the league for both shot accuracy and goal conversion under Amorim. they were previously fourth for the former but fourth-worst for the latter.

Their xG delta – that is, the difference between their expected goals and their actual number of goals scored – has also changed significantly for the better: up to +3.23, which is third top in the division, compared to -5.52, which was second-worst.

DEFENSIVE STATS

Above: Man Utd’s defensive stats before Ruben Amorim’s arrival (left) and after (right)

Defensively, United were massively outperforming on their expected goals conceded (xGC), with a league-leading delta of -5.14, and have since regressed to about the mean, having conceded seven times from an xGC of 6.12 under Amorim.

They’ve also allowed 54 shots, 20 of them on target, across these five matches, compared to 123 and 40 previously. That’s not far off a similar rate.

An interesting bonus stat is that United’s discipline when measured by the number of yellow and red cards they’ve been shown since Amorim arrived is the best in the league, where previously they were among the worst.

MATCH BY MATCH

Gameweek 12

• Draw Ipswich 1 – 1 Man Utd

Marcus Rashford (£6.8m) started out of position (OOP) in Amorim’s first match, leading the line and opening the scoring within minutes with what proved to be his only shot.

The StatsBomb graphic below shows the average positions of United’s starting XI, which had Amad (£5.2m) and Diogo Dalot (£5.2m) as the wing-backs of choice.

Amad grabbed what was then his second assist in as many matches, had two shots and lasted the full 90, while Rashford was withdrawn just after the hour mark. Alejandro Garnacho (£6.2m) lasted slightly longer, while Jonny Evans (£4.4m) started on the left of the back three but was replaced by Luke Shaw (£4.9m) – who has since succumbed to another injury – after 55 minutes.

United’s xG in this was just 0.80, almost exactly half that of their opponents. Bruno Fernandes (£8.4m) was his side’s top overall attacking threat, with three shots and 0.48 xGI.

Gameweek 13

• Win Man Utd 4 – 0 Everton

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