Solskjaer's United still can't beat the best sides … but that might not matter
What does it mean? What does any of it mean? Manchester United’s 0-0 draw at Liverpool on Sunday means they remain top of the Premier League table one game before they reach their halfway point, but they’ve now played each of the other Big Six sides, plus Leicester whose consistency over the past five years perhaps affords them associate membership of that group, and they haven’t beaten any of them. Is that a title challenge? Perhaps it is, but it wouldn’t be in anything resembling a normal season.
United, at least, offer some predictability in an unsettling world. The only side to whom they’ve dropped points this season other than the Big Six Plus Leicester is Crystal Palace, but that was their first game, and a lot of sides who had played in Europe in August looked undercooked to start with. But since then the pattern has been very clear:
United beat mid-table sides and lower, and they don’t beat those likeliest to join them in the top seven at the end of the season. Given United went out of the Champions League after defeats to Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig, a startling conclusion begins to emerge: they get better results against weaker teams than good ones.
Which sounds facile, and to an extent it is, but that wasn’t the pattern last season when United won seven and drew three of 12 games against the Big Six Plus Leicester but averaged just 1.62 points per game against the Rest. This season, they’re rattling along at 2.75 points per game against the Rest. United have got much better at breaking down lesser sides. To an extent, that’s an issue of personnel. Since the arrival of Bruno Fernandes almost a year ago, United have had far more creative bite, while the introduction of Edinson Cavani in October has added intelligence of movement and sharpness in the box. United’s squad is still far from perfect, but it is far more coherent than it has been probably at any point since Sir Alex Ferguson left.
But that has gone hand in hand with a comparative lack of effectiveness against better sides. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s programme of 90s revivalism has moved beyond comebacks after an early concession to the