After losing to Nottingham Forest in round 20 of the Premier League, Man Utd continued to establish sad statistics.
Man Utd closed 2023 with a 1-2 defeat at Nottingham Forest in round 20 of the Premier League. This is their 21st loss this year. In Man Utd history, there have only been 3 times they lost more matches in a calendar year – 1930 (28 matches), 1972 (25 matches) and 1921 (24 matches).
In the Premier League alone, coach Erik ten Hag’s team lost their 9th match in the first 20 rounds. During the period lasting from the 1989/90 season until the match against Nottingham Forest, Man Utd had never had such a high failure rate.
Man Utd is one of the worst attacking teams in the Premier League. In the first 20 rounds, they scored 22 goals. There are only two teams with worse results: Burnley (20 goals) and Sheffield United (15 goals). These are also the two teams at the bottom of the rankings.
In the first half of the match against Nottingham Forest, Man Utd only had one shot. Regarding the game position, coach Erik ten Hag’s students could not overwhelm the home team, even allowing their opponents to pressurize them in many stages of the match.
Up to the 82nd minute – the time of conceding the second goal – Man Utd had only 3 shots on target. Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest hit the target twice and scored 2 goals.
The interesting detail is that the assister for Morgan Gibbs-White to increase the score to 2-1 for Nottingham Forest is Anthony Elanga – former Man Utd player. This midfielder has a total of 6 passes for his teammates to score goals this season, twice as many as the current “Red Devils” best assist.
In the history of the Premier League, Man Utd has only lost twice to Nottingham Forest and the most recent match was a defeat in round 20 of this season. The “Red Devils”‘ only loss to this opponent in the Premier League previously took place in 1994. At that time, Alf-Inge Haaland was also in the Nottingham Forest squad and his son – Erling Haaland – not yet born.