logo
logo
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Jose Mourinho on the touchline. Old Trafford, October 2020.

How Solskjaer’s 2020-21 compares with Jose Mourinho’s best Man Utd season

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United are on course to finish 2020-21 in second place, their best Premier League finish in three years. 

After winning the Europa League and the EFL Cup in his first season at Old Trafford, Jose Mourinho then guided United to the runners-up spot in 2017-18. 

“If I tell you, for example, that I consider one of the best jobs of my career was to finish second with Man United in the Premier League, you will say, ‘this guy is crazy,'” Mourinho said in January 2019.

“‘He won 25 titles and he is saying that a second position was one of his best achievements?’ I keep saying this because people don’t know what is going on behind the scenes.”

We’ve compared United’s stats under Mourinho in the 2017-18 campaign to their stats under Solskjaer in 2020-21.

2017-18 vs 2020-21

65.7% –Win rate – 56.6%
18.4% – Loss rate – 13.3%

2.1 – Points per game – 2.0
1.78 – Goals scored per game – 1.93
0.73 – Goals conceded per game: 1.1

13.4 – Shots per 90 minutes – 13.7
11.4 – Shots against per 90 minutes – 11.1
1.5 – Expected Goals (xG) per 90 minutes – 1.4
1.1 – Expected Goals Against (xGA) per 90 minutes – 1.0

455.71 – Passes completed per game – 491.53
34.8 – Passes into final third per game – 37.3
9.76 – Passes into opposition penalty area per game – 10.26
81.1% – Pass completion – 84%


More Manchester United

The 13 Man Utd players let go by Solskjaer and how they’ve fared since

Where are they now? The six kids handed Man Utd debuts by Mourinho

Can you name Man Utd’s XI from their 5-3 victory over Spurs in 2001?

Garner next? Six players who became Man Utd regulars after a loan away