Comparing Manchester United’s record before and after the League Cup final win
After making a promising start to his career as Manchester United manager, Erik ten Hag is now starting to come under pressure.
United appointed Ten Hag in the summer of 2022 after their disastrous 2021-22 campaign – their worst of the Premier League era.
Despite losing his first two matches in 2022-23, the former Ajax manager turned things around and led United to the 2023 Carabao Cup final.
They faced Newcastle United at Wembley and Casemiro broke the deadlock in the 33rd minute when he headed home Luke Shaw’s free-kick.
Ten Hag’s side doubled their advantage after Marcus Rashford’s strike deflected off Sven Botman and looped over Newcastle goalkeeper Loris Karius.
The 2-0 win over Newcastle ended a six-year trophy drought for United and they were firmly on the right track.
“Silverware shows you are on a good pathway, a good direction,” Ten Hag said. “It’s one cup and it’s February but it shows we are [going] in the right direction.
“This has to be the inspiration, the motivation to keep going on this pathway and improve. Be happy for 24 hours but not satisfied because that leads to laziness. When you become lazy you don’t win any more games and you can’t win trophies.”
But the Red Devils were brought back down to earth a week later as they suffered a humiliating 7-0 defeat against Liverpool at Anfield.
“It was completely unacceptable,” Luke Shaw told MUTV after the game. “Our standards have clearly dropped since we won that [League Cup] trophy, and in the last couple of games we haven’t been our normal selves.”
While United recovered and secured a top-three finish in the Premier League, they were knocked out of the Europa League by Sevilla and lost against Manchester City in the FA Cup final.
The Red Devils have since spent over £150million on new signings in the summer transfer window but have endured a disastrous start to the 2023-24 campaign, losing six of their first 10 games in all competitions and embarking on their worst Premier League start ever after seven games.
READ: Man Utd’s worst starts to a Premier League season after 7 games – & where they finished after 38
We’ve taken a look at Ten Hag’s United record before and after that League Cup final victory over Newcastle.
As the stats below show, United’s win rate has dropped by 22.5% in the last few months and their loss rate has increased by the same amount.
They averaged more goals per game before the League Cup final in February and they are now conceding more goals per game.
Before the League Cup final
Played: 40
Won: 29
Drawn: 5
Lost: 6
Goals for: 77
Goals against: 38
Clean sheets: 19
Points per game: 2.3
Win rate: 72.5%
Loss rate: 15%
Goals per game: 1.92
Goals against per game: 0.95
🇧🇷 @Casemiro got the ball rolling for @ManUtd! ⚽️#EFL | #CarabaoCupFinal pic.twitter.com/edydCPeoQG
— Carabao Cup (@Carabao_Cup) February 27, 2023
After the League Cup final
Played: 32
Won: 16
Drawn: 4
Lost: 12
Goals for: 46
Goals against: 43
Clean sheets: 12
Points per game: 1.625
Win rate: 50%
Loss rate: 37.5%
Goals per game: 1.43
Goals against per game: 1.34
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