For most fans of Manchester United and watchers of the Premier League it would be fair to say that Manchester United are in a dire state.
Performances on the pitch have been less than impressive for most of the season, with results suffering as a result.
These poor results led to the Manchester United hierarchy choosing to sack manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, leading him to be replaced by now interim boss Ralf Rangnick.
However, despite United picking with two wins from three Premier League games under the German football philosopher, the performances of the last two have been far from convincing.
There has been a lot of talk surrounding figures about United in recent weeks, including possession won in final third, possession lost and other more general stats such as expected goals for and against.
But one key stat that underlines the state of affairs at United is that of points won.
? David de Gea has earned Manchester United 15 points from denying clear-cut goalscoring chances in the Premier League this season, at least six more than any other goalkeeper pic.twitter.com/nhvJiPxZOo
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) December 30, 2021
Football stats site WhoScored have revealed that Red Devils stopper David de Gea has won his side 15 points from denying clear-cut goalscoring chances, six more than the next best.
These figures reveal a damning trend that conclude United rely far too heavily on the Spanish stopper.
De Gea had come under flak from pundits for his performances over the last few seasons following a number of mistakes at crucial moments, but fortunately for United he now looks to be mostly back to his best shot stopping form.
The late save he made in United’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle United is the perfect showcase for this as he helped his side to salvage an arguably undeserved point.
United play Burnley later today and desperately need to start showing off some of the quality that is supposedly in the squad. Instead of whinging and complaining when things don’t go to plan, to paraphrase Gary Neville’s comments on the body language and attitude of some of United’s stars following the draw at St James’ Park.