Man United relegation fears are real because of the one problem that condemns all teams eventually
The holy grail for those teams trying to stay above the Premier League's relegation zone is a goalscorer capable of finding the back of the net on a regular basis in the top flight. If you fail to find one, teams you would expect to be well clear of the bottom three can find themselves in the fight.
Just look at Everton. They were the second-lowest scorers last season and again reliant on a late-season surge to survive. They are the second-lowest scorers again this season and out of the bottom three by three points purely because they have the seventh-best defensive record in the league.
Southampton have no rearguard to match, and as a result, the league's lowest scorers are already doomed to an immediate return to the Championship. Leicester City and Ipswich Town will feel they are in the fight because they have Jamie Vardy and Liam Delap. Matheus Cunha should be capable of dragging Wolves up the table.
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But if you don't have a reliable source of goals in this league, trouble will find you eventually, as Manchester United are now finding out. Only four teams have scored fewer than their 21 goals this season, and with the defence now falling apart, they look prime candidates to be dragged into a fight for their lives because that combination can quickly send you hurtling towards the trapdoor marked 'Championship'.
United will surely find the quality required to avoid trouble, but Ruben Amorim is determined to rid them of complacency. After Monday's defeat to Newcastle, he spoke of the club needing a "shock". That seven-point gap to the bottom three could yet contract.
If Amorim cannot solve the goalscoring issues, he has to tighten up a defence that has lost the plot. They have kept one clean sheet in the 39-year-old's 11 games in charge and have conceded two or more in seven of them. When you are struggling to score more than a goal a game, that will mean defeats most weeks of the season.
United have 21 goals in 19 Premier League games this season, but 11 have come against the bottom five. That leaves 10 in 14 games against the teams sitting 15th and above, which is a lamentable record. Joshua Zirkzee has three of them, and Rasmus Hojlund has two, and neither one of them looks like the forward United need to make a serious move towards the top of the table.
If that scoring record remains and the defence doesn't improve, United will be looking over their shoulders deep into April. Teams who don't score enough goals will always find themselves sinking to the bottom, which is exactly what is happening to Manchester United. Amorim is right to warn them of the pitfalls ahead.
