Premier League form needs toothless to ruthless transformation

The draw last weekend against West Ham in the Premier League brought some unwelcome statistics for Jose Mourinho: Manchester United had failed to win in four league games in a row at Old Trafford for the first time since February 1990 and more pertinently, United had now drawn five of their past seven league matches this season.

Undoubtedly, these draws are despite dynamic performances, rather than because of passive performances, as was the case during the series of bore draws around this time last season under Louis van Gaal.

Attacks are made, chances are created, shots are taken but not enough goals are scored. There is a big Swedish bloke who shoulders some of the blame in this regard, for the month of October especially.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic is joint-fourth in the current Premier League top scorers list but he has taken more shots than anyone on the list and his shot accuracy of fifty per-cent is relatively poor compared to his peers (Romelu Lukaku: 70%, Diego Costa: 67%; Sergio Aguero 59%).

The crux of this being the 609 minutes he went without scoring a Premier League goal; at the end of October he had taken more shots since scoring (42) than any other player in the league.

His big chance conversion rate stood at just eleven per cent and he had the unenviable accolade of having missed more big chances than any other player in the league. (Opta definition of a big chance: A situation where a player should reasonably be expected to score usually in a one-on-one scenario or from very close range).

The underlying statistics suggested goals would come eventually, and they have, as you don’t face an inspired Tom Heaton every week. That nil-nil performance against Burnley was a case in point for the team’s problems this season: 37 shots but no goals. It is a better problem than last season where a mere shot on target was cause for celebration, but it is still a problem.

Of course, the rest of the team needs to accept its fair share of responsibility. Paul Pogba only registered his first assist in the league last week, Anthony Martial has not looked interested until Wednesday night’s performance against West Ham in the EFL Cup and it has taken until November for Mourinho to find a modicum of balance in midfield.

There have been signs of progress in cup competitions but as Mourinho has noted “in the league we have not been getting the goals our performances deserve, there is no doubt we are improving, though.”

Juventus striker Gonzalo Higuain told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera about some advice Ruud van Nistelrooy gave him about his relative lack of goals recently and Mourinho will hope it applies to his team’s Premier League goal output also:

“Van Nistelrooy? He told me something during a period in which I didn’t score. And it’s true. You try, but it doesn’t come out. And when it comes out, it all does at once. It’s like ketchup. It’s a beautiful anecdote.”