Another win, another hatful of goals conceded. Manchester United may be seven points clear of City but if they hope to maintain that lead or even build on it they will have to sort out a leak that has cost them 28 goals in just 19 games.
Alex Ferguson’s strategy appears to involve an element of Russian Roulette, relying on the goals of Robin Van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Chicharito Hernandez to cover for the defence.
Of course part of the problem is the uncertainty of the goalkeeping position – and uncertain performances from David De Gea and Anders Lindegaard.
The Spanish shot-stopper was a nervy presence throughout the 4 – 3 win over Newcastle while the Dane’s form has also been indifferent.
Individually solid
Meanwhile United’s centre back partnership of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic have rarely played together this season due to Vidic’s injury. But individually Ferdinand and Jonny Evans have been solid enough according to the stats.
Ferdinand has won a greater percentage of one-on-one duels than City captain Vincent Kompany and Chelsea skipper John Terry and his tackle completion rate is in a similar bracket.
Evans’ has been less impressive in the tackle stakes but has also won more duels than the Belgian.
That goes to show that the problems start further forward as United’s centre-half are left exposed too-often against opposition forwards. It has long been suggested that United lack a ball winner at the base of the midfield – or at least a player whose primary focus is to both break up play and distribute efficiently in the manner of Barca’s Sergio Busquets or Juventus’ Arturo Vidal - especially for such a forward-thinking outfit.
The statistics bear this out. Michael Carrick’s distribution may be impressive as Chicharito discovered when his winner came from the midfielder’s pass but his battling qualities compare poorly with his contemporaries at United’s nearest title rivals.
The England man has only won 45.5 per cent of his midfield duels in stark contrast to Chelsea’s John Obi Mikel (51) and Gareth Barry (56.6).
In terms of tackles won, Carrick also struggles winning 71 per cent, which is inferior to Mikel’s 78.4 per cent and Barry’s 85 per cent.
Reading of the game
However where Carrick does come out marginally better is in terms of interceptions. Carrick has 1.9 interceptions per game higher than Mikel and Barry on 1.8 and 1.4 respectively.
With the emphasis on interceptions, there is a greater importance in defending as a unit. On an individual level, Tom Cleverly – who plays much further forward than Carrick - has been solid defensively winning over 80 per cent of his tackles and winning 60 per cent of his duels.
But unlike Carrick, his reading of the game in the defensive sphere is much weaker than Carrick’s with only 0.5 interceptions per game.
Likewise Paul Scholes –who’s main role is keeping the flow ticking - makes his tackles and duels stick but also fails to read the game in the defensive third.
And with a lopsided formation usually featuring two of the three in midfield, the back four becomes increasingly exposed when the ball bypasses either Scholes or Cleverly. However, it is debatable whether Fergie intends to remedy that in January.
