Outrageous statistic shows HUGE Man United problem, with Man City the best

Once again, Manchester United and Manchester City have had almost polar opposite campaigns, as Erik ten Hag’s side struggle for significant glory.

Manchester City are aiming to become the first-ever team to secure themselves back-to-back trebles and eclipse Manchester United as the club with the most significant achievement in Premier League history in the process.

Meanwhile, Erik ten Hag‘s team has been knocked out of the Champions League and Carabao Cup while wallowing in seventh on the league table, with the FA Cup representing the only chance of glory.

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Hilariously, with City playing Chelsea in one FA Cup semi-final and United facing Coventry City in the other, the two could very well meet in the final for the second time in a row, with United once again having the direct chance to stop their cross-down rivals from winning the treble.

However, aside from the stark differences between the two sides, a new statistic has emerged which really demonstrates just how different the two teams are.

Offsides

Manchester United are top of the table on this stat. Across all Premier League teams and across all league games, United have been caught offside more often than any other side in the division – staying beyond defenders a total of 83 times.

Individually, Rasmus Højlund is the player who has been caught offside most often (14), closely followed by Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford (12), Bruno Fernandes (11), then Harry Maguire and Scott McTominay (6)

In comparison, Manchester City has only been caught offside 33 times this season, the lowest number among the 20 clubs.

Individually, Rodri and Kyle Walker have been caught most often for City (6 each), while their star striker, Erling Haaland, has only seen the flag raised on him twice.

What this tells us

This tells us that Manchester United and Manchester City have very different playing styles. One is a huge indication of domination, while the other remains inferior.

United’s heavy number of offsides is a result of the club’s very reactive style of play. The club looks to hit teams on the break via quick, sharp counterattacks that a team only really uses regularly if they are becoming the inferior side on the field.

City’s low offsides, meanwhile, are proof of their domination in opposition final thirds, meaning they often don’t need to play searching forward long balls. It’s a ridiculous difference between the two teams.

The other picture this statistic paints is that United players do not possess good timing.

Højlund’s 14 offsides compared to Haaland’s two shows a breakdown in communication. Haaland has Kevin de Bryune, who can find him perfectly, with the two players in harmony on the ball. There are clips that show Haaland doesn’t even need to look at the midfielder, he just runs and knows that the Belgian will find him.

Meanwhile, the high number of offsides for United’s front three shows that both the passing player cannot get the ball out in good time while the forwards are unable to hold their line until the ball is released. If Ten Hag wants to play a counterattacking method, this must be fixed.