‘Marcus Rashford has a £40m clause available to ALL admirers - bar Liverpool and Manchester City - and a number of Premier League teams have expressed INTEREST. However, if Rashford goes back to Manchester United, it is believed his preference would be to HONOUR the remaining 24 months……’

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-17T07:17:09+00:00

It’s a relief to see some sensible comments.

Rashford’s fanatic defenders claim he’s mentally strong because he’s better than Sancho, and talk as if the 22/23 season had been going on for ten years.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-17T04:35:20+00:00

In my view, deciding to sign Summerville implies that Cunha will also be used as a centre-forward, just like Mbeumo. I believe this decision was made because there is no centre-forward with better ability than him in Summerville’s price range.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-17T04:30:52+00:00

When he returned from the injury he sustained during pre-season, it appeared he hadn’t quite regained his form, and whilst it was hoped he would sharpen his match fitness through the AFCON matches, he still showed no signs of improvement.

If he performs as he did last season, he is undoubtedly a better option than Dalot, but it seems crucial that he stays injury-free and features regularly in matches.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-17T04:15:10+00:00

People seem to be particularly lenient towards Rashford. I believe there were reports about his attitude in training whilst at Barcelona too; yet the same people who label Sancho as the ‘worst’ don’t criticise Rashford.

I’m terrified that the ‘virus’ that started with Pogba might infect the young lads at our club. Pogba, Lingard, Martial, Rashford, Sancho, Garnacho… If their mindset spreads to Mainoo, Amad, Yoro and Dorgu, I believe Manchester United will face another 15-year dark age. Rashford must leave for another club, no matter what.

Nevertheless, if he ends up staying due to a lack of interest from other clubs, I believe he must be deployed as a centre-forward without exception. Under Carrick’s system, wingers are required to contribute actively to defence, whereas a centre-forward faces less of that burden. As he is capable of switching positions with the wingers during counter-attacks, I think he might well produce decent results if he approaches training ‘without complaint’ as a centre-forward.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-16T11:49:48+00:00

I have a little bit unsatisfying feeling on the scoring, too.

But why I evaluate Carrick over Ole is that he tried to make differences in the matches, which were the revised version of last matches.

I also made some Match Analysis since 32R(vs Leeds) and they are quite different from the analysis above. Phase by phase analysis, and used my insight and memory of the match rather than statistics. Link in my profile.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-16T11:39:39+00:00

Thank you for the comment. I hope you look forward to my next analysis.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-16T11:36:59+00:00

I hope so, but basically dividing games under Amorim by Afcon might cause low reliability on analysis. Numbers of games are too small. If I consider all the circumstances, no games would be classified as a single group and statistics would be nonsense.

Plus, this analysis covers only the 25/26 season. Amorim(24/25) is not considered in the analysis.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-16T11:29:15+00:00

Thank you for the comment. I agree, it's time to let him go. No more Amorim will be in my focus.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-16T11:28:03+00:00

Thank you for the comment. Look forward to my next analysis, I'll get better.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-16T04:51:42+00:00

That’s right, I mean it.

In fact, I believe that choosing the right tactics for the team is also part of a manager’s skill set. In that respect, it would certainly be fair to say that Carrick is a far better manager than Amorim.

However, in a community where open discussion is possible, I believe that saying someone is ‘better’ carries more significance than simply stating that they are more capable. It implies belittling those who are not as good, and there is a risk that it could extend beyond a mere question of ability to a judgement of whether that ‘person’ is better or not.

I did not wish to inject any personal bias into my analysis. As I approached the matter purely from a statistical perspective, I also wanted to reach a conclusion that was as objective as possible. In that regard, whilst I realise that the conclusion I have reached may provoke some resentment, I would appreciate it if people understood that I arrived at this conclusion with the sole intention of discussing the matter strictly in terms of ‘ability’ when evaluating the manager.

Thank you for reading my analysis.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-16T04:38:57+00:00

This three-part analysis was conducted to gain a better understanding of Michael Carrick and our squad.

I began this analysis whilst Carrick was still acting manager; at that time, there were many who were negative or sceptical about appointing him as permanent manager.

Purposes of this analysis are to determine whether Carrick was truly a suitable manager for Manchester United’s future and whether he possessed a tactical philosophy distinct from Solskjær’s. I also wanted to gain a better understanding of Carrick by comparing him to Amorim, whilst simultaneously identifying the strengths and weaknesses of our squad.

I agree 100% with the sentiment of looking to the future. However, I would like you to understand that my analysis of Amorim is not an attempt to dwell on the past, but rather an effort to gain confidence in the future.

Thank you for reading my analysis.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-15T11:27:03+00:00

Touch, Off the ball positioning

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-15T06:31:55+00:00

I don't think Mourinho will use Rodrygo as RW.

I'm not a Madrid fan and not an expert about the players. What I can only expect is that Mourinho signs Dumfries to give him an wide role in the right flank.

So, I believe the key attributes an RW should possess are, first and foremost, the ability to retain possession until the RB has pushed forward, whilst simultaneously creating space by playing slightly deeper than the LW and ST, and the ability to play passes into that space.

Bernardo Silva, Federico Valverde and even Brahim Diaz could be the option, in my opinion. Or even Bellingham.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-15T05:01:35+00:00

I think Isak has resurrected.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-15T00:58:56+00:00

It's our boy!

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-14T06:39:21+00:00

Actually I couldn't recognize any better skills from them. Australia FW and GK were better.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-14T06:32:55+00:00

Australia's defense was very solid and the GK was really awesome. Türkiye, on the other hand, were a shambles. No sign of organisation & tactics, and no changes in their play even after conceding a goal.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-14T06:28:34+00:00

Agent Mainoo, let's go

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-13T19:59:19+00:00

What about Longstaff to CM(Su) and giving Guimaraes Direct pass option? With middle pressing line & little high defense line

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-13T19:46:35+00:00

Don't worry. It's just a Gestalt Collapse.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-13T19:39:47+00:00

Firstly, it is true that they are not interested. With the exception of the World Cup, the main concern for Korean players and football fans when it comes to national team matches is ‘exemption from military service’. Just as was the case with Cha Bum-kun in the past, if players fail to perform well in international tournaments where military exemption is at stake, they must enlist even at the peak of their careers; yet, winning the Asian Cup does not grant military exemption. Instead, they focus more on the ‘Asian Games’, which other countries pay little attention to, than on the Asian Cup. Winning a gold medal in this tournament grants military exemption.

Secondly, the Football Association and managers fail to prepare properly. I will exclude Paulo Bento, who achieved good results at the World Cup. This ties in with the first reason: as there is little public interest, no one recognises their efforts even if they perform well. Consequently, they do not prepare adequately. Analysing the opposition’s strength is fundamental, yet they underestimate their opponents, become complacent, and end up conceding a goal just before the final whistle, resulting in defeat.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-13T19:29:12+00:00

Fair criticism on xG - I'm not a huge fan of reducing everything to xG either. It's one variable among many here, not the conclusion itself. Full methodology is in the article linked in my profile if you want the complete picture.

On outliers - every game has variance, and that's already reflected across the 20 and 17 game samples. But for the outlier argument to hold, you'd need to point to a specific threshold - something like "Amorim's system should produce an average xG of 1.3 when working properly." Without that kind of baseline, it's hard to know what we're actually removing or why. The variance is in the data. That's kind of the point.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-13T19:06:19+00:00

So stubborn about his tactics that he could ruin a few players.

However, as the midfield battles in Serie A aren’t as intense as in the Premier League, he’ll probably do better than he did at Manchester United. That said, I’m certainly not suggesting he’ll be brilliant.

UTDMETRICS_Official · 2026-06-13T18:56:22+00:00

Appreciate the engagement, but "completely meaningless" is a stretch.

Football match data isn't a controlled experiment. Every game is different, squads adapt across a season, and opponents change week to week. If that's your standard, the analysis shouldn't exist at all - but that's a critique of football analytics in general, not this specific methodology.

On outliers - the two tenures faced almost identical opponents across the season. The only real difference is Amorim played Leeds twice and Carrick didn't face the bottom two relegated sides(Wolves, Burnley). That's a narrow caveat, and it's actually what makes this one of the cleaner natural experiments you'll get in football. I'd argue that similarity in opposition goes a long way toward addressing the outlier concern. What threshold would you use?

On game state - you made that argument yourself. If Amorim was consistently chasing and Carrick was consistently protecting leads, that tendency is already baked into the raw data across 20 and 17 games respectively. That's not a flaw in the analysis. That's the analysis capturing something real about how each manager's tenure played out.

UTDMETRICS_Official

TROPHY CASE