Why do United struggle against underdogs?

By @UtdNiamh, published on 18/09/21

United struggling against underdogs

Tuesday night's game was yet another reminder that Man Utd as a team struggles against the smaller sides, so in this article, I will be looking at some of the reasons that might be happening.

Overconfidence

Against bigger teams, united are often the underdogs, and they can execute their game plan flawlessly. However, when they are expected to win, sometimes they can be overconfident and lose concentration. An excellent example of this was against Young Boys when Wan Bissaka got sent off, and the team thought they did enough, but it wasn't.

Teams using the low block

United's mortal enemy the low block. One of the main reasons for the united struggle to defeat the weaker opposition is that the other team sits back and defends and waits for united to break them down, which they can't do. A midfield of Bruno and Pogba helps, but this leaves the team open for a counter-attack. Teams like Newcastle and Crystal Palace united struggle against, whilst teams like Leeds can be beaten easily.

Players not performing or making mistakes

Players are humans and can make mistakes like any of us. This can happen in any match, but against Young Boys, Jesse Lingard completed the error, and the mistake was an error any player could have made and should not define a player. Against the smaller or weaker teams, players will sometimes think that the game will be easy and lose concentration, leading to mistakes. There are the other two reasons combined and will be hard to solve in the future because errors can happen to any player at any time, no matter how good they are

Sometimes mistakes happen and will continue to happen as players aren't robots, against smaller sides can cause an overreaction from fans. We are not the coaches, and we do not know what they do in training. The focus now needs to be on not making errors against smaller teams for the management. Let's hope for better results against smaller teams in the future.

Niamh Maguire