Football writer Adrian Clarke identifies the key players, team tactics, and where matches could be won and lost in Matchweek 28.
Team analysis: Manchester United
It has been a struggle for Man Utd inside the final third all season, having failed to score in 10 of their 27 league matches.
Their total of 33 goals scored ranks 15th overall and, averaging just 1.22 goals per match, they find themselves in the bottom half of the Premier League table in 14th place.
Ahead of a home match against second-placed Arsenal on Sunday, let’s analyse the key areas Man Utd's head coach Ruben Amorim will be seeking to address.
What do Man Utd's attacking stats tell us?
If you do not put enough quality balls into the penalty area, it will always be difficult to create opportunities – and that has certainly been the case in 2024/25.
A total of 36 top-flight players have produced 10 or more accurate open-play crosses this season, but none of them are Man Utd players.
Marcus Rashford does make that list on 10, including two with loan club Aston Villa, but his eight for the Red Devils is their joint-high for the season alongside Bruno Fernandes.
Moving forwards, Amorim will expect more from the likes of Diogo Dalot (six), Noussair Mazraoui (four) and Alejandro Garnacho (three) in the wide areas.
Part of the problem also lies in a lack of targets inside the penalty area, with forwards Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee having a combined total of less than 100 touches inside the opposition box this season.
Only four sides have produced fewer successful crosses in open play, so it is no surprise that attempts on goal from headers are few and far between.
Man Utd in open play: penalty-area entries and crosses
| Man Utd total | PL rank | |
| Successful area entries | 278 | 11th |
|---|---|---|
| Successful crosses | 60 | 16th |
| Goal attempts from headers | 43 | =16th |
Amorim has openly admitted his side are not creating anywhere near enough chances, and the raw numbers back this up.
Fernandes has laid on 12 "big chances" but, aside from him, only the injured Amad (five) and Kobbie Mainoo, Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee (all four) have managed to create more than three all season.
The attacking data below indicates that 14th place is not an unfair position for Man Utd to be in, as we stand.
Only three teams have scored fewer goals in open play and their shot-conversion rate of 9.3 per cent is ranked 17th in the division.
How Man Utd's attacking stats rank 24/25
| Total | PL rank | |
| Big chances | 64 | =12th |
|---|---|---|
| Shots | 354 | 12th |
| Shots in box | 233 | 14th |
| Open-play goals* | 19 | =16th |
| Goals | 33 | 15th |
| Expected Goals on target | 32.3 | 14th |
| Shots to goals conversion | 9.3 | 17th |
*Excludes own goals
Hard time for Hojlund
Hojlund has now gone 18 matches without a goal in all competitions; the striker has not scored in the Premier League since 7 December, when United lost 3-2 at home to Nottingham Forest.
Amorim defended Hojlund this week, saying the quality of his team’s overall play was "not helping" his centre-forward, and that is true.
Statistically, in spite of his goalscoring woes, Hojlund’s 12.5 per cent chance-conversion rate is actually the joint-best of all the Man Utd players who are available this Sunday. He shares the rank with Zirkzee and two defenders, Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt.
Hojlund works hard too. Of the strikers who have featured for at least 500 minutes, his 36.8 off-the-ball runs per 90 is the second-best average.
Yet inside the box he is having only 2.95 touches and 0.87 shots per match, which is clearly a concern.
As shown below, Hojlund is getting very few chances in the centre of the penalty area.
Better movement from Hojlund is required, and he needs to get himself into greater positions on a more frequent basis.
Is there an overreliance on Fernandes?
Amorim must extract more from Man Utd's supporting cast of attacking talent.
So much of what his team produce creatively comes through the captain Fernandes, who has carved out 20 more chances than anyone else in the squad (59).
In open play, his 38 key passes are also well ahead of Amad (29) and Garnacho (20), who are ranked second and third.
As discussed, there has been a reluctance to put balls into the area.
When you analyse the passes or crosses which have been played into this domain (penalty-area entries) in open play, it is Fernandes who dominates.
Man Utd penalty-area entries, PL 24/25
| All entries | Successful entries | |
| Bruno Fernandes | 137 | 52 |
|---|---|---|
| Diogo Dalot | 47 | 18 |
| Amad | 42 | 29 |
| Casemiro | 38 | 17 |
| Lisandro Martinez | 33 | 18 |
The likes of Garnacho (13 successful passes into the box), Mazraoui (12), Zirkzee (five), Christian Eriksen (four) and Hojlund (three) must step up and be a little braver on the ball.
Making a concerted attempt to fill the area with more players will be a step in the right direction, but Amorim also has a right to expect a better quality of service.
Can Amorim adapt his tactics?
Amorim will stick with his favoured 3-4-2-1 system, but can he adjust his personnel in a bid to increase Man Utd's goal threat?
Since the turn of the year in Premier League action, his starting XI has always contained at least six defensive players and a goalkeeper.
On four occasions he has adopted an 8-3 split, using just a trio of natural attackers. In the other four matches, Amorim has picked a quartet of them in a 7-4 split.
When this happens, he either plays Fernandes in central midfield or deploys Amad as a wing-back to get an extra offensive player onto the pitch.
The balance feels too defensive, because even when Fernandes plays as an orthodox central midfielder, he will often sit deep.
This touch map from the 3-2 win over Ipswich Town (attacking from left to right) shows the captain's positioning until he was pushed into a No 10 role in the 67th minute.
Barely moving into the final third, Fernandes’ caution was a surprise to see at home against an opponent inside the relegation zone.
Amorim is caught in a catch-22 situation because if his side are not scoring prolifically, he cannot afford to take bold risks with his tactical approach that leaves gaps at the back.
Yet the data tells us they are only offering a level of threat you associate with a bottom-half side.
More attack-minded wing-backs will help, but this will not be a quick fix for Amorim, who may need a lot of attacking reinforcements this summer.
In the meantime, based on what we have seen until now, it will not be easy to get the wins required to take Man Utd back into the top half.
For that to happen, Amorim must find a way for his side to score more goals in the final three months of the season.
