Manchester United have made an underwhelming start to their 2021/22 campaign. Things had looked very positive early on and at one point of time, they were sitting top of the Premier League table.
But since then, things have not been great for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, who have already been knocked out of the League Cup and have slipped down from first to fourth, behind the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City.
And while they are still just two points behind league leaders, Chelsea, it must be said that the recent performances have been worrying. Over the last six games in all competitions, Manchester United have just won twice and it is safe to say that things must improve a lot if they are to challenge for titles this season.
Rio Ferdinand has pointed out one weakness of this team and revealed what is stopping them from competing for the Premier League title. While speaking on Vibe With FIVE and as reported by Metro, the Manchester United legend said:
"‘I just feel that these games is what we mentioned last season are hurting us, stopping us from contending for the Premier League and it’s creeping in this season already. We got away with it at Villarreal midweek, that was alarm bells there.‘We dropped points before that, we got beat by Aston Villa and then we dropped points against Everton.’"
Manchester United need to improve a lot if they are to challenge for the Premier League
At the start of the season, with the additions of Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane and Tom Heaton over the course of the summer, Manchester United were expected to be one of the frontrunners in the Premier League title race.
We are still very early in the season and that could still happen. But the recent performances and results have certainly raised quite a few doubts surrounding this team.
Last season also, they didn’t have a bad record against the top sides. While a number of those games ended in draws, at the end of the day, Manchester United proved very difficult to beat. But, they ended up dropping points here and there throughout the course of the campaign, which meant that they finished the season in second, quite some way behind Manchester City.
And it is the games against teams outside the Big Six, that the Red Devils need to win consistently if they are to compete for the Premier League.