Manchester United v Manchester City : A Statistical Preview

We look a statistical preview ahead of Manchester United v Manchester City, the key football statisticsleading into the game, comparing the forward lines of both clubs and Manchester United’s defensive weaknesses this season.

MANCHESTER’S GOAL-HUNGRY STRIKERS SETTING LEAGUE ALIGHT

Both Manchester clubs have been in superb goalscoring form in the Premier League, with City netting a league-high 27 goals so far, followed by United in second place with 25.

Both sides’ frontlines have hit the ground running this season, with eight of the top 10 places in the Minutes per Goal rankings coming from either the blue or the red half of Manchester.

Mins per goal – PL 2011/12                                      Top Goalscorers – PL 2011/12

Prem Lge 11/12	Team	Goals	Mins per Goal		Prem Lge 11/12	Games	Goals
Agüero	Man City	8	55		Man City	8	27
Rooney	Man Utd	9	62		Man Utd	8	25
Dzeko	Man City	6	69		Chelsea	8	20
Balotelli	Man City	3	75		Tottenham	7	13
Sturridge	Chelsea	4	78		Arsenal	8	12
Ba	Newcastle Utd	5	79		Bolton	8	12
Welbeck	Man Utd	3	106		Liverpool	8	11
Hernández	Man Utd	3	107		Newcastle Utd	8	11

*Only including players to score 3+ goals

For City, summer signing Sergio Aguero has been their top scorer, with the Argentine netting a goal every 55 minutes on average, while he has also managed to provide two assists. The Citizens two other regular strikers this season, the in-form duo of Balotelli and Dzeko have also started the season superbly, netting nine goals between them so far. Interestingly, despite his image as a physical target man, the Bosnian has also created 13 goal-scoring chances so far this season, a haul only Wayne Rooney and Kevin Doyle can better among central strikers.

The ubiquitous Rooney has already notched a league-high nine goals this season as well as providing two assists (and those 18 goal-scoring chances), while Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez and Danny Welbeck have also been reliable scorers, netting three a piece so far.

The forgotten men Carlos Tevez and Dimitar Berbatov have yet to set their seasons alight, for different reasons, but with their attacking team-mates scoring for fun so far, they haven’t been missed.

Premier League 2011/12 – Manchester Strikers

Prem Lge 11/12	Agüero	Balotelli	Dzeko	Tévez		Rooney	Hernández	Welbeck	Berbatov
Team	City	City	City	City		Utd	Utd	Utd	Utd
Minutes On Pitch	436	226	412	90		561	321	318	106
Goal Attempts
Goals	8	3	6	0		9	3	3	0
Mins per goal	55	75	69	-		62	107	106	-
Total Shots	21	13	17	5		31	7	10	3
Shooting Accuracy	52%	38%	65%	60%		55%	71%	50%	67%
Conversion Rate	38%	23%	35%	0%		29%	43%	30%	0%
Passing
Goal Assists	2	0	1	0		2	0	2	0
Chances Created	9	6	13	4		18	4	4	0

UNITED GIVING OPPOSITION TOO MANY CHANCES TO SHOOT

Despite their impressive start to the new Premier League season, Manchester United have allowed their opponents to fire in a total of 47 shots on target so far, a figure only Bolton Wanderers can “better”.

Luckily for the Red Devils, only six of those shots have ended as goals for the opposition. Indeed, that total of just six goals conceded is a joint-league low, along with rivals Manchester City and in-form side Newcastle United.

Premier League 2011/12 – Goals and Shots On Conceded

Prem Lge 11/12	Games	Goals Conceded		Prem Lge 11/12	Games	Shots On Conceded
Man City	8	6		Bolton Wanderers	8	51
Man Utd	8	6		Man Utd	8	47
Newcastle Utd	8	6		Swansea City	8	44
Stoke City	8	8		Tottenham	7	44
Aston Villa	8	9		Wigan Athletic	8	44

Interestingly, while United’s regular midfielders Anderson and Darren Fletcher have been impressive going forward this season, they rank quite low in terms of the frequency of their tackles when compared to the top division’s other regular midfielders.

Premier League 2011/12 – Central Midfielders – Top Tacklers

Ranking	Player	Team	Mins per Tackle
1	Lucas	Liverpool	14.3
2	Cattermole	Sunderland	17.6
3	Mulumbu	West Brom	17.7
4	Parker	Tottenham	18.5
5	Cabaye	Newcastle Utd	20.1
13	Anderson	Man Utd	28.4
42	Fletcher	Man Utd	45.0

*only including players to play 300+ minutes

However, the star of the show for Manchester United, defensively speaking, has been young goalkeeper David De Gea, who has blossomed between the posts after enduring a difficult start to his career in English football.

The Spanish shot-stopper has posted the best saves to shots rate in the division so far, while he has also made more saves. His City counterpart, Joe Hart, ranks second in terms of his save percentage, although the England man has kept twice as many clean sheets as the United No.1

Premier League 2011/12 – Top 5 saves-to-shots ratio

Prem Lge 11/12	Team	Saves	Save %	Clean Sheets	Goals Conceded
De Gea	Man Utd	36	85.7%	2	6
Hart	Man City	23	79.3%	4	6
Begovic	Stoke City	27	77.1%	4	8
Krul	Newcastle Utd	20	76.9%	3	6
Given	Aston Villa	28	75.7%	3	8