Manchester United Don’t Want To Leave 6th?

Set against the positives surrounding Manchester United this season, the team’s poor home league form is the major negative, the stone in the boot which continues to cause discomfort and frustration.

United, a club with a historically formidable home record, have drawn more games at Old Trafford than they’ve won. Saturday’s poor 1-1 draw against Bournemouth was the latest after disappointments against Stoke City, Burnley, Arsenal, West Ham, Liverpool and Hull City. The team’s home league win rate of 42.8 percent is the lowest since 1990 when they finished 13th.

A draw or three could be written off as bad luck, but there’s now an unwanted consistency, the same patterns being repeated where the team dominate and create chances but don’t convert them. It’s not good enough.

United have created more than 20 shots in games without winning four times in the Premier League this season, more than any other side. After four months stuck in sixth, Jose Mourinho’s side would’ve finally moved upwards had they beaten an out-of-form Bournemouth who were only four points above the relegation zone.

They were playing a United side who had won their previous six games, but perhaps we should have known better to anticipate victory. Mourinho’s men are sixth for a reason — there are five better teams than them this season, and the league table doesn’t lie after 26 matches.

It’s baffling. They went into the Bournemouth match in form and on a high after another Wembley success. The players had been rewarded with a couple of days off following the 3-2 victory over Southampton in the EFL Cup final, they’d not had a midweek game in an otherwise hectic season and they started like a side which was going to flatten the Cherries with the ease of beachcombers pushing over sand castles on the Bournemouth seafront.

The Old Trafford crowd was supportive, the sun was out and then the unfortunate new reality struck — even though Bournemouth were down to 10 men for the majority of the game.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic had a stinker, fortunate not to be sent off but since charged for an alleged elbow on Tyrone Mings. In mitigation, the defender had stamped on his head. If his likely appeal fails, Ibrahimovic will miss United’s next three domestic games.

The Swede also had a penalty saved. He can be excused for having an off day because he’s overachieved this season, but substituting him appears out of the question. Mourinho believes that if there’s a chance, then Ibrahimovic is the best man to convert it.

The team’s leading scorer is popular with his manager, teammates, staff and fans. Sales of shirts with his name on are breaking records. Players acknowledge he’s one of the main men in the dressing room, a man capable of a withering put-down despite being in his first season at the club. He’s a star with the self-assured arrogance and talent to back it up, but the over-reliance on Ibrahimovic’s goals is stark, and his lack of home league goals is a problem.

Only six of his 15 league goals have come at home, only three of them since the Manchester derby at the start of September. Three in 11 games doesn’t seem quite so impressive, nor do his two goals in the seven home games which United have drawn.

A selection of United legends are currently in Vietnam to connect with fans of the club who are unlikely to ever see them play live. Under a sign “A United team is a winning team” former players meet and greet fans. “A United team is a drawing team” doesn’t have quite the same ring.

The lack of a secondary goal scorers is also a worry. Ibrahimovic has 15 in the league; Juan Mata is second with six. Paul Pogba has four and there’s justified scrutiny of the Frenchman’s appalling form in front of goal this season. The only thing he’s been consistent with is failing to find his range when shooting. He had a fine chance to open the scoring after five minutes on Saturday. He didn’t take it. He had further chances to win the game, including one after 92 minutes. He didn’t take it, and put his head in his hands.

Pogba was rightly praised by his boss for his role in the EFL Cup final, but big-name players bought for big money are expected to decide matches.

Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have only three each in the league. Despite 44 games played across all competitions, no player other than Zlatan is in double figures.

After 94 minutes on Saturday, Martial picked the ball up — and ran backwards towards his own goal. The lack of match winners is exposed graphically in the place where the players should be at their most confident: Old Trafford.

There’s a conviction that things are getting better under Mourinho after the soporific times under Louis van Gaal. It’s also true that all that matters with the league position is where United are after 38 games. That’s judgement time.

Stay sixth and it wouldn’t be considered acceptable in a first season for Mourinho. Make the top four and it would be, especially coupled with the cup success that he’s already brought. And there may be more silverware. Not for the first time, United are making matters difficult for themselves. Bournemouth at home should be a banker; City, Spurs, Burnley and Arsenal away, where United are still to play, are the tricky ones.

The top five clubs have all scored 50-odd goals. United have 39. There are still 12 league games left, almost a third of the season, and United’s season is still alive, with cup ties aplenty. It’s in the cup games where they have really excelled this term, but the next two away games at Rostov and Chelsea are difficult, especially without Ibrahimovic at Stamford Bridge.

Rostov knocked Ajax and Anderlecht out of the Champions League qualifiers this season. They then beat Bayern Munich at home in the Champions League proper, held PSV Eindhoven home and away and lost narrowly to Atletico Madrid at home. They’re decent.

United will be favourites to go through, as they have the better players and splendid home form in the cups, but this isn’t yet a vintage United. Teams, as Southampton showed at Wembley only a week ago and Bournemouth on Saturday, get chances against them.

If Ibrahimovic’s ban is upheld, someone has to step up in the central role: a Rashford or Martial. Rashford was average when he stepped up to replace the suspended Swede for the league game against Arsenal in November.

The club want to buy a striker for next season and with good reason. Whatever happens, it’s implausible that we’ll see Wayne Rooney at the club then. He’s been a great player for United and has a contract until 2019, but his role has become peripheral and doesn’t come close to justifying his vast wages.

After three cup matches, United’s next league game is on March 19 at Middlesbrough, a side who have won fewer matches than any other, just four from 27. Given United’s strong away form, that should bode well for victory — until you see that only two teams are in double figures when it comes to draws: Middlesbrough and Manchester United.