We all know that we are bad at defending crosses be it from corners, free-kicks or from open play.
But nobody is talking about just how bad we are whenever a delivery comes into our 18-yard area.
United have sooooooooooo many issues that it can be a bit difficult to keep up with all of them but not a game goes by where a cross comes into the box and we don't concede or it doesn't cause any panic.
As I've said many times in previews and post-match reactions, once an opposing player gets time and space or there's a chance of a ball being put into that box, a little poo comes out.
Crystal Palace may not have scored from a cross but did give us a problem when looking at that first goal and even when teams don't score, something happens, most of the time to our detriment.
United have played a total of 34 games this season in all competitions. We've conceded 49 goals which is 8 fewer than last season at this point (I don't know how either because it feels like we concede 2 or 3 goals every game) but out of those 49, 25 have been let in from crosses and 15 of those crosses have come from headers.
That means 51% of all our goals conceded have come from a cross and that 60% of those goals conceded from crosses have come from a header.
Dealing with crosses has been an issue of ours for quite a while now and despite it being terrible for those years, it has somehow gotten even worse.
Why is that though?
We've even brought in a set-piece coach in Andreas Georgson and we are worse now than we've ever been when it comes to defending them.
Maybe that was his aim? Make us worse? He was at Arsenal previously so...
Jokes aside, whatever he and United are doing simply isn't working.
In his 13 games in charge this season, Erik ten Hag's side conceded 16 goals. Out of those 16, 10 have come from crosses and 5 of those were headers.
Ruben Amorim has managed 19 games since taking over in November but has conceded almost double (31) than ten Hag albeit in six more matches. Out of those 31, 14 have come from crosses with 8 being scored from a header.
That is 45% of Amorim's 31 goals being conceded from crosses with 57% of those crosses being conceded from a header.
Something is of course, not right.
I've noticed that one of the issues is that we don't get tight enough to stop the cross in open play as we always allow the opponent that time they need to pick their head up and put in a good delivery.
The marking from crosses in general is also poor especially from set-pieces as we do this zonal thing that simply does not work nor has it worked for a long time.
I just prefer if we have our tallest player mark the opposition's tallest player and see who comes out on top. Putting some of the smaller players to act as a sort of shield in preventing them from getting a run on them has been fruitful as more often than not, the opponents do get that run and out-jump our players easily.
The back post is also an area for oppositions to exploit as we can lack that focus at the back. Dalot and Mazraoui in particular have been very poor but Yoro has also been caught out on a couple of occasions.
Andre Onana is another problem in this aspect as he seems stuck to his line. He very rarely comes off it to claim crosses that appear quite close to him, crosses that you would expect him to catch or punch with ease.
Even when he does decide to come out, he isn't strong enough as he doesn't clear house so to speak, in trying to do all he can to get the ball.
Onana can also parry the ball into dangerous areas instead of collecting it which ends up costing us just like the game against Brighton as their 3rd goal came from him not claiming a simple cross along the ground.
The same can be said of Bayindir as well.
We've even conceded 2 goals directly from corners 😑.
We also now play with five defenders yet seem susceptible to crosses all the time. We just look so shaky at the back in general with any ball into the box being a moment where we panic.
As we still don't defend well enough with more defenders than attackers, I think Amorim should move away from this five defenders thing and just go with more attackers.
Perhaps attack is the best form of defence for this team?
But it really is a problem that we concede so many goals under him, so many silly goals and so many from crosses.
I'm not sure why nothing has been done to try and address this issue.
Background Image: Man Utd concede straight from a corner against Wolves | Creator: Shaun Botterill | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2024 Getty Images via Goal