Is this the worst Man Utd team in Premier League history?

This Manchester United team is terrible.

There is no denying that.

14th in the table after 19 games played is nothing short of a disaster.

23 points off table toppers Liverpool, yet only 16 off 20th placed Southampton.

The expectations of a club which once demanded league titles have now dwindled to a new low.

Top eight would be an achievement.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, the last 11 years have been consistently challenging for the club.

Rebuild after rebuild with no clear progress.

But none of these teams were in such a terrible position half way through the season.

So is this the worst United team in Premier League history?

The Table

To best work this out I will compare this 2024/25 squad with the 2013/14 David Moyes team, The 2021/22 Ole Gunnar Solskjaer/Ralf Rangnick team and last year’s 2023/24 Erik ten Hag squad. These are the more notably weak squads in the last decade.

2013/14

They finished seventh with 64 points. 22 off the top. This instantly became United’s worst Premier League finish of all time. It set the tone for the turbulent decade to come. Moyes succeeded a title winning squad and turned it into a mess. No silverware was won bar the Community Shield.

But after 19 games, they sat sixth on 34 points. They were eight points behind Arsenal in first.

2021/22

This squad finished sixth with 58 points. 35 off the top. It saw the sacking of Solskjaer in the November with German coach Ralf Rangnick filling in as a caretaker boss till the end of the season. The Norwegian left United in seventh after suffering a 4-1 defeat to Watford and a 5-0 thrashing to Liverpool not long before that. Rangnick took over but couldn’t steady the ship.

No silverware was won.

It did however lead to this speech from Rangnick about United’s need for ‘open heart surgery’.

But after 19 games, United sat seventh with 31 points. City topped the table on 53 but had played two additional games to United. When they’d played 19 games, they had 47 points, 16 ahead of the Red Devils.

2023/24

Last season saw Moyes’ record was broken with Ten Hag’s squad finishing a measly eighth.

They got 60 points, 31 off the top. They also had a negative goal difference of -1 ahead of the 0 from the 21/22 campaign.

Injuries derailed the season, but the performances were uninspiring at best.

Winning the FA Cup saved Ten Hag’s job though.

After 19 games, United sat seventh with 31 points. 11 points off the top.

2024/25

After 19 games, United sit 14th with 22 points. They’re 23 points off Liverpool who have a game in hand.

They’ve got a goal difference of -5 and are out of the Carabao Cup.

They’ve still got 19 games to save their season but at halfway, the 24/25 team looks the worst out of the lot.

They’re comfortably the lowest position in the table, double that of 2021/22 and 2023/24.

As well as sitting nine points lower than the 2021/22 and 2023/24 season and 12 points off the 2013/14 season.

There is no doubt that based on the table, after 19 games they’re comfortably the worst.

Players

While league form is typically a good indicator of the quality in a team, it’s not always as simple as that. Across these 11 years, the United squads have had varying levels of quality.

In 2014, Moyes came into a title winning team but an ageing squad. Paul Scholes retired and Ryan Giggs became a player coach. Similarly, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic’s best days were behind them. But the Scotsman still had world class players like Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick to rely on.

While there was strength in areas, it certainly wasn’t a formidable team, with a lack of quality in key positions.

By 2021/22, United hadn’t seen a league title in almost a decade. The squad had been completely changed.

Cristiano Ronaldo had made his iconic return back to the theatre of dreams alongside Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho. The Ole Gunnar Solskjaer rebuild looked almost finally complete.

United also had Bruno Fernandes, Paul Pogba, a fit Luke Shaw, it was a strong team. But there was a huge weakness in midfield though as United lacked a world class defensive midfielder with Nemanja Matic’s best days behind him.

Two years later, the squad had changed drastically again. With Solskjaer’s tenure coming to an abrupt end, new manager Ten Hag then put his twist on the team.

In his first season, Antony, Lisandro Martinez, Tyrell Malacia, Christian Eriksen and Casemiro were brought into bolster the team.

Then Rasmus Hojlund, Sofyan Amrabat (loan), Mason Mount, Andre Onana, Altay Bayindir, Sergio Reguilon (loan) and Jonny Evans came in the following season.

This new look United lacked world class individuals. There was promising players like Hojlund and Alejandro Garnacho but not enough consistent quality.

Then in INEOS’ first window as new co owners, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui, Manuel Ugarte, Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro and Sekou Kone were signed.

Optimism built around the club as the window was seen as a big success.

Six months later and the team can’t string a few wins together.

On paper this team was strong, but it just hasn’t played out like that and the Red Devils have lacked consistency again.

While the 24/25 squad is doing the worst in the league, it’s arguably one of the stronger teams. 2013/14 had world class remnants and the 2021/22 team was probably the best United have had on paper since Ferguson’s retirement. So the 2023/24 team is the worst based on players.

Competition

From 2013 to 2025, the competitiveness of the Premier League particularly has changed significantly.

The arrival of Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp changed English football forever.

95+ point seasons became a normality.

When Moyes finished seventh with 64 points, he was competing against far weaker Manchester City and Liverpool sides to the ones Solskjaer, Ten Hag and now Ruben Amorim are facing.

But in the Champions League Moyes was competing in an arguably stronger era for the European giants. They got knocked out against Guardiola’s Bayern Munich side who lost to Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid who beat Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid side in the final.

So the change in competitiveness is definitely a factor when comparing these sides, but as the Premier League and Champions League was stronger in different eras it doesn’t play into this all that much.

External Factors

In a debate like this, it can be easy to look at it simply, just comparing results, but football is never just black and white.

A lot can be going on in the background which plays a significant role.

Compared to the 21/22, 23/24 and 24/25 teams, Moyes adopted a title winning team. While it wasn’t as strong as years gone by, this isn’t something that can be ignored.

He took them from first to seventh. It was a complete fall from grace.

Whereas Solskjaer, Ten Hag and Amorim’s teams are a product of a decade of failure.

Then the ownership saga played a role in impacting the club’s spending policy before and after INEOS arrived.

Ten Hag is the only manager to benefit from the revolutionised footballing structure with the arrival of key figures like Omar Berrada, Jason Wilcox and Christopher Vivell.