78-19 - The stat that shows current Manchester United ambition doesn't match Sir Jim Ratcliffe's

Strip away the action and the noise and the numbers and the results from Manchester United's three toughest away games of the season aren't, at first glance, disastrous.

In a season pockmarked by injuries, they have gone to Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City and lost by an aggregate score of 6-2. It's an improvement on Erik ten Hag's first season in charge, when those games were lost 16-5.

But in 2024, we have more to breakdown a game of football than just the goals that did go in and when you dig a little deeper it's hard to look at those visits to the Emirates, Anfield and the Etihad and see a platform for success. Sir Jim Ratcliffe has pushed ambition to the front of his prospectus for United, but on the pitch, there is little sign of that being replicated.

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You can look back at Sunday's derby and believe it wasn't too bad. United led for 48 minutes and the game was only put out of reach in injury time. And that was achieved with a defence stretched to breaking point by absences.

It was a similar story at Anfield. United are one of only two Premier League teams not to lose there this season and that is a fine achievement, given they again went into the game with injuries forcing Ten Hag's hand. And at Arsenal, before the injuries really took hold this season, they were centimetres from going in front late in the game before they lost the game even later. It was an afternoon of, quite literally, fine margins.

Yet in all three games, United showed very little ambition in taking the game on, in trying to play. They were second best at the Emirates at the start of September, but