This current Manchester United team is a poor side, as their current position of 13th in the Premier League with just 26 points after 22 games indicates.
Such was the struggle under new head coach Ruben Amorim that he labeled this team as the worst in the club's history, having won just one point per game (11 in 11 league games) since taking over at Old Trafford in November.
Sunday's 3-1 defeat at home to Brighton made for the worst start to the season at home in 131 years, with just six wins from twelve in the league.
United and Amorim have had a rocky start to their relationship, which was meant to get out of trouble.
But is the Portuguese manager right when he says Manchester United are the worst they have ever been?
MailSport looks at the Red Devils' underlying statistics since Amorim took over to see if his claim has any credibility.
The first and most obvious metric to judge a team on is the number of points they have on the board.
In that respect, this is the worst United side for well over a generation.
They have not recorded fewer points at this stage of a league season since the 1986–87 season, while their ten defeats after 22 games make it the first time since 1989–90 that they have lost ten or more games at this stage.
They have also won less than one in three games (seven out of 22), which is the lowest number of wins at this point in a season since the same 1989–90 campaign.
One player in particular who has struggled is goalkeeper Andre Onana, who made another glaring error to tap Georginio Rutter for Brighton's third goal at Old Trafford on Sunday.
It was the Cameroonian goalkeeper's tenth foul that led to a goal in two years since joining the club.
By comparison, former United great David De Gea made 17 in 12 years at Old Trafford.
Onana's mistakes can be interpreted as even more costly, as Amorim's side have actually done quite well in terms of stopping shots on target, conceding the sixth fewest number of shots on target in the division.
They have also struggled to win games because they have been inefficient in front of goal themselves.
With a shot conversion rate of just 9.1%, they rank fourth in the Premier League, while they are also tied for fourteenth in terms of the number of goals scored (27).
Amorim has doubled down on the use of his preferred 3-4-3 formation, which in itself isn't a systemic problem, it's just that this current crop of players doesn't seem suited to making the formation work.
Playing a full-back system requires players to do a lot of running and sprinting, but United are 15th for direct speed – a measure defined as the number of meters the ball travels (when measured directly above the pitch), divided by the total time of an attack sequence.
United also make themselves vulnerable to counter-attacks with the number of high turnovers – an instance where a team loses possession in open play within 40 yards of the opponent's goal – they have allowed.
They have racked up 171 turnovers so far, the seventh highest total in the Premier League.
While United are unlikely to face a relegation battle despite Amorim's previously expressed concerns, they are mired in mediocrity in the middle of the table with a negative goal difference.
That may not make this Manchester United team the worst team of all time, but many fans will have expected tangible progress from a side that has only risen one place in the league since Amorim took over from Erik ten Hag.
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