Tottenham and Manchester United are confronted on Thursday evening with seasonal Europa League tires after both terrible seasons due to their high standards.
Man United Host Lyon in Old Trafford After the disastrous mistakes of Andre Onana, allowing the French side to claim a 2-2 draw.
In front of Ange Postecoglou, they travel to the Fort of Frankfurt after a disappointing 1-1 stalling in the first stage.
After 32 games, Spurs and Man United are in the lower half of the Premier League table, 15th and 14th respectively in a terrible domestic campaign.
This allows both Ruben Amorim and Postecoglou under pressure and fighting for their job, relies on European glory to avoid the bag.
Since the arrival of Amorim in the 1-1 draw of United with Ipswich in November 2024, only West Ham, Tottenham, Southampton and the soon degraded Ipswich and Leicester have been among the Red Devils. Here Mail Sport compares how bad the two managers have been in the 2024-25 season with the help of OPTA statistics in all competitions since November 23.
Spurs and United have both won both 12 games, with Amorim the lowest profit percentage of every Red Devils manager in the Premier League (29 percent).
Yet Postecoglou has lost three more games than Amorim (14 V 11), and emphasizes how bad the LilyWhites have been this season.
Spurs have gone much worse than the 2023-24 season, anyway. With almost the full first team back, they still have trouble winning games with apologies on.
Tottenham fans fall out of Love on Postecoglou and Daniel Levy with the protests 'Time for Change' that come up with every game they lose this campaign.
The 2024-25 campaign has been disastrous with the tactics of Postcoglou and management that cause problems on and outside the field, gets confused in interviews after the match in contrast to its usual calm attitude.
This has led to a shaky relationship with fans, who initially welcomed the former Celtic boss, as exhibited in their 4-2 loss of Wolves where Postecoglou chose not to approach fans.
Despite their overwhelming form of competition, Amorim has succeeded in maintaining the unbeaten status of United in the Europa League, which may look good for their chance of continuing to the semi -final.
Despite winning two trophies in his two earlier campaigns, Erik Ten Hag's bad start of the campaign condemned him, so that the road was cleared for the former sporting Lisbon manager to take his place in the United Dug.
Ten Hag and his back room staff received £ 10.4 million after their resignation, while Sir Jim Ratcliffe was released £ 9.25 million to release Amorim from his contract with the Portuguese champions.
Amorim has been completely honest about Man United and their current problems in what a large period of transition is for the club.
The Portuguese have been candid to describe the club as 'perhaps the worst' team in the 147-year history of the club.
In the meantime, although they are leaving in the 15th in the Premier League table, Tottenham has a +11 target difference, better than people like Aston Villa, Fulham and Brighton who are all in the upper half of the table.
The free -flowing attacking side of Postecoglou has scored 59 goals in all competitions, 10 more than United.
Interestingly, the LilyWhites greatly surpassed their expected goals (47.8), while Man United performs as expected (49.3).
The shots of United per match (14.3) dwarf Tottenham (12.3), but the shot conversion statio of the Red Devils (10.7) is a concern for Amorim and a reason for their misery for the goal.
Rasmus Hojlund has been criticized because this season he is goal-sex and only scored eight times in 43 games in all competitions.
In terms of creativity, Tottenham is superior to Manchester United across the board, especially in open play crosses where tracks have almost 100 more crosses, probably down to the playing style of Postecoglou.
Spurs on average 12.5 crosses per game, 2.2 more than Man United, but the latter has a better intersection of accuracy of 21.2 percent.
Tottenham also gets more passes in the last third and in the box, although United Marginal has had more touches in the box with 917 to Spurs' 900.
Both parties were under fire this season at the back, especially with shaky versions of both keeper sets.
Andre Onana and Altay Bayindir made both mistakes in the recent matches of United against Lyon and Newcastle, while Guglielmo Vicario had a shock in the 4-2 loss of spurs for wolves.
Tottenham and Manchester United have admitted 53 and 48 goals respectively, with 1.6 and 1.5 goals respectively per 90 respectively.
Postecoglou has been fired for his poor defensive record that is supported by his no less than 60.6 expected goals against, which proves that the LilyWhites have been lucky to have not admitted.
The damaging defensive statistics continue, with traces compared to just over 100 shots more than united.
United wins more tackles per match (20.1) than Spurs (17.3), which indicates why they have admitted less than the side of North Londs.
Spurs have also yielded huge 38 errors that lead to shots, 14 more than the Red Devils – the proof of their tendency to give it possession in their defensive thirds through sloppy passes and poor decision -making.
The Tottenham High Line is the likely reason for the excessive number of opportunities they give to their opponents, a style that Postcoglou has refused to adapt in view of their defensive problems.
Amorim's pragmatic back five has seen better defensive results than traces, but still an alarming number of errors makes the good work they strive to undo.
This was clear in the 4-1 loss of United for Newcastle, where both Noussair Mazraoui and Bayindir had immediately failed for two goals from Newcastle.
The Europa League offers these stumbling managers the opportunity to try to restore confidence in their term of office at their respective clubs.
Many experts believe that Postecoglou will leave the club, regardless of winning the Europa League with Jamie Carragher who says that the Frankfurt match could be the nail in the coffin.
On Sky Sports he said: “I think if they go to Eintracht Frankfurt in the cup, it would probably be a shake hands and continue to something else for both parties in terms of the manager and the club.”
For Amorim, the Europa League could offer hope for potential success in the long term for the Red Devils.
Since the Portuguese have not had a full summer to arrange his team, a group of players he did not ask early, winning the Europa League would be a huge boost for his support.