In a stunning culmination to a disastrous season, Manchester United ended the 2024 campaign with the ignominy of registering their worst-ever points tally in Premier League history. Monday’s 2-0 home defeat to Newcastle United left the Red Devils languishing in the bottom half of the table, having accrued a meager 51 points over the calendar year – their lowest total since the Premier League’s inception in 1992.
From Bad to Worse Under Amorim
The appointment of Ruben Amorim as head coach in November, following the sacking of Erik ten Hag, has failed to arrest United’s alarming slide. In his 11 games at the helm, Amorim has overseen just four wins and suffered six defeats across all competitions. Rather than steering the club back towards the Champions League places, the Portuguese has instead presided over a run of form that has left United staring down the barrel of a relegation battle.
December Dismay
The nadir of United’s wretched year came in a December to forget. The Red Devils lost six times in the month – their worst run since September 1930 – shipping 18 goals in the process to equal an unwanted club record dating back to March 1964. Amorim’s charges suffered five defeats in a single month for the first time in 62 years, while also losing three consecutive home league games for the first time since 1979.
United fans will not tolerate much more of this. The only way is up when you’ve hit rock bottom, but there’s no sign of things improving any time soon.
– Mark Ogden, Senior Writer, ESPN FC
Echoes of ’89
United’s current malaise bears striking similarities to the situation the club found itself in back in 1989. That year, Sir Alex Ferguson’s side accrued just 50 points, with fans unfurling banners at Old Trafford calling for the Scot to be sacked. Yet just six months later, Ferguson had delivered his first trophy as United boss – the FA Cup – in a triumph that would prove the catalyst for an era of unprecedented success.
Whether Amorim can mastermind a similar turnaround remains to be seen. United travel to Anfield on Sunday to face a rampant Liverpool side who sit atop the Premier League table, already seemingly out of sight. Defeat on Merseyside would leave the 20-time English champions mired in the muck of a relegation scrap – a fate that would have been unthinkable in the Ferguson glory years, but one which now appears an all-too-real possibility.
- Worst Premier League points tally in a calendar year (51)
- Most defeats in a month (6) since September 1930
- 18 goals conceded in December equals club record from March 1964
The Long Road Back
As United’s rivals streak further ahead and the gap to the top four widens, the prospect of a swift return to former glories appears remote. Amorim will know he is drinking in the last-chance saloon, but whether the club’s hierarchy afford him the same patience they once showed Ferguson remains doubtful. What is certain is that 2024 will go down as the year Manchester United hit rock bottom – the question now is how long it will take them to climb back out.
