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The Worst Man United Team in History? Here’s a Look at the Numbers Following Amorim’s Big Claim

Football - Premier League - Manchester United v Brighton & Hove Albion - Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain - January 19, 2025 Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim looks dejected after the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Manchester United v Brighton & Hove Albion - Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain - January 19, 2025 Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim looks dejected after the match. (Reuters)
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The Worst Man United Team in History? Here’s a Look at the Numbers Following Amorim’s Big Claim

Football - Premier League - Manchester United v Brighton & Hove Albion - Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain - January 19, 2025 Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim looks dejected after the match. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Manchester United v Brighton & Hove Albion - Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain - January 19, 2025 Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim looks dejected after the match. (Reuters)

It has never been this bad at Manchester United.

Well, that’s the opinion of the club’s latest manager, anyway, with Ruben Amorim saying Sunday about his underperforming team: "We are being the worst, maybe, in the history of Manchester United."

It’s quite the claim.

After all, United is a record 20-time English champion, and one of the biggest sports teams and brands in the world.

Here’s a look at some of the numbers that illustrate the slump United is in after a 3-1 loss to Brighton:

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13th Current position of United in the 20-team Premier League after 22 of 38 games. With 26 points, United is closer to the relegation zone than the European qualification places and on course for its lowest finish in the Premier League era (since 1992), which is eighth last year.

24 Number of points United is behind Premier League leader Liverpool, its great rival.

1893-94 The last time United had worse home form than this season, according to Premier League statistician Opta. The team has six losses from its first 12 league games at Old Trafford.

14 The number of years the club has spent outside England’s top division since changing its name to Manchester United from Newton Heath in 1902. In those nearly 123 years, United has never played below the second tier. The longest period out of the top flight was five straight years in the 1930s.

1974 The last time United was relegated from the first division of English soccer. The team won promotion the following season and has been in the top flight ever since.

7 The number of losses in 15 games under Amorim since he took charge in November to replace Erik ten Hag.

20 Number of times United finished in the top two in the 26 full seasons under manager Alex Ferguson (1986-2013)

2 Number of times United has finished in the top two in the 11 full seasons since Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. On both occasions, United was in second place.

10th Amorim is the 10th manager — either permanent or interim — appointed by United since Ferguson’s retirement.

$6.55 billion The estimated worth of Man United, according to Forbes. That places the club in 14th place in Forbes’ list of the world’s most valuable sports teams in its most recent ranking.

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Sinner Gets Past Rune at Australian Open in Match with Net, Medical Delays

Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 20, 2025 Italy's Jannik Sinner shakes hands with Denmark's Holger Rune after winning his fourth round match REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 20, 2025 Italy's Jannik Sinner shakes hands with Denmark's Holger Rune after winning his fourth round match REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
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Sinner Gets Past Rune at Australian Open in Match with Net, Medical Delays

Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 20, 2025 Italy's Jannik Sinner shakes hands with Denmark's Holger Rune after winning his fourth round match REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas
Tennis - Australian Open - Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia - January 20, 2025 Italy's Jannik Sinner shakes hands with Denmark's Holger Rune after winning his fourth round match REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

First came the medical timeouts, one each for Jannik Sinner and Holger Rune with the temperature above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) at the Australian Open. Then came the unusual sight of a 20-minute delay because the net at Rod Laver Arena detached from the court after being hit by a big Sinner serve.
In the end, Sinner put his physical struggles aside and emerged with the victory — as he keeps doing, no matter the site or the circumstances — and the defending champion moved into the quarterfinals at Melbourne Park on Monday by eliminating the 13th-seeded Rune 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
The No. 1-ranked Sinner occasionally tried to cool off by pressing a cold towel to his face or pouring water down the back of his neck, The Associated Press reported. He was far better down the stretch, both after a 10-minute-plus delay in the third set when he went to the locker room for medical attention and after a 20-minute holdup in the fourth when the screw connecting the net to the blue playing surface came undone.
“I knew in my mind ... I would struggle today,” Sinner said during his on-court interview, without saying what was wrong. "Me and the doctor, we talked a little bit. It helped me."
He has won 18 consecutive tour-level matches, dating to late 2024. Last season, Sinner went 73-6 with eight titles, the first man with that many tournament championships in a single year since Andy Murray in 2016.
That haul included Sinner’s first two Grand Slam trophies, at the Australian Open in January and the US Open in September, the latter shortly after he was exonerated for testing positive for an anabolic steroid twice in March. His case is still unresolved, though, with a hearing scheduled for April in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s appeal of the ruling.
Rune, a 21-year-old from Denmark, was trying to get to the quarterfinals in Melbourne for the first time.
Sinner will face No. 8 Alex de Minaur of Australia or unseeded Alex Michelsen of the US for a berth in the semifinals. A second Italian joined Sinner in the quarterfinals when 55th-ranked Lorenzo Sonego got that far at a major tournament for the first time by ending the run of American qualifier Learner Tien 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Sonego will now face No. 21 Ben Shelton of the U.S. or Gael Monfils of France.