To celebrate Manchester United spending 100 consecutive days in sixth place, we look at six Red Devils statistics that include the number six.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s heaviest defeat
Sir Alex Ferguson’s most embarrassing day as United manager must be that 6-1 defeat to Manchester City in October 2011. It was just 1-0 at half-time, but when Mario Balotelli added his second after the break and Jonny Evans was dismissed, the scoreline became a lot less respectable.
Sergio Aguero netted before Darren Fletcher pulled one back for United. A brace from Edin Dzeko either side of a David Silva strike followed and the thumping victory was complete. A day to forget for Sir Alex.
Most goals scored in one match by a United player
If you were thinking Andy Cole against Ipswich, you’d be wrong, as whilst that is a Premier League record, two United men managed to complete the double hat-trick and net six times in one match.
The first was Harold Halse, who netted himself six goals in the 1911 Charity Shield between Manchester United and Swindon Town at Stamford Bridge. United won the match 8-4 and Halse’s record for most goals in a Charity Shield match still stands.
The second came in a fifth round FA Cup tie between United and Northampton Town in 1970, where George Best netted himself six goals, as United won the fixture 8-2. This is not an FA Cup record however, as a year later, Ted MacDougall scored nine for AFC Bournemouth in an 11-0 first round win against Margate.
Longest drawing streak
If you thought that the football under Louis van Gaal was boring, surely this is topped by the six successive draws that United managed under Ferguson during October and November 1988.
The run started with 1-1 draws against Everton and Aston Villa before successive 2-2 draws against Derby County and Southampton. Another 1-1 draw with Sheffield Wednesday followed before a goalless stalemate against Newcastle.
United finally broke the streak with a 3-0 win against Charlton on December 3rd 1988, thanks to goals from Ralph Milne, Brian McClair and Mark Hughes.
Players signed for more than £30 million
Whilst Manchester United don’t play chequebook football, they certainly don’t shy away from breaking the bank, having paid a transfer fee of £30 million or more six times.
The biggest was Paul Pogba’s world record £89 million move from Juventus followed by Angel Di Maria’s fairly unsuccessful £59.7 million move in August 2014.
David Moyes’ capture of Juan Mata from Chelsea is United’s third biggest transfer at just over £37 million with Anthony Martial’s world record fee for a teenager coming in fourth at £36 million.
The list is completed with Dimitar Berbatov’s £30.75 million move from Spurs and Eric Bailly’s £30 million summer switch from Valencia.
Kagawa’s goal tally for United
When Shinji Kagawa joined United from Borussia Dortmund in 2012, there was some excitement around his signing, given the form he had shown in Dortmund’s double winning campaign, including a goal in the 5-2 German Cup final win over Bayern Munich.
But he never really got to grips with life at Old Trafford and scored just six goals in 57 appearances for the Red Devils before heading back to Dortmund in 2014, for around just half the amount United paid for the Japanese international.
Top scorer with the lowest goal tally
When you think of a club’s top goal scorer at the end of the season, you think of that magical 30 goal-a-season man. You could also be more pragmatic and think of around 15 but having someone make at least double figures is essential.
Well, this hasn’t always been the case for United, as for two consecutive seasons in the 1970’s their top goalscorer in the league netted just six times.
In 1972-73 it was Bobby Charlton and the season after it was Sammy McIlroy, who was their joint top goalscorer in all competitions with Lou Macari, who also scored just six.