Are Man Utd showing any signs of progress under Amorim?

Manchester United are 14th in the Premier League after taking four points from their opening four games

Manchester United's slow start to the season has increased the pressure on head coach Ruben Amorim, who has won only 25.8% of his Premier League games in charge.

The Reds have just two victories from their past 13 top-flight matches and produced another lacklustre display in Sunday's 3-0 loss to neighbours Manchester City.

Despite the growing external unease around Amorim, not helped by the derby defeat, senior officials remain fully supportive of the Portuguese.

And club sources insist that on most statistics United are performing better than last season despite sitting in 14th place, after their poorest start to a league campaign since 1992-93 with four points from the opening four games.

Some of their underlying stats do actually reveal a modest improvement in the past six months but this has often been undermined by issues in both boxes. Since the start of March, United have scored nine fewer goals than would be anticipated based on the quality of chances they create (their expected goals figure, excluding penalties) and conceded 3.4 more, figures indicative of wasteful finishing and uncertain goalkeeping.

The graph below shows United's 31 league fixtures under Amorim, with the falling yellow line showing their changing 10-game non-penalty goal difference (their results) and the climbing black one showing their expected goal difference (their dominance in games).

Since 1 March, United have recorded a fairly respectable non-penalty expected goal difference, with only seven sides faring better.

The problem for Amorim is that it isn't translating to on-field results. His side have accumulated just 13 points in this period which, along with West Ham, is the joint-lowest total of any ever-present Premier League club.

So while there may be some subtle signs Amorim is beginning to turn the tide, a more tangible improvement is drastically required if the Portuguese is to get more time at the helm.