Manchester United opened the season with an outcome that stands out in the club’s modern history, and not for the right reasons. Saturday brought only their ninth defeat in 35 seasons of the contemporary era, but it also marked a first: they lost away to newly promoted opposition on the opening weekend for the first time in any competition.<\/p>\n
The visitors improved after the break and, in that sense, there were reasons for a more measured reading of the performance. United had made clear progress last season and still carry hopes of challenging for the Premier League title by May 2028. Even so, Hull stayed organised and did enough to secure the result.<\/p>\n
The decisive detail was clear enough. Both Hull goals came from set pieces, while their threat in open play was minimal. Their open-play xG was only 0.07, compared with 1.19 from set pieces. United, by contrast, generated 1.81 xG overall and 1.50 in open play, although they offered little of note from dead-ball situations themselves, finishing with 0.30 xG from set pieces.<\/p>\n
That imbalance matters. Set pieces are likely to remain a major factor throughout the season, and any side carrying a weakness in that area starts at an immediate disadvantage, regardless of broader quality. United must tighten that aspect if the opening defeat is not to become a familiar pattern.<\/p>\n
There was also a question of intensity. Hull looked the more committed side, and the numbers backed that up. They won 59% of all duels, including 60% on the ground and 58% in the air.<\/p>\n
Marcus Rashford, meanwhile, offered a more encouraging note. A move is still possible, but it would now be a surprise if he is not a Manchester United player on the morning of Sept. 2. Having been given the No. 9 shirt worn by club figures including Sir Bobby Charlton, Andy Cole, Tommy Taylor, Jack Rowley and Brian McClair, he did not start after only one preseason appearance, against AC Milan, and a compressed build-up. Yet his second-half showing, after replacing Patrick Dorgu on the left, suggested he can contribute this season. He brought pace, created four chances and was the most creative player on the pitch.<\/p>\n
United were better with Rashford than without him. Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko, who scored 11 Premier League goals last season, also arrived with promise but a disrupted summer after injury and a fitness complaint that carried over from May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rashford impressed off the bench, but United’s set-piece issues and lack of fight cost them at Hull.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1710,179,172],"tags":[1836,1162,1981],"class_list":["post-18688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hull-city","category-manchester-united","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-gameweek-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}