Can Mauricio Pochettino replicate hallmark intensity he brought to USMNT with Manchester United?

The Red Devils are the Premier League's least athletic team by some measures, posing a massive tactical roadblock for a manager built on relentless pressing

Nov 13, 2026 at 7:43 am ET • 5 min read

From the jump, we should say, physical metrics are not going to tell you the whole story about any player, team or tactical system. Indeed, there is such potential for misdiagnosis when assessing running statistics that senior figures at more than one of the best recruiting clubs in England consider their worth to be, at best, dubious.

Too often, sprints are used as a proxy for effort when anyone who has even passing familiarity with the sport of soccer knows better. You know who didn't have to peg it all that often? Sergio Busquets, perhaps the best defensive midfielder of his generation, plying his trade for the majority of his career at Barcelona. Keep the ball, read the game, control the territory and you will very quickly find the other team covering plenty more kilometers than you.

Manchester United didn't slide into the bottom three because they were eating up less ground per game, 112.5 kilometers to be precise, than 18 of the other 19 teams in the Premier League this season. If there were any correlation between distance covered and results, then the relegation race would be even more exciting than it is shaping up to be, given that Liverpool sit below United on that measure and Manchester City above them. It is quite hard to believe that United are winning fewer games compared to last year (when they had nearly 10% less possession it should be noted) because each player is covering about 45 meters fewer per game.

Physical data might not be linked to team quality, then, but it might tell us something relevant if, for instance, United were to hire a coach who prizes dynamic players and demands an intense press at the very top of the pitch. A Mauricio Pochettino type, if you will. The soon-to-be former United States men's national team head coach, handed the task of extricating Manchester United from the relegation zone before molding a contender, is defined by the aggression and energy of his charges. It is why he was the perfect match for a young Tottenham side with a point to prove. It is why Paris Saint-Germain and the Neymar-Kylian Mbappe axis was such an obviously awkward fit from the off. 

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It is also a template that has worked even when there was cause for skepticism. You couldn't have players sprinting their way across SoFi after the rigors of a club season, said those who doubted the USMNT. He didn't ask much of his team, just "to use your brain while physically, you were killing yourself," as Tim Ream, then 38, said in the summer.

Tell you what, though, it worked. The United States' World Cup campaign might have ended at about the time and in the fashion that most expected, but at their best, they were pressing dynamos. Their 10.16 passes allowed per defensive action (PPDA) -- a measure of press intensity -- placed them sixth among the 48 teams at the World Cup, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Germany, Spain and Uruguay, coached by Pochettino's mentor and high priest of the high press Marcelo Bielsa. No team that reached the knockouts forced their opponents to misplace a higher proportion of their passes than the U.S., 22.8%.

Pochettino might have framed much of his work around changing the culture of the USMNT, but that was a job that was easier to do with a player pool that suited his needs. His squad was strong, organized and, most importantly of all, athletic.

That is not a term that is particularly associated with Manchester United. Indeed, according to Gradient Sports, one of the leading external providers of physical data in football, Pochettino's new team is the least athletic in the Premier League. Based on Gradient's athleticism score -- which combines a host of physical data points including accelerations and decelerations, sprint distance and max speed -- United and Nottingham Forest are cut adrift from the rest of the league. In average max speed of outfield players, United also rank 19th out of 20, 5% slower than the fleet-footed Bournemouth and Liverpool. 

The months to come may prove that United look unathletic because that's how Michael Carrick wanted them to play, controlling possession and building more steadily than the sides who rushed headfirst into any counter that came their way. Instinctively, though, that does not feel like the United of Harry Maguire, Youri Tielemans and Kobbie Mainoo, does it?

The three center backs who have started the bulk of United's Premier League games this season -- Maguire, Lisandro Martinez and Ayden Heaven -- all rank around the bottom third or lower of players in their position in terms of top speed, accelerations and decelerations and percentage of runs at high speeds (20-25 km/h), according to Gradient data. It is a similar story for the midfielders, particularly Andrey Santos, Mainoo and Tielemans. The one central midfield option with an impressive athletic profile, Carlos Baleba, is out injured. It seemed bitterly ironic that Baleba's hamstring went after a driving run through midfield. The sheer act of high-intensity running does sometimes look like it puts an unbearable strain on United legs.

That might be why they do it so little. Opta judges that Santos applies pressure to 56.2% of his opponents' touches, Tielemans 56.8%, Bruno Fernandes 57% and Mainoo 57.3%. All of them sit in the bottom 12 in the league among midfielders with 300 or more minutes. Marcus Rashford, Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha and Amad Diallo occupy spots one, three, five and six in terms of the top flight's least pressing-y forwards.

Now, of course, Pochettino can adapt. After all, he has just implemented a surprisingly effective high press in a side captained by Ream (sorry, Tim!). A lot of the Chelsea squad he took over in 2023-24 did not look to be at ease hunting the ball, but he still had them above league average in PPDA, opponent pass completion, ball recoveries and in particular duel success in the final third. A bit more oomph is not beyond these United players, as they showed last season.

However, it is particularly curious to finally alight on Pochettino, whom they could have hired at least half a dozen times in the past, when the squad seems so ill-suited to his principles. We might not be able to tell from physical data whether this team was giving its all for Carrick -- and, by extension, whether there is another gear for the new manager to drive them to -- but what we can see is certainly enough to raise the question of why the powers that be at United think that this is a squad ready to play Pochettino-style.