Manchester United‘s season has been full of ups and downs, with promising performances often followed by disappointment.

However, over the last few weeks, Erik ten Hag‘s side has finally started to get a run of results under their belt, now winning three games in a row.

The Red Devils’ lack of goals was costing the team, but they have finally found their shooting boots, netting 11 times during those games.

That said, they could use another midfielder to provide an attacking threat, and they may have let the perfect profile leave in 2018.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s time at Man United

In 2016, Jose Mourinho‘s Man United signed Henrikh Mkhitaryan from Borussia Dortmund for around £26m, after he scored 11 goals and registered 15 assists in 31 Bundesliga appearances the previous season.

The Armenian’s first campaign at the club saw him score just four goals and provide one assist in 15 Premier League starts, with Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, and Wayne Rooney often being preferred over the midfielder.

However, the number 22 became a United cult hero for his performances in the UEFA Europa League. The former BVB ace was the Red Devils’ top-scorer in the competition with six goals, with four of them coming in the knockout stage. Mkhitaryan also netted the second goal in the final, which ultimately handed United the trophy.

The maestro also started the 2017/18 Premier League campaign with a bang, picking up five assists in his first three games, but the flop would end up moving to Arsenal that January in a straight swap deal for Alexis Sanchez.

Mkhitaryan’s career since leaving Man United

Since leaving Old Trafford, Mkhitaryan has seemingly gotten better with age, as he is still thriving at the age of 35. The Armenian has made Italy his home, where he has starred for Roma and now Inter Milan.

His record in the final third has been impressive, picking up 96 goal contributions since post-United, but it is his development into a slightly more defensive-minded box-to-box eight at Inter that is more spectacular. Over this same spell, Scott McTominay has registered 31 goal contributions, but that is pretty much all that he offers to United.

As you can see by the table, Mkhitaryan wipes the floor with the United midfielder in every metric but goals. The two have completely different profiles, with the Scotland star relying on physicality and the Inter ace being a technical wizard.

The ex-Roma player’s ability to create, control a game, and progress the play would be much appreciated by Ten Hag, as when McTominay is in the team, he cannot provide any of the above, as displayed by his passes completed, progressive passes, and shot-creating actions ranking in the bottom 88%, 76%, and 90% compared to his Premier League positional peers, as per FBref.

Overall, it is not just output in the final third that Mkhitaryan outperforms McTominay on, and maybe the 35-year-old would still be bossing the midfield under the lights at Old Trafford if he never left in 2018.

He was a flop for Mourinho in the Premier League for United, as the former Dortmund star never nailed down a regular starting spot before being moved on, but his form since suggests that another manager could have made him a success in a different environment.