Manchester United, authors of 20 top-flight titles and three European Cups, enter the November international break a point off the bottom of the Premier League.
The club’s lowest finish in 22 years was third place. It has not finished higher than third in half a decade, and it currently sits 18th. Its supporters are also weighing up relegation to the Championship, though only in half-hearted discussions. Meanwhile, 15 players in the squad cost at least $50 million each to acquire, yet the side looks unlikely to find success over 90 minutes on a Premier League pitch.
There was no visible jubilation after the team, at home, came back from a pair of two-goal deficits to rescue a point against a fellow Champions League club. That is an immense problem, especially after a comeback win against AS Roma in the UEFA Champions League. It is almost as if nobody in a United shirt knows how to respond to positive moments. The players seem to guard their feelings like a middle-schooler who has heard their crush might like them back but cannot quite believe it. Put more strongly, they have become a walking fight-or-flight decision, never quite finding the relief of leaving fight mode.
Their manager, Michael Carrick, is likeable but appears over his skis. He happens to be a legend from his playing days. The fans cannot decide who they like less: the administrators who put this team in their shirts and handed the full-time keys to the boss, or the mostly shrinking players who have left Carrick exposed.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson left, the club has lost with a who’s who of managers who, if given a podcast together, would be the most downloaded one around. Two of their previous bosses have Real Madrid top of the Champions League table and AC Milan in a Serie A title discussion. Another has a different Premier League club in the top-four conversation.
The underlying numbers do not suggest a 19th-place team, and that is the problem. United have a club mentality problem from top to bottom, reaching back through the years. The players who won so much and have since left the club still cry out in disbelief when the Red Devils do not play well, whether the side is managed by a former teammate or one of the biggest names in the game.
For many years, the club was known for out-performing logical conclusions. It snared wins from lesser performances and even stretched the clock into the magical “Fergie Time” at the Theatre of Dreams.
Perhaps that is the problem. United are measured by a champions’ yardstick when they have not fitted the description for ages. Strong players have been sent packing in pursuit of improvement, including legends of the game such as Casemiro and homegrown talent such as Scott McTominay, the 2024-25 Serie A Player of the Year. Others remain on the strength of yesteryear’s performances.
Manchester United by the numbers: A mentality problem
These numbers are going to perplex you, and some of them defy what you have seen watching the Red Devils this season. Entering the weekend, Manchester United held the following Premier League ranks for work with the ball:
- Shot attempts: 1st (by 15)
- Set-piece goals: 20th
- Set-piece goals conceded: 19th
- Ground duels won: 10th
- Aerial duels won: 12th
You look at that and figure you are discussing a tremendously unlucky squad. The numbers make you want to write off the 19th-place start as poor finishing in front of goal. Those figures are bad, but if we are honest, they are 19th-place bad.
That is why Manchester United’s problem lies in their heads. This squad is talented enough to compete for a top-four spot, yet over vast stretches of their games they perform like a mid-table side. That alone would put a coach in hot water, but United have taken mid-table form and ridden it right down into the bottom three, because of mind-melting mistakes and a terrible lack of focus and commitment to the minute-by-minute.
If Jürgen Klopp had his Mentality Monsters at Liverpool, Carrick has Melancholic Messes. This United side seems to concede at the weirdest times and in the most avoidable situations. They switch off like a faulty fuse and are perhaps the best in the league at reading the post-match hymn sheet.
This is one of the biggest clubs in the world, and these results are unacceptable. Performances like this are not good enough at the biggest club in the world. Effort is the bare minimum, and this team simply has not been good enough.
A squad in need of answers
What makes the struggles scream even louder is that Carrick appeared to have cleaned up a messy ship last season. He took over Ruben Amorim’s out-of-order team and reassembled it into a working unit that climbed into third place. Only one player of consequence has left that team: Casemiro. The club bought three players to help fill his spot, yet ten games in, the situation in midfield remains unsettled and at times looks untenable.
Carrick is not the right man for the job long-term, and he does not have the tactical acumen or managerial experience to steer this ship back into a top-four finish. To be fair to him, he was never going to decline the job, and there were reasons to hope he might show skills we have yet to see in his managerial career. He is also not going to walk away from a club he loves so much. He is stuck, and given how big a decision it was to give him the job full-time, the club is stuck with him too.
Whether United cut ties with him during the international break or let him ride this out until January, the club needs to find solutions for this current team. It is admirable that United fought back from one two-goal deficit and then did it again to take a point. They bailed out their keeper and then themselves. But most clubs would still be celebrating that moment. This side looks as if it is preparing for the next 2-0 deficit. Where will they finish? Would they take eighth today?