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 currently sits 18th. Discussions about relegation to the Championship are no longer half-hearted.
The squad also contains 15 players who cost at least $50 million to acquire, yet the team looks unlikely to find success over 90 minutes on a Premier League pitch.
There was no visible jubilation when the club, at home, came back from two separate two-goal deficits to rescue a point against a fellow Champions League side. That is an immense problem, especially after a comeback win against AS Roma in the UEFA Champions League.
No one in a United shirt seems to know how to respond to positive moments. The players guard their feelings like a middle-schooler who suspects a crush might like them back but cannot quite believe it. Put more strongly, they have become a walking fight-or-flight decision and never quite find the relief of leaving fight mode.
Manager Michael Carrick is a likeable figure and a legend from his playing days, but he appears to be over his skis. Fans cannot decide who they like less: the administrators who placed this team in their shirts and handed the full-time job to the boss, or the players who are sending Carrick into no man’s land.
Since Sir Alex Ferguson left, the club has lost with a who’s who of managers who, if they were given a podcast together, would be the most downloaded in the world. Two of their previous bosses have Real Madrid top of the Champions League table and AC Milan in a Serie A title race. Another has a different Premier League club in the top-four conversation.
The underlying numbers do not reflect a 19th-place team, and that is the problem. United have a club mentality problem from top to bottom, reaching back through the years. Former players who won so much still cry out in disbelief when the Red Devils play poorly, 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 outperforming logical conclusions. It snared wins from average performances and even stretched the clock into the magical “Fergie Time” at the Theatre of Dreams.
Perhaps that is the real issue. United are measured against a champions’ yardstick even though they have not fitted that description for ages. Strong players, including legends like Casemiro and homegrown talents like Scott McTominay, the 2024-25 Serie A Player of the Year, have been moved on in pursuit of improvement, while others coast on the merit of yesteryear’s performances.
Manchester United by the numbers: a mentality problem
These numbers will perplex you, and some of them defy what you have seen watching the Red Devils this season. Heading into the weekend, United ranked as follows in the Premier League:
- Shot attempts: 1st (by 15)
- Set-piece goals: 20th
- Set-piece goals conceded: 19th
- Ground duels won: 10th
- Aerial duels won: 12th
Those figures look like the work of a tremendously unlucky squad. The numbers tempt you to dismiss the 19th-place start as poor finishing. But if we are honest, those rankings are 19th-place bad.
That is why United’s problem lies in their heads. This squad is talented enough to compete for a top-four finish, yet over vast stretches of games it performs like a mid-table side. That alone would put most coaches in hot water. United have taken mid-table form and ridden it right down into the bottom three, through mind-melting mistakes and a 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 concedes at the strangest moments 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 the team simply has not been good enough.
The struggles are even harder to watch given what Carrick achieved last season. He took Ruben Amorim’s out-of-order side and reassembled it into a working unit that climbed to third place in the table.
Only one player of consequence has left that team: Casemiro. United bought three players to fill his role, yet ten games into the season the midfield remains unsettled and at times looks untenable.
Carrick is not the right man for the job long term, and he does not yet have the tactical acumen or managerial experience to steer this club back into the top four. To be fair, he was never going to decline the job, and there were reasons to hope he might show skills we had yet to see in his managerial career. He is also unlikely to walk away from a club he loves so much. He is stuck, and given the big decision to hand 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 it out until January, the club needs to find solutions for this current team.
It was admirable that United fought back from one two-goal deficit and then repeated the feat to earn a point. They bailed out their keeper and then themselves. Most clubs would still be celebrating that moment. This side, however, looks like it is preparing for the next 2-0 deficit. Where will they finish? Would they take eighth today?