I find those starting to question the Manchester United manager to be very reactive and maybe overly emotional fans. Let’s be clear here, the reason we are where we are is because the players are just not good enough. To make my point, I’ve broken our squad down into three categories, see if you disagree with many of my opinions.
First category, good enough to be first choice next season and for the next 3 years:
The only players I’ve put in this category are Bruno and Amad.
The second category is a mixture of players who are good squad players and players who have potential to be first choice, but will be inconsistent next season due to a lack of experience:
These are: MdL, Martinez (mostly due to fitness unfortunately), Ugarte (not yet fully proven himself), Mazraoui, Dalot, Mount, Zirkzee, Yoro, Dorgu, Heaven, Amass, Mainoo, Collyer, Garnacho, and Obi.
That’s 15 players who might be able to be good enough to be first choice if they can step up, or at the least good squad depth options. In my opinion MdL, Martinez, Ugarte, Mount, Yoro, Heaven, Dorgu, Mainoo and Garnacho are the ones who could potentially be good enough for the first team, the others I think are possibly more like good squad options.
The final category are those who are either not good enough, or don’t have a future beyond next season:
These are: Onana, Bayindir, Heaton, Maguire, Shaw, Lindelof, Evans, Malacia, Casemiro, Eriksen, Antony, Sancho, Rashford, and Wheatley.
Let’s tally that up, there’s 13 players we need to get shifted either this summer or next summer. Possibly 9 players who I think could be first choice players over the next few years if they step up/ develop to their potential.
A further 6 who are probably squad depth quality at best. And only 2 who I think are currently good enough to be first choice for a title challenging team.
Worryingly, when you look at those players, we have no keepers at all who are good enough. 5 defenders who might be (although 3 of those are under the age of 21, and the other two have potential injury concerns), 3 midfielders who might be good enough (one needs to show more next season, one is a kid still and the other has been injured for nearly 2 years), and two forwards / creative players who are good enough, along with one with potential.
That is a threadbare squad in terms of players with the right quality we need to be where we expect our club to be. This also plays out on the pitch, keepers making mistakes, an inexperienced defence that makes errors, hardly any midfield to speak of, and despite creating a decent number of chances a total lack of goal threat.
No team in Europe have under performed their xG as much as we have. Most teams make 5 or 6 half chances, 2 or 3 good chances, and maybe 1 great chance per game. With them scoring at least half of the good chances they make, and occasionally one of the half chances as well.
While we tend to need 5 or 6 great chances to maybe score 1. That’s not on the manager. In nearly every measurable statistics bar points won, we have improved under Amorim. His system is giving the players the structure they need, unfortunately they are repeatedly fluffing their lines.
If we want Amorim or any manager to succeed, we need a massive squad overhaul and until we are a significant way through that overhaul our performances will be inconsistent at best. We need 10 new players along with 5 or 6 players currently at the club to step up to the level we need.
Next season at best we will have 5 new players and maybe a few of our current players will step up. It probably won’t be until the start of the 2026/ 27 season that we will have a squad potentially capable of playing well consistently. To sit here 18 months prior to that point and try to judge the manager is to be woefully ignorant of the troubles of our club.
Written by Shappy May 13 2025 20:24:43
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