The Manchester United players who are in the last chance saloon as we head towards the 2025/26 season.
With a fundamentally disastrous season still visible in the rear-view mirror, Manchester United are once again embarking on a major overhaul of their squad – and while plenty of players are expected to be sent packing, there will be plenty of disappointing performers still on the books at Old Trafford by September.
If United are to get back into content for European places, then five current first-teamers, in particular, will need to prove their value over the course of the next year. If they don’t, then not only are United likely to fall short of their goals once more, but they’ll join the likes of Alejandro Garnacho and Rasmus Højlund on the transfer list.
Matthijs de Ligt
When he was making his name at Ajax and Juventus, De Ligt was widely regarded as a world-class defender. Since moving to United, however, he has at best been steady and at worst pedestrian.
The Dutchman has been responsible for giving away two penalties whilst looking vulnerable to pace, but arguably a more significant issue is that his lack of dynamism or confidence on the ball makes him an awkward fit for Ruben Amorim’s system, which at Sporting relied on the centre-halves being able to carry possession into midfield and to be able to distribute it effectively. If De Ligt, still only 25, can’t develop that side of his game, then he’ll struggle, and United may well do too.
Leny Yoro
Speaking of centre-backs – while it’s evidently somewhat unfair to single out a plainly talented teenager, especially one who missed the first half of the season through injury, it’s probably fair to question the contributions of a player who’s meant to be worth as much as £60m. Yoro hasn’t lived up to that price tag as yet.
There are positive signs. Unlike De Ligt, he is comfortable with possession and uses it well, while looking stronger in one-on-one situations as the season progressed and he settled in. The big issue is his positioning and his ability to track runs into the box. Too often, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he’s going to need to learn quickly to plug some of the holes in a remarkably leaky back line. If he fails, it’s really United’s fault for gambling so much money on such an inexperienced player, but the club needs him to find another level before too long.
Kobbie Mainoo
Whilst we’re gently bullying youngsters, it’s fair to say that the difference between Mainoo’s breakthrough season and its sequel was worryingly stark. Although still an excellent ball carrier, his defensive contributions went downhill and he offered far less in the final third, and United need more.
In Mainoo’s defence, Amorim’s system asks him to play against type, covering vast amounts of ground in a way that he didn’t have to under Erik ten Hag, but there’s little doubt that the confidence and élan that earned him a place in the England squad for Euro 2024 seems to have fallen away. Hopefully the summer break will serve as a reset, else the chatter about a possible sale will start to resurface.
Manuel Ugarte
On to more experienced players, now – Ugarte was meant to be the answer to United’s midfield problems when he arrived from PSG, but he’s looked sluggish at times and even at his best hasn’t been able to control games in the way he did during his time at Sporting.
He’s completing fewer passes, generating fewer chances and making less of his tackles than at any other point in his senior career since breaking into the Sporting side a few years ago, and it’s a trend he needs to arrest, and he ended the season poorly after a promising run of performances through April and early May. United want a player who grabs the game by the scruff of the neck, and Ugarte needs to rediscover that version of himself. The midfield was United’s single greatest weakness last season, and something simply has to give.
Joshua Zirkzee
The strange thing about Zirkzee’s time at United so far isn’t that he failed as a centre-forward – the fact that Erik ten Hag even played him there seemed idiosyncratic given the deeper, more creative role he played at Bologna – but the fact that he failed in Amorim’s system as well.
The Dutchman should, on paper, be tailor-made for Amorim’s vision of a dynamic front three, a player with the flexibility to operate as the finisher or as a number ten, plying the channels around the edges of the area. Instead, he’s looked utterly bereft of self-belief, all the elegance and excellence we saw in Serie A seemingly dissipated. Talk of a transfer seems to have cooled off a little, so he should get a second chance. If he doesn’t take it, he won’t last long.
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