The Red Devils remain rooted in the Premier League's bottom half, and there will be no end to their misery over the next five months
"Manchester United has become mediocre," INEOS chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe told club fanzine in December. "It is supposed to be one of the best football clubs in the world. We have to make some difficult and unpopular decisions. If you shy away from the difficult decisions, then nothing much is going to change."
Ratcliffe also highlighted the club's poor recent record in the transfer market as one of the main reasons for their on-pitch malaise, adding: "We’ve not been good enough at recruitment. And until we’re as good as anyone in the world, then it’s not good enough for Manchester United."
Those strong comments would have been music to the ears of United fans ahead of the January transfer window. Ruben Amorim inherited a disjointed squad full of prima donnas from Erik ten Hag, and desperately needed the green light to start rebuilding it in his own image.
But bafflingly, he never got it. Amorim only completed one senior-level signing before the winter market slammed shut: 20-year-old Patrick Dorgu from Lecce.
INEOS failed their head coach, and the consequences will be severe. United have a mountain to climb to finish in the Premier League's top half, and they can also forget about salvaging the season with cup success, because no amount of work Amorim puts in on the training ground will be enough to improve this rotten team.
Getty ImagesBuilding for the future
Let's start with the positives. Dorgu could actually prove to be a very shrewd acquisition at just £25 million ($31m), with United having won the race for his signature ahead of a host of top clubs, including Chelsea, Liverpool and Barcelona. The Denmark international is an attack-minded full-back capable of playing on either flank, and he's also versatile enough to step into midfield if required. Dorgu wasn't the blockbuster signing supporters wanted, but he could be an important one for Amorim in the long term.
United also stole another promising academy graduate from Arsenal in the form of Ayden Heaven, who followed in the footsteps of Chido Obi Martin by moving to Old Trafford after rejecting a new contract with the Gunners. The 18-year-old defender is another player possessing considerable potential, though he is not expected to start competing for regular first-team minutes right from the off.
On the one hand, it's encouraging that INEOS are building for the future. But on the other, United really should have been putting most of their efforts into bolstering their frontline. A lack of goals is the main problem facing Amorim in the short term, and he will be fighting a losing battle over the next five months because the club neglected to address it.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportGetting desperate
United's lack of cutting edge was patently clear once again on Sunday as they suffered an embarrassing 2-0 loss to Crystal Palace at Old Trafford. That was the Red Devils' seventh home loss of 2024-25, meaning they've already equalled their worst-ever showing across an entire Premier League season, set in the ill-fated 2013-14 campaign that saw David Moyes axed after just nine months in the hot seat as Sir Alex Ferguson's successor.
Amorim raised more than a few eyebrows when he started talismanic midfielder Kobbie Mainoo upfront, and the experiment completely backfired. But at this point, you can't blame the former Sporting CP boss for trying something different.
Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee were both named on the bench, the £108m ($133m) centre-forward pairing that has managed just five league goals between them so far this term, one fewer than Palace match-winner Jean-Philippe Mateta has recorded in his last six appearances. Amorim threw Hojlund and Zirkzee on in the final 20 minutes to try and save the game, but neither man did anything to prove their initial omission was a mistake.
Zirkzee was too slow and careless on the ball while Hojlund's first touch consistently let him down, a sight the United faithful have become all too accustomed to in recent months. Hojlund has now gone 13 games across all competitions without scoring, and Zirkzee has one goal to his name from his last 16 appearances; that's simply not good enough.
It's no wonder that Amorim is getting so desperate. Only four teams have scored fewer Premier League goals than United, and three of them currently sit in the relegation zone.
Getty&GOALFailure to replace loanees
To make matters even worse, United's overall numbers in attack have been reduced. Marcus Rashford, who has frequently played as a No.9 to varying degrees of success since graduating from the academy back in 2015, has been loaned to Aston Villa until the end of the season, while £85m ($105m) flop Antony is beginning a six-month spell at Real Betis in La Liga.
Let the record first show that these are not great losses for United. Rashford has been in physical and mental decline for the best part of two years, and after expressing his desire to seek a "new challenge" away from Old Trafford, Amorim was absolutely right to exile the 27-year-old from his line up.
Antony's general attitude has been better than Rashford's, but that doesn't make up for his awful standard of performance since joining the club from Ajax in 2022. The Brazilian has only scored five goals in 62 Premier League appearances for United, and makes defender's lives far too easy with his predictable dribbling style and alarming lack of pace.
But for all their respective faults, it made no sense for United to get rid of Rashford and Antony without lining up replacements. Arranging loans instead of permanent deals to bolster the bank balance was also counter-productive, too, because there is a good chance they could both return to Old Trafford in the summer with their market value lower than ever before.
Getty Images SportHalf-hearted dealings
As always, United have been linked with a plethora of attackers across the globe, from Paris Saint-Germain's Randal Kolo Muani to Napoli's Victor Osimhen. But very few of their reported transfer dealings have any substance.
It would appear that the club only properly explored January moves for two strikers: Chelsea's Christopher Nkunku and Bayern Munich's Mathys Tel. According to , United held talks with Nkunku's representatives over a loan deal, but Chelsea were only willing to consider a permanent transfer in the region of £70m ($86m). In the case of Tel, the Red Devils went so far as to launch a formal loan bid, only to be knocked back because Bayern wanted a bigger fee and an obligation to buy included in the deal. United didn't seem fully committed to signing either player, which is just plain bizarre.
Nkunku has been playing a bit-part role at Chelsea, but that's mainly due to the fact he's not an ideal fit for Enzo Maresca's system. At Old Trafford, things might have been different for the Frenchman, who is a match-winner when firing on all cylinders, as he showed consistently during his time at RB Leipzig.
Tel would have been more of a gamble than Nkunku given he's still only 19 and has yet to truly prove he can mix it at the highest level, but what did United have to lose? At worst, he could have been an extra option for Amorim, and at best, he might have developed into the lethal central striker the Red Devils have been craving for so long.
