Goalkeeper? Midfielder? Both?
With just about two weeks left of the transfer window, United are far from done when it comes to improving their team. As we saw in the opening day defeat to Arsenal that despite performing at a level we haven't seen in a long time, a poor goalkeeping error resulted in another loss.
However, it isn't just goalkeeper that needs improving upon as while the visitors from Sunday's game didn't run riot through our midfield, one has seen towards the end of last season and during pre-season that you simply cannot trust the pairing of Casemiro and Bruno to hold things down. And when Ugarte came on, he appeared to be playing for Arsenal more than United with one of the worst cameos in recent memory and perhaps showed why Amorim has been benching him. Mainoo didn't even get a minute, again. Perhaps some worrying signs for the youngster's future at the club?
Many would argue that playing the rest of what is to be an important season with a shaky midfield and a dodgy goalkeeper, Amorim and United will be taking a big risk, one that could cause this campaign to go horribly awry.
Yet as there is not much time to do business, can the club bring in players in two positions where we're crying out for improvement?
Goalkeeper
Unfortunately though, today's reports won't make fans happy as it has come out that United were expecting usual no 1 Onana to keep his place in the team. While he was dropped I mean err, rotated 😅, he is Amorim's starting shot-stopper and after his cock up that caused us to lose, I doubt Bayindir will see much game time ahead of Onana, who himself could've easily made that same mistake.
Nathan Salt of The Mail Sport is saying that "All summer long at Manchester United the message has been clear: goalkeeper is not a priority position to strengthen this summer in the transfer window. Andre Onana would still be the No 1 this season, insiders insisted on multiple occasions."
I find this report a little timely. We had goalkeeper issues in that first game, we know both out top two are unreliable, Amorim came out and said he didn't drop Onana and heavily defended Bayindir in his post-match presser, and now we have this report that goalkeeper wasn't a priority position to strengthen in the window.
Why didn't this sort of thing come out earlier?
Laurie Whitwell of The Athletic has also said that United looking at a new goalkeeper is NOT on the cards.
I doubt that something like this is true. I'm not saying Nathan Salt or The Athletic is wrong but Amorim, Wilcox, Vivell and Berrada aren't stupid. They all know football and can all see that these goalkeepers aren't good enough.
There was also all that talk about United being linked to Emi Martinez and Diogo Costa. In fact, on Martinez, Gaston Edul - an Argentinian reporter who has a great reputation when it comes to Argentine players (he has over 1m followers on X) - has said that "The deal was VERY close (Emi Martinez to Manchester United). The coaching staff, especially Amorim, wanted him and Martinez knew that Amorim wanted him." He added that Ruben Amorim couldn't convince the board that spending on a new goalkeeper was important.
Check out what both Costa and Martinez can bring to this United team here.
So clearly, we were in for a new goalie. All these reports of a new shot-stopper cannot be just talk. There had to be something in it and as per Edul, there definitely was.
Midfielder
Of course Carlos Baleba was the one that we wanted. He was a player we all hoped for before the window given his performances for Brighton last season. It felt like a perfect fit for what we needed and still need in midfield.
However, after a couple of weeks of positivity when it came to talks with him, his agent and Brighton, David Ornstein reported that "Man Utd not planning to proceed with Carlos Baleba move this summer." He added that Brighton weren't willing to sell the 21 year old.
Whitwell spoke about how he wouldn't rule out United going in for another midfielder rather than Baleba but he felt that "Baleba was the one they would try and do. I don’t know they’ll go for an alternative now."
The alternatives that have been mentioned are Adam Wharton, Morten Hjulmand (Amorim's former midfielder at Sporting) and earlier today, United are apparently looking at Sevilla midfielder Lucien Agoume.
This indicates that there are options even if they aren't at the level of Baleba. Wharton is probably the player with the highest ceiling but Hjulmand already knows what Amorim wants and tbh, I don't know much about Agoume.
All these deals will be difficult to do considering how much they will cost. We've already spent around £200m so I'm not sure how much we have left. Sales will have to come into it but even those too, appear somewhat difficult to do.
Someone like Wharton will be very expensive as we know with the PL tax on top of the United tax who will be desperate given that we've missed out on Baleba and the window is coming to a close which may increase his price even further, and Palace could lose both Marc Guehi and Eberechi Eze, two of their best players, could make signing Wharton almost impossible. And will Palace be willing to let go off their third best player in Wharton?
But more than who we get I feel that it's absolutely essential to just bring in anyone simply because of our midfield lineup.
At the moment, all we have is Bruno, Casemiro, Ugarte and Mainoo. Collyer has been sent on loan to West Brom for the season leaving just FOUR options in the midfield and they ain't the best.
We have an attacking midfielder as part of that pivot along with an aging pro whose legs are gone; another in Ugarte who looks to be lacking confidence; and a fourth who can't even get into the team.
United need the numbers too.
Even with fewer games, you still need a squad and I don't look at those midfield options with much confidence about the season ahead. Someone like Wharton for exapmle will give us one more midfielder and one of quality.
I say again, it is a BIG risk to go into this campaign without a top gk and a midfield that gives you little and less confidence.
Final Thoughts
These are the only two positions where we can see that drastic upgrades are needed. We've strengthened well in other areas (no 10 and striker) but you could argue that we've neglected two of the more important areas. Onana, Bayindir, Bruno, Casemiro and Ugarte are all a risk going into this season. They were risks before the campaign as many said that such areas of the team needs to be a priority.
This was more evident in the pre-season especially with midfield. Whoever was in the centre of the park looked out of sorts allowing for the likes of West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton to play right through us.
Against Arsenal, they may not have ran the show and been all over Casemiro and Bruno, but nor did our pairing control the game either. If anything, the player people were more worried about in Casemiro was actually better than Bruno, the player Amorim has put a lot of pressure on to be his messiah in midfield.
Casemiro being better than the captain might not be a big surprise as he knows how to play that position whereas Bruno isn't a no 8. This is why we couldn't understand why the manager was so adamant on keeping the skipper and putting him out of his best position. Signing Mbeumo and Cunha sealed the deal that Bruno will be playing in central midfield.
This is also stemming the growth of Mainoo who is a player we can all see has a lot of potential but his best position in my opinion is no 8 and he ain't never gonna play as Bruno won't be dropped.
The captain also played a strong part in conceding the goal as he tried to do something elaborate in the box when he should've booted it out. This led to the corner and the goal.
We looked at the squad before the first match and felt it was decent but without a proper reliable goalkeeper and a midfield that is untrustworthy, we could all see that they were the major weak points in our team. These weak points, in the end, is what cost us from getting something out of a game where we deserved to win.
How many more times are we going to give up silly goals and points because players aren't good enough?
I've said many times that we aren't in a position to be taking risks. We need to get the best possible players in now otherwise this season may go horribly wrong.
Taking too long on deals, wasting two weeks on Baleba and now this about improving the goalkeeper not being a priority, can be our undoing.
While we've done good business and the signings of Cunha, Mbeumo and Sesko are all great, it could count for nought if other areas of the team remain weak.
If we neglect a goalkeeper and midfielder, it better work out with Onana and Bruno. Amorim in particular, has A LOT riding on it.
Andre Onana and Altay Bayindir | Creator: Vasile Mihai-Antonio | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2025 Getty Images via Man Utd News
Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro | Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images via Stretty News
Ruben Amorim | Creator: Catherine Ivill - AMA | Credit: Getty Images via SuperSport