United's midfield woes 2025-2026

Valencia Shin Crosses said:
I just wanted an Ugarte replacement.

But the more I watch the more I'm convinced that shipping Bruno to Saudi is the real cure to our issues, both financially and team/fit wise. It's fecking insanity that Amorim pleaded with him to stay, especially if he knew we were going to do a full makeover of our attack (thus dropping Bruno deeper).
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I'm 100% convinced. Holding onto Bruno makes no sense since we signed Mbeumo.
 
Blood Mage said:
There is only one solution outside of buying and that's changing the system and having an extra player in there.
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Or! Hear me out! We play Maguire as CDM. Don't be too hasty, think about it. Heading ability, can tackle, can sometimes pass really well. Think about it!
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
But the more I watch the more I'm convinced that shipping Bruno to Saudi is the real cure to our issues, both financially and team/fit wise. It's fecking insanity that Amorim pleaded with him to stay, especially if he knew we were going to do a full makeover of our attack (thus dropping Bruno deeper).
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Well said, so true.
 
When was the last time we were sorted in midfield? Carrick and Scholes?

It seems to have been running for almost 13 years now, since you could look at our midfield and say there are 2 or 3 proper solid options who can play there.

Who in the club thought the four we have currently could work for a season and deliver a level of success. Its absurd.
 
The-Mezzala said:
The midfield is an absolute mess right now. Especially playing this system. We have an aging Casemiro who still has good quality on the ball but his legs have gone and struggles with the intensity at times. Ugate who has been a bit of a flop and seems off the pace in the league. Mount, Bruno, Mainoo all excellent players but want to play the same position.

We need a destroyer and a Deep lying playmaker to make this system work. Very difficult to get both before the window ends. What do people think is more important?. The Bruno position change is proving to be a disaster. I highlighted last season the need for two even three new midfielders to playIn the pivot. It Amorim wants to save his job i think the only way we can save this season is changing formation. But even then we need a new midfielder. Not sure why it wasn’t prioritised in the summer.
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I would prioritise destroyer type, however does need to have ability on the ball too which Ugarte lacks
 
lilcurt said:
When was the last time we were sorted in midfield? Carrick and Scholes?

It seems to have been running for almost 13 years now, since you could look at our midfield and say there are 2 or 3 proper solid options who can play there.

Who in the club thought the four we have currently could work for a season and deliver a level of success. Its absurd.
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Yeah absolute shambles it's still not been sorted
 
Himannv said:
Fulham really put up a blueprint of how to play against us. Physical, direct runners through the middle to get past our midfielders.
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That's always gonna happen when we have Such Titans like past it Casemiro and Fernandes never a CM stationed in the middle .
 
lilcurt said:
When was the last time we were sorted in midfield? Carrick and Scholes?

It seems to have been running for almost 13 years now, since you could look at our midfield and say there are 2 or 3 proper solid options who can play there.
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Pogba/Matic/Herrera was an excellent, well balanced midfield. The issue we had at that time was our defense and not enough top quality in attack. If we had at least one world class centre back and some proper wingers, we'd have been really close to winning something major under Mourinho. Since then, our midfield has only gotten worse and worse. Solskjaer already neglected it badly and Ten Hag brought in completely the wrong players after that.
 
Laurencio said:
Or! Hear me out! We play Maguire as CDM. Don't be too hasty, think about it. Heading ability, can tackle, can sometimes pass really well. Think about it!
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I know we have said this for years but honestly, with another CB stepping in there as well it would work. He will win the 50/50s but also put the breaks on them. That is until we sign a cdm
 
gajender said:
That's always gonna happen when we have Such Titans like past it Casemiro and Fernandes never a CM stationed in the middle .
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Agreed. Was saying the same thing after the Arsenal game but the Bruno fans didn't like that. We ideally need a signing there, but I doubt that'll happen with the window so close to ending and the lack of funds.
 
Himannv said:
Agreed. Was saying the same thing after the Arsenal game but the Bruno fans didn't like that. We ideally need a signing there, but I doubt that'll happen with the window so close to ending and the lack of funds.
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What lack of funds? We was talking to Baleba for two weeks. Was we expecting to pick him up for peanuts?

They best spend that money they told Bruno they didn’t need to sell him to recoup.
 
How would Licha look like in midfield? He does have the aggression, calmness on the ball and the passing range to play there.

Injury comeback like a new signing?
 
Xeque_279 said:
How would Licha look like in midfield? He does have the aggression, calmness on the ball and the passing range to play there.

Injury comeback like a new signing?
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He would be rag-dolled like a little bitch. His size and pace are already big limitations at CB in a back three in this league. He would be exposed even more in our crazy two man midfield set-up. Imagine Blind in the midfield under VG but much worse.
 
The Fulham game just highlighted what we already knew. We don’t have the legs/physicality in centre midfield. We’re in a position now where I don’t think we can afford to not sign someone, but teams are going to know we’re fairly desperate. It’ll look very reactionary again.

My biggest criticism of Amorim is he can’t seem to get any minutes for Mainoo, it does look as though he just doesn’t fancy him. Hope I’m wrong and the plan is to have him take over from Bruno. If he was at a team like Palace and put in performances we saw in his first season/the euros we’d be looking at him for big money 100%.
 
Uncle Mainoo said:
What lack of funds? We was talking to Baleba for two weeks. Was we expecting to pick him up for peanuts?

They best spend that money they told Bruno they didn’t need to sell him to recoup.
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I don't know if they reckoned in the keeper signing into that and if they were really prepared to pay as much as £100m. But yeah, maybe they do have the funds.
 
If I am honest, I hate to see that our midfield is easy to run past, but my biggest gripe is that our CMs are soo bad on the ball, the ball dies with them and we become too defendant on getting the ball wide or our new AMs dropping deep to pick up the ball and run which is an ineffective way to play as our AMs will tire out too soon.

I feel like having CMs that can move the ball well through the lines will make huge difference.
 
Also, I thought that with Cunha, Mbeumo & Sesko, as well as our defenders being good to very good that we can manage without a decent midfield, I thought that Bruno, Cas, Ugarte and Mainoo will be enough and the game vs Fulham proved me wrong, we really need at least 2 new starting CMs, that can at least do the ball distribution, pressing and patrolling central areas as a pair.

Bruno can press a bit, distribute the ball a bit but can't cover the central areas
Ugarte can press and that is it, he can't do anything else
Cas can distribute the ball a bit 3 times of 10, can't press for shit and does not have the legs to patrol central areas
Mainoo does not work at all in this formation.
 
OmarUnited4ever said:
Also, I thought that with Cunha, Mbeumo & Sesko, as well as our defenders being good to very good that we can manage without a decent midfield, I thought that Bruno, Cas, Ugarte and Mainoo will be enough and the game vs Fulham proved me wrong, we really need at least 2 new starting CMs, that can at least do the ball distribution, pressing and patrolling central areas as a pair.

Bruno can press a bit, distribute the ball a bit but can't cover the central areas
Ugarte can press and that is it, he can't do anything else
Cas can distribute the ball a bit 3 times of 10, can't press for shit and does not have the legs to patrol central areas
Mainoo does not work at all in this formation.
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The problem is with the Premier League is that to win games you need a midfield that mobile and athletic to be able to compete. We don't have a single midfielder that fits that brief. You look through our squad of midfield players and not one of them has pace. It's just such a fundemental flaw with our squad. I really don't understand what our short/long term thinking was when we signed Casemiro and then Ugarte.
 
Easy to be a revisionist now but always felt the midfield was a priority. We either need to go into the market for a mobile/progressive passer or accept we’re going to see the same patterns we saw against Fulham in a lot of games.

We seem very keen on Beleba but there’s absolutely no guarantee he’ll choose us next summer. Difficult situation but for me we need someone this summer. Casemiro is going next summer for sure, I imagine Ugarte might be sacrificed as well. Bruno’s future up in the air so we’ll still have the space and hopefully funds to make a decent push for Beleba regardless as to whether we get one in now as well.
 
When you saw our attack last season I don’t get how anyone can say midfield was a priority. We absolutely needed to add goals to this team. But obviously midfield is still an issue and everyone knew we needed to do something there before too long. The question was always how much we could do in one summer.
 
RedSky said:
The problem is with the Premier League is that to win games you need a midfield that mobile and athletic to be able to compete. We don't have a single midfielder that fits that brief. You look through our squad of midfield players and not one of them has pace. It's just such a fundemental flaw with our squad. I really don't understand what our short/long term thinking was when we signed Casemiro and then Ugarte.
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The bolded bit is one of the glaring problems we have, but what's worse is that our midfielders are generally terrible on the ball as well, which compounds the physicality issue, think about this, I watched the City vs Spurs game, Spurs' midfield was very combative and dominant physically, they also passed the ball very well too, but City's midfielders, although outmuscled, they still managed to move the ball around and get their attackers into good positions, Bobb & Marmoush as well as Cherki were just terrible and Haaland didn't get enough service, Spurs shut down City's attackers and physically dominated City's midfield, but City still dominated the ball and passed it around, our midfield can't even do half the passing City do against a team that goes toe to toe with them (Arsenal decided to drop deep and let us have the ball for some reason!).
 
OmarUnited4ever said:
The bolded bit is one of the glaring problems we have, but what's worse is that our midfielders are generally terrible on the ball as well, which compounds the physicality issue, think about this, I watched the City vs Spurs game, Spurs' midfield was very combative and dominant physically, they also passed the ball very well too, but City's midfielders, although outmuscled, they still managed to move the ball around and get their attackers into good positions, Bobb & Marmoush as well as Cherki were just terrible and Haaland didn't get enough service, Spurs shut down City's attackers and physically dominated City's midfield, but City still dominated the ball and passed it around, our midfield can't even do half the passing City do against a team that goes toe to toe with them (Arsenal decided to drop deep and let us have the ball for some reason!).
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I made this post back in February. We've let Eriksen leave, Collyer is out on loan. Ugartes form dipped tail end of last season. It's just bewildering how poor our squad planning has been in the last 4/5 years. We've got to the point where our forward lineup was a bunch of kids and we had the below midfield. Such a fecking mess. I know INEOS are sorting it out and it's taking time but feck me the Glazers really were incredibly incompetent.

Redsky said:
1. Ugarte - Our only semi consistent midfielder, new to the league and still adjusting.
2. Mainoo - Injured, having 2nd season syndrome.
3. Collyer - Injured, new to the first team, inexperienced but looked not too awful.
4. Eriksen - Can play maybe 30mins of PL football before looking knackered.
5. Casemiro - Doesn't look arsed, doesn't run anyway.
6. Bruno - Could play here, can dictate play well as seen today, but also plays hospital passes and easily dispossessed which causes us problems.
7. Sékou Koné - No idea how he'd do. Might be worth trying at some stage even if just for 15mins.
8. Mount - Injured and played so little football I honestly forgot to add him in this list.

We've spent €920m in the last 5 years and this is what we've got.
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If you look at that above list, which players would fit into a top 4 midfield? That's ultimately the problem. We needed to rework both the forward and midfield this Summer. But simply haven't had the money to do it.
 
RedSky said:
I made this post back in February. We've let Eriksen leave, Collyer is out on loan. Ugartes form dipped tail end of last season. It's just bewildering how poor our squad planning has been in the last 4/5 years. We've got to the point where our forward lineup was a bunch of kids and we had the below midfield. Such a fecking mess. I know INEOS are sorting it out and it's taking time but feck me the Glazers really were incredibly incompetent.



If you look at that above list, which players would fit into a top 4 midfield? That's ultimately the problem. We needed to rework both the forward and midfield this Summer. But simply haven't had the money to do it.
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Agreed, and that's why I'm right now questioning Mbeumo signing, who I think will be brilliant for us, but Amad, Bruno, Cunha & Mount represent a good number of AMs, Sesko is a must for me as well, but that 70m we paid for Mbeumo could have gone into getting a new CM we desperately need.
 
Sell Bruno to Saudi and Mainoo to Spurs and bring in Baleba and Wharton which would fix the midfield.

I have a feeling we need quality WB as a top priority for Ruben's system to work more than any other positions. so we are still far off from putting a proper team i think.
 
RedRoach said:
I maintain what I said before we went off and signed 2 number 10s and a striker.

If we do not improve our midfield Amorim will be sacked by Christmas.

Successive managers have ignored this area of the pitch and it will be our undoing. We haven’t had the requisite quality in midfield since Carrick left.

I don’t care what magical system you believe in there is simple no system that works well if you have one of the worst midfields in the league
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This is what bothers me the most. We had the best blueprints for what is required for a PL midfield for generations (Keane, Scholes, Carrick) and continue to ignore the area. No good manager will think midfield as the last priority. Look at PSG. They are showing what is required in a modern day midfield while we try to play a midfield two of Bruno/Cas in 2025. It is a crime.
 
Do we have any decent, mobile defensive midfielders in the reserves who could feasibly force their way in for the seemingly inevitable crisis?
 
SER19 said:
Do we have any decent, mobile defensive midfielders in the reserves who could feasibly force their way in for the seemingly inevitable crisis?
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Kone went on the tour and didnt play a single minute. I don't think the answer is coming from the youth under this manager. Especially given how he has used (or not) Mainoo.
 
There's a few things (which many will have already said) about Bruno that I don't like about him, but I still think he has a place in our team - just not as a guaranteed starter. When he's doing badly, he should get taken off just like any other player. He was performing very poorly all game against Fulham and we should have taken him off. I get that you don't want to disgruntle the squad by taking off the captain when things aren't going well, but I think that NOT doing that could also disgruntle the team.

I haven't posted much at all (if at all?) since McT was sold - I said I felt it was wrong then, and I still think that was a mistake now. Our CMs have such a hard time getting the ball past the halfway line and Bruno has not been helping them in this regard as I feel he should.

I'm also annoyed at our lack of ability to run at the opposition lately but that's another story, I suppose.
 
OmarUnited4ever said:
If I am honest, I hate to see that our midfield is easy to run past, but my biggest gripe is that our CMs are soo bad on the ball, the ball dies with them and we become too defendant on getting the ball wide or our new AMs dropping deep to pick up the ball and run which is an ineffective way to play as our AMs will tire out too soon.

I feel like having CMs that can move the ball well through the lines will make huge difference.
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Just a shame we prioritised other things wasn't it
 
OmarUnited4ever said:
Agreed, and that's why I'm right now questioning Mbeumo signing, who I think will be brilliant for us, but Amad, Bruno, Cunha & Mount represent a good number of AMs, Sesko is a must for me as well, but that 70m we paid for Mbeumo could have gone into getting a new CM we desperately need.
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I think we went with a goal scoring and assisting forward because our forward line was so, so, SO bad last season. We needed all three of our forwards, the problem has been not raising any funds on selling players. I'm sure they probably wrongly assumed we'd have raised around 70m from selling a few of our Bomb Squad.
 
RedSky said:
I think we went with a goal scoring and assisting forward because our forward line was so, so, SO bad last season. We needed all three of our forwards, the problem has been not raising any funds on selling players. I'm sure they probably wrongly assumed we'd have raised around 70m from selling a few of our Bomb Squad.
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We raised around €70m from selling a few of our Bomb Squad.

Our attack was abysmal last season, but part of that was due to the lack of support from midfield. We needed someone who could dictate the tempo of the game. In the first two matches this season, we’ve already seen how, especially in the second half, once our forwards stop pressing high, we lose control and urgency. This comes down to the absence of a strong midfield capable of connecting defense with attack.

It’s clear that the plan is to use Bruno in midfield to alleviate those problems. However, in these opening games, it hasn’t worked as well as expected. Solving this conundrum may ultimately determine Amorim’s fate. In the end, it has been our decision to sign two #10 instead of a ball-controlling midfield.
 
If Baleba is out of the question then I hope we're planning to move for Mateus Fernandes in the last week of this window. Exact profile of player we need and worked with Amorim before.
 
FlawlessVictory88 said:
If Baleba is out of the question then I hope we're planning to move for Mateus Fernandes in the last week of this window. Exact profile of player we need and worked with Amorim before.
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We simply have to do something about CM
 
Xeque_279 said:
How would Licha look like in midfield? He does have the aggression, calmness on the ball and the passing range to play there.

Injury comeback like a new signing?
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He could play as part of a three, look at PSG midfield - Vitinha, Ruiz and Neves - none of them are supreme athletes but ran Pools runners ragged through their skill.

No way could he play as part of a two man midfield - you would need two Edgar Davids to make Amorims 3 4 3 to function.

Players don't make formations but formations do expose players.
 
Does anybody else think that if we don't sign one, we need to just go with ugarte and casemiro. Neither good enough alone with Bruno, looked pretty good together at times in europe.

I can see us ending up here with mbuemo shoehorned to wingback,as the season deteriorates. Unless we sign a dm of course
 
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