What are Manchester United’s top five problems?

Manchester United are facing the greatest crisis in the Premier League club’s history.

Their worst start to a league season in 40 years was extended with a 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth on Sunday.

It threw not only the manager’s future into doubt, but every member of the ownership, senior management and playing squad as a whole.

United fans do not turn on their managers or players. That changed on Sunday when fans cheered off Michael Carrick and then booed off the players.

The message is clear: United fans are not prepared to take any more – and that goes from the top to the bottom of the first-team set-up and those who recruited them.

Al Jazeera Sport takes a look at the problems plaguing the club:

Do Man United need a striker more than a new manager?

Since Cristiano Ronaldo left United in November 2022 after his second stint at Old Trafford, the side has struggled for a regular goalscorer.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was a short-term fix before Ronaldo’s return, while Romelu Lukaku was unable to turn a reputation into returns.

Danish striker Rasmus Hojlund was recruited as United’s answer to Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, but a lack of goals saw the youngster shipped back to Italy.

Enter the big-money arrival of Serbian international Benjamin Sesko in the summer of 2025. The 23-year-old has impressed in patches, but injuries have also taken their toll, and his absence in United’s woeful start to the season has been glaring.

United have tried Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo as strikers, but both are naturally wide players who thrive on running at defenders.

Then came the false nine, with Bruno Fernandes handed a role perfected by Lionel Messi at Barcelona.

Too often in Fernandes’s case, however, the Portuguese playmaker found himself with his back to goal and unable to pull the strings of the runners around him.

Having won the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Player of the Year award on the back of breaking the Premier League record for the number of assists in a season, the role took his greatest ability away from him.

Eight players sit above United’s leading scorer – Mbeumo, with four goals – in the Premier League’s scoring chart this season; all of them would walk into the United side.

United’s top brass: The Glazers, Jason Wilcox and Omar Berrada

The Glazer family bought into Manchester United in 2005, long before Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013. However, it is now believed that English football’s most successful manager and then-CEO David Gill were masking the problems brought by the US family’s ownership.

United’s signings in the last 13 years – 75 in total – have been nothing short of disastrous. Fernandes is perhaps the only player who would come close to breaking into one of the Ferguson sides during the spell between his first league title in 1993 and his last, when he finally hung up his hairdryer.

Ed Woodward was the Glazers’ appointed CEO until 2022, and was lambasted by fans for the endless run of failed signings and sacked managers.

The duo currently responsible for player recruitment, CEO Omar Berrada and the technical director, are the latest pairing to receive the wrath of the Old Trafford support, and, it seems, the dressing room.

Defender Lisandro Martinez, who helped Argentina reach the 2026 World Cup final, took aim at Wilcox in particular after United’s defeat at Atletico Madrid when he criticised the lack of investment in the squad in the summer.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s INEOS Group invested heavily in United two years ago. The move led to controversial off-field cuts, and with them came grand plans for the club’s training ground and proposals to rebuild Old Trafford.

The return so far has been minimal, and Ratcliffe and INEOS are regarded in the same light as the Glazers – an unwanted relative at each family gathering.

Manager vs star player: Carrick vs Fernandes

Whoever is in charge of United through the end of the season and beyond will have one big question to answer: Does Fernandes have a future at the club after openly criticising Carrick?

The Portuguese was booed off after the defeat by Bournemouth on Sunday, even though he did not set foot on the field, punishment for his decision to call out Carrick’s tactics after Wednesday’s defeat in Como.

At 32, Fernandes is closer to the end of his career than to the start, but he remains United’s standout performer. When he ticks, so do United. When he does not, United appear to be relegation fodder.

His esteem among the fans is based on the belief that he has shouldered the club since his 2020 arrival; even with the brief return of Ronaldo, Fernandes was still the star of the show.

They have, however, considered cashing in on the Portuguese playmaker, with the Saudi Pro League prepared to break the bank to lure him away.

Galatasaray were also known to be another suitor this summer. Fernandes, in response, made no secret of his disappointment in the club’s openness to selling him – something both parties may now consider inevitable.

To buy a left-back – or be left behind the rest?

One of the biggest surprises in the summer, alongside failing to reinforce their options alongside Sesko in attack, was the failure to bring in a left-back. Indeed, it is believed the lack of depth in that position in particular is what led to Martinez blasting the club hierarchy.

Lewis Hall of Newcastle United was heavily linked with a move throughout the summer, and on the final day of the transfer window it was assumed the deal would be done, given no other player was acquired in that role.

Man United’s identity: Press, sit deep or ‘attack, attack, attack’

The famous United chant of “attack, attack, attack” was the foundation of the club. It undoubtedly led to their rise to become the world’s number one club – under Matt Busby with his babes in the 1950s, then his rebuilt giants led by George Best and Bobby Charlton, then the hallmark of Ferguson’s team to the very last kick of so many games.

Fernandes slammed Carrick for not pressing Como in the Champions League and allowing a relative minnow at that level to dictate the play. Sitting deep has never been the United way, and Jose Mourinho – now revelling again in his second stint at Real Madrid – faced a player revolt even though the United fans remained faithful.

Louis van Gaal came with his own “philosophy” of passing the opposition to death – denying a club that have always been famed for flying wingers the chance to live up to their reputation. Again, the players – reportedly led by Wayne Rooney and Carrick – were not happy with the sideways movements.

Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 formation appeared to leave the players more baffled than anyone else, while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Carrick – both prodigies of Ferguson – managed to open up a free-flowing style akin to that of their old manager and mentor. Neither was able to maintain a run of form to hold on to the position.

Ralf Rangnick, now the national team coach of Austria, said the club as a whole required “open-heart surgery”.

Gary Neville went a step further on Sky Sports on Sunday, alleging levels of unprofessionalism from certain members of the squad.

“There are a few of them that are not that professional,” the former United and England defender said.

What is for sure is that United on the field need a style, a personality and a commitment to the cause that first and foremost will reconnect a disjointed group with one of the most patient and loyal supports in the world.

As things stand, the locals are beyond restless, and a revolution may not only be required; it may well be demanded in no uncertain terms in the coming weeks and months.

Source: www.aljazeera.com