New season, same struggling Man United: Myriad problems across the pitch exposed at Fulham

LONDON — Optimism is a short-lived emotion at Manchester United. After 180 minutes of the new Premier League season, the tank is almost empty after a worrying 1-1 draw at Fulham that felt more like a repeat of last year’s horror show than the redemption that Ruben Amorim wants time around.

An error-prone goalkeeper, a captain who lets himself down by doing too much, midfielders who can’t create and a forward line that fails to put the ball into the net. Sound familiar? That was the tale of United’s 2024-25 season — a campaign which ended with their lowest-ever Premier League finish (15th) and worst season overall since 1974 — but this year was supposed to be different.

Yet after missing a penalty — Bruno Fernandes skied his first-half spot-kick over the bar — Man United threw away a second-half lead earned by Leny Yoro’s deflected header and were fortunate that Fulham, who equalised through Emile Smith Rowe, did not go on to win the game.

A £200-million summer spending spree on forwards Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko has certainly given United more pedigree and goal threat than they carried last season, but no forward can score if he doesn’t receive the ball.

Cunha, at least, did have two clear chances in the first-half at Craven Cottage, but one hit the post and the other was well saved by goalkeeper Bernd Leno. After that, not so much.

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Mbeumo chased plenty of lost causes down blind alleys and Sesko offered a focal point when he was introduced into the action in the second-half, but they have been signed to score goals and turn draws into victories for United rather than merely give the team extra energy in the attacking third.

It was a similar story against Arsenal at Old Trafford last Sunday, when United were unlucky to open the season with a 1-0 defeat against Mikel Arteta’s side. Mbeumo and Cunha both looked dangerous, yet neither scored. At Craven Cottage, they once again trudged off the pitch without a goal.

The reasons for that are because of what is happening behind them, starting with the goalkeeper and culminating with a midfield unit that still looks way short of mid-table level than the Champions League-chasing quality that United need.

Let’s start with the goalkeeper. Against Arsenal, Altay Bayindir’s failure to deal with a corner led directly to Riccardo Calafiori’s goal, but despite his mistake and obvious weakness when dealing with set-pieces, Amorim surprisingly retained the Turkey international in goal ahead of fit-again first-choice André Onana.

Onana is not perfect, with the former Inter Milan number one making plenty of mistakes in a United shirt, but he is better than Bayindir. Yet Amorim’s decision to keep him out of the team, after failed United attempts this summer to sign Aston Villa’s Emi Martinez and Paris Saint-Germain’s Gianluigi Donnarumma, hints at the coach making a point that to the club’s recruitment team that he doesn’t really rate or trust either of his keepers and that whoever he selects will be an accident waiting to happen.

It was the same story for Bayindir at Fulham. Every time a corner was delivered, Bayindir flapped and flailed with Fulham using Sander Berge, Timothy Castagne or Ricardo Muniz to nudge the United keeper at a crucial moment. A top keeper would deal with that problem, but on more than occasion, Bayindir fell to the floor.

It is clear that the defenders in front of Bayindir are nervous with him behind them. The same applies with Onana — an erratic risk-taker.

United are in talks with Royal Antwerp’s Senne Lammens over a move to Old Trafford, but sources have said that the 23-year-old is not being signed as a No. 1, so Amorim may end up with another goalkeeper who not quite good enough to start every week.

An unreliable goalkeeper always a weakens a team, but so does a midfield that cannot run or create.

Fernandes can do both, but the defensive side of his game lets him down — the problem there is that he has to do the job of two players because those alongside him, namely Casemiro and substitute Manuel Ugarte, either can’t run or can’t pass. More often than not, Ugarte can do neither.

Mason Mount is a talented player, but he is neither a midfielder nor a forward, yet he is being used at the start of games in a forward position by Amorim because he needs somebody capable of alleviating Bruno’s workload.

But Mount is not quite the player that United need — they need a midfielder who can cover the defensive third and leave Bruno to create for the forwards who continue to be starved of the ball, but Amorim said after the Fulham game that his team are “more robust” with the former Chelsea player in his side.

Robust, perhaps, but still lacking in creativity and that gets back to the issue with Bruno being pulled in too many directions. Amorim still hasn’t found a way to make his best player work in the best way for the team, though.

And all the while, as the rest of the team splutters like an old car, three expensive forwards are still waiting to get the chances from which they will score the goals to help take United back to where they want to be.

If they don’t score them this week, against League Two Grimsby in the Carabao Cup and then against Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday, the alarm bells will start to ring again.

They have become an all-too familiar sound around Old Trafford.