Ruben Amorim is putting together a squad capable of competing towards the top of the table, and adding the Cameroonian would be a game-changer
"We were the better team, but in the end if you don't score goals, you can't win matches." That was Ruben Amorim's assessment of Manchester United's defeat in the Europa League final to Tottenham. He declined, however, to state whether the Pope was Catholic or whether bears tend to go to the bathroom in woods.
But while the coach was stating the obvious, he was also underlining United's biggest problem, and this summer the club have made solving it their biggest priority, spending more than £200 million ($269m) to give Amorim a shiny new front three of Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko. If United do not manage to seriously improve on their attacking numbers this season then they will only have themselves to blame, and Amorim will have a lot of questions to answer.
Unless something goes terribly wrong, United should score a lot more goals, even if they are unlikely to be a complete team ready to take on Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal in the title race. Their free-spending has not changed the fact that they are still lacking balance and are particularly ill-equipped in midfield, arguably the most important area of all.
The club can, though, address that issue by signing Carlos Baleba from Brighton. The move would take the club's spending to a colossal £300m ($404.5m), but it would also be a game-changing transfer that could actually turn Amorim's side into Premier League title contenders. And if they are serious about returning to the elite, they need to make it happen.
GettyTwelve-year problem
United actually scored plenty of goals in their run to last season's Europa League final, their 35 strikes making them the third-highest scoring team in the competition's history. The fact that they failed to score against Premier League opposition in Spurs, though, was no real surprise; they have struggled to make the net bulge in the domestic competition for some time, even when things are going well.
The Red Devils struck a meagre 44 times in the 2024-25 Premier League, earning them the fifth-lowest goal count in the league. It was the least amount of goals they had scored in the Premier League era and the lowest since they were relegated in 1974. But it was not exactly an anomaly. They scored just 57 goals in 2023-24, the joint-ninth-highest in the league, and even when they finished third in 2022-23 they scored only 58 times, the joint-eighth-best tally in the league along with Brentford.
United have not scored more than 60 goals in a league season since 2020-21, and heir tally from that campaign, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's last complete season and one played almost entirely without fans, is the only time they have breached the 70-goal mark since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013. By contrast, they only failed to score 70 goals or more in one of the Scot's final eight seasons in charge, and they still managed to win the title that year.
AdvertisementGetty Big difference
Ferguson's last season in charge also marked the last time that a United player scored 20 Premier League goals, and the club are hoping that Mbeumo will be able to break that 12-year cycle after netting 20 times for Brentford last term. Cunha, meanwhile, struck 15 goals for Wolves even though they were fighting relegation for much of the campaign.
Those two transfers met Amorim's criteria of signing players with proven track records in the Premier League, and although Sesko does not have that same experience of English football, he has been the most prolific player under the age of 23 in Europe's top-five leagues over the past two seasons. With Mbeumo and Cunha next to him, as well as Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo joining attacks to add further support, there is no reason why Sesko cannot replicate his goal feats for RB Leipzig in a red shirt.
Having prolific scorers will make a huge difference to United as they didn't actually struggle to create chances last season, despite all their problems. Amorim's side ranked sixth in chances created while Fernandes created more goal-scoring opportunities per game than any other player in the top-flight.
Getty Images SportMajor problems
But while the attacking issues seems to have been solved, United still have big problems in midfield. Amorim wasn't shy about saying so following the team's first pre-season game of the summer against Leeds, when he lamented: "We had a lack of pace, especially in the middle of the park."
Indeed, none of United's midfielders really scream 'athleticism'. Casemiro has struggled with the Premier League's intensity for the last two seasons while Kobbie Mainoo stands out for his technical ability rather than his physical prowess. The same is true of Fernandes, even though the captain is remarkably durable and almost never misses matches through injury. Toby Collyer, who played a handful of matches last season after breaking through from the academy, is very much a work in progress.
Manuel Ugarte, meanwhile, is impressive physically and is probably United's most reliable winner of the ball, but his deficiencies in possession are becoming ever more concerning. His passing is sloppy and he has a tendency to get mugged in dangerous areas, such as when a giveaway led to Everton scoring in the club's final game of their tour of the United States.
It says a lot that despite Amorim working with Ugarte at Sporting CP, he left him out of the team for the Europa League final. The coach has also not been convinced by Mainoo and played him in a variety of positions before he picked up an injury in February, while he only called on the England international sparingly after he returned.
Getty ImagesIdeal candidate
Baleba, however, has the perfect blend of physical power and technical quality that United's current midfield lacks. The Brighton ma has been working on his physique ever since he was 10 years old, when he would do 'non-stop' running drills with his father which would last for two hours. He would also sprint between truck tyres to improve his agility, and would often land on the tyres with a summersault, something which he has incorporated into his goal celebrations.
Baleba told : "It’s my dad. He said that if I learn how to do acrobatics then it will help my timing when I’m trying to read the ball or score a header. I would run up to a tyre and then jump on to it with either a front or back flip. It’s easy for me!"
Baleba was signed by Brighton in 2023 with a daunting remit to effectively replace Moises Caicedo after the Ecuadorian's £115m move to Chelsea. The Seagulls paid £23m to sign him from Lille despite him having only made 21 appearances for the French side, where he played alongside United defender Leny Yoro. He failed to initially secure a regular place in Roberto De Zerbi's starting XI either, despite the Italian describing Baleba as being "the future of Brighton".