BREAKING NEWS: Man United lineup EIGHT players for sale as Sir Jim Ratcliffe releases £356m to compete with Rivals as Replacements named today amid Top four Chase
The year ended with a whimper for Manchester United. A 1-1 draw with Wolves on Tuesday night continued a dire recent run at Old Trafford and set alarm bells ringing again about the progress of this team under Ruben Amorim.
Dropping points against a side with 16 defeats and two draws from their first 18 games wasn’t a good look. Amorim refused to use the absence of key players to injuries and international call-ups as an excuse, and any team United put out should be capable of beating this Wolves team.
However, it is true that Amorim’s resources are currently stretched. The damage done was also eased by other results. Chelsea dropped points at home to Bournemouth, just as United did in December, and then sacked head coach Enzo Maresca on New Year’s Day.
Elsewhere on the first day of 2026, Liverpool lumbered to a goalless draw with Leeds at Anfield. Arne Slot’s side have picked up better results recently, but they still aren’t playing well and are having to grind out results every week.
With the top three of Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa edging clear, it might be that two from three of United, Chelsea and Liverpool will qualify for the Champions League, presuming the Premier League can land that fifth spot once again for next season.
There will be honourable mentions for Sunderland and Everton, who have had excellent first halves of the season, while the league is so congested that only five points separate Chelsea in fifth from Brighton in 14th. A good run of form could propel any number of clubs into the mix.
For United, they would probably have taken this at the halfway stage of the campaign. They are sixth, behind Chelsea only on goal difference and three points shy of Liverpool. Qualification for the Champions League is attainable this season.
The concern is that a woeful run at home might look costly come the end of the season. They have taken three points from home games against Everton, West Ham, Bournemouth and Wolves. The first of those played with 10 men for the best part of 80 minutes and the other three were – and still are – in poor form.
United will have to improve to make the top five, but possibly not by much. Liverpool still look like a flawed team, and Chelsea are unpredictable. The departure of Maresca might change things, but a young and inexperienced squad will be tested in the second half of the campaign.
Amorim’s side haven’t taken advantage of a kinder fixture list recently and now face Manchester City and Arsenal in January, but having put themselves in a position to achieve what was the primary objective this season, they should consider rolling the dice this month.
Interest in Antoine Semenyo waned when it became clear he wanted to move to Manchester City, but United’s willingness to do a deal suggests there is money available to improve the squad. The conditions for a January deal are that the focus remains on long-term targets and adding real quality this month can be difficult to do.
Beefing up numbers to compensate for the lack of depth is also an issue that should ease as the month progresses. Kobbie Mainoo, Mason Mount and Bruno Fernandes should all be back fit soon and Noussair Mazraoui, Amad and Bryan Mbeumo will be back from the Africa Cup of Nations by January 19 at the latest.
But United should be and are alert to opportunities in midfield, with question marks over the futures of several key players. There is also uncertainty as to whether Mainoo will push for a loan move if his chances of first-team football don’t improve over the next couple of weeks.
Joshua Zirkzee is also eyeing up a move to Roma. His departure could leave Amorim short of attacking opportunities, with Benjamin Sesko the only natural centre-forward in the squad. Finding a permanent replacement might not be easy, but adding a striker to the squad to offer support and cover for Sesko could be beneficial.
These kinds of January deals might only move the needle ever so slightly; they might only be worth a point or two come the final calculations, but in what is shaping up to be a tight race for places in the top five, that might be all it takes to make them value for money.
At the halfway stage, United have put themselves in the conversation. Now they need to do all they can to finish the job.
