BREAKING NEWS: Three Man United Academy stars handed golden opportunity amid Mbeumo ,Amad and Mazraoui AFCON exits – Players were presented in training with first team yesterday
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim knew this winter would be a test of his squad through no fault of his own. The Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) always provides a challenge for Premier League clubs as they see a handful of their players venture to the continent for the major international tournament.
United are no exception with Noussair Mazraoui, Amad and Bryan Mbeumo’s nations all qualifying for AFCON, meaning they will miss the festive period at the very least. What has not helped either is the scheduling for the Reds causing confusion over the trio’s availability.
FIFA have set a deadline of Monday, December 15 for clubs to release their players for the tournament. However, United have been in negotiations with Morocco, Ivory Coast and Cameroon respectively to try and extend this so they can all feature against Bournemouth on Monday night. The outcome of these talks is still unknown.
Amorim has attempted to spin this into a positive with the United manager stating on Friday: “It’s frustrating, but at the same time, nobody knows who is going to play, so it’s a good thing. We have players to cope with everything. With a long week, you can see a lot of things and work on stuff to prepare for any situation.”
While we do not know if the African trio will be involved against the Cherries, we do know they eventually will be absent and this means a golden opportunity presents itself for three players to give Amorim something to think about heading into 2026.
First up is Ayden Heaven. When the centre-back joined United in January, he was fresh off the back of his only senior appearance for Arsenal. He arrived with the expectation of receiving more first-team chances and this has proven to be the case. Heaven has racked up 11 appearances since moving to Old Trafford and has been thrust into the limelight recently due to defensive shortages.
Matthijs de Ligt and Harry Maguire are both missing with injuries and once Mazraoui leaves, Heaven will be needed to fill in. It goes to show how difficult the patch of form for Leny Yoro has been that Heaven has been asked to anchor the centre of the back three in recent matches.
Yoro will eventually become a first-team regular again and this break from the starting line-up will have done him some good. But for Heaven, he has a chance this winter to show Amorim he is ready to be called upon regularly in defence – particularly if Maguire ends up leaving at the end of the season.
Staying in defence, another player due to benefit from the AFCON call-ups is Patrick Dorgu. The Dane has been sharing the left wing-back responsibilities with Diogo Dalot this campaign but in recent weeks it has been the Portuguese international who has nailed the position down.
With Amad heading to AFCON, the natural decision would be to move Dalot back to his preferred right wing-back role and bring Dorgu into the team on the left. If you are Dorgu, you have to see this as a massive opportunity.
Amad is more than likely to regain his spot in the starting XI once he returns and then the question lies as to who remains on the left. If Dorgu can start to harness some of his undoubted potential, Amorim will find it difficult to drop him to allow Dalot to move back over.
Moving further forward, Matheus Cunha is the final player hoping to make his mark during AFCON. It has been a mixed start to life in Manchester for Cunha. His combinations with the likes of Mbeumo, Mason Mount and Benjamin Sesko this campaign have been good but the statistics paint a disappointing picture.
Just the one goal and one assist to his name from 13 matches will be frustrating for the Brazilian as well as his manager. But, with Mbeumo gone, United need someone to step up to the plate and become the Reds’ main man.
Cunha is set up perfectly to do just that. Amorim will likely call upon the 26-year-old to lead the line as well as playing in the No.10 role when Sesko is back to full sharpness.
With all eyes on him, it will be up to Cunha to boost those numbers over the festive period and become United’s main man while Mbeumo is away.
