Paul Scholes believes the primary reason behind Manchester United’s woes is the players, as opposed to Ruben Amorim’s newly implemented system.
On Sunday afternoon, the Red Devils were comfortably overturned against arch-rivals Manchester City when sustaining a 3-0 derby defeat at the Etihad.
Had City been more clinical or at their best, you can only ponder what the scoreline could’ve been, given how the hosts were granted chance after chance by slicing through an out-of-sorts United side.
Why United’s start to the season is so concerning
As a result, United ended matchweek four sat 14th-placed in the Premier League table. They have overseen one win, one draw and two losses, whilst they were also knocked out of the Carabao Cup in just the second round via a penalty shootout defeat to League Two Grimsby Town.
Expectedly, Ruben Amorim’s job security has come into question once again. He has now overseen the club’s worst start to a campaign in 33 years, and the side hasn’t shown enough to really warrant faith from supporters that they can turn things around in the near future.
It’s thought Amorim retains the backing of INEOS chiefs for now, but Sir Jim Ratcliffe would reconsider his stance on the coach’s future if it looks as though United stand no chance of qualifying for the Champions League.
Scholes: Blame the players over Amorim
Reacting to his former club’s disastrous start to 2025/2026, Scholes told the panel on new podcast ‘The Good, The Bad & The Football’: “Forget the system. The players are just NOT at the level that Manchester United need. They’re not aggressive enough, they’re not quick enough, they’ve not got the legs in midfield.
“They’re playing two in midfield, Bruno [Fernandes] in there, and he hasn’t got the legs to do it in a three, let alone a two.”
Next up for Amorim and his men is a visit from Chelsea, who are unbeaten this term, on Saturday evening.
Really hope Amorim puts out a completely new midfield against Chelsea who have one of the best midfield in the league. Let’s see if we can master this on Saturday. We need skill and speed in midfield. Someone from academy maybe.
It was a bad idea to let Toby Collyer go out on loan. He would have helped in the midfield.
We have only one genuine central midfielder and that is Casemiro. It is claimed he is slow but none of the others are any faster then him. So with the present set the system has to change. Leaving Casemiro out cuts off all creation from the midfield and the wayward passing of the others opens up chances for the opposition.
Last season whilst everyone was blaming the attack, I was lamentinggtgat our attack was being stretched as our midfield was so poor and even Rasmus was having to go deep to retrieve and get involved meaning that our attackers were always stretched. I am just a football lover and noticed this, Wilcox is the DOF but didn’t. So now Utd are loaded with 7 number 10s and no CMs. Wilcox should have focused solely on bringing in hoth Baleba and Wharton plus a keeper as their priorities. Our attack this season looks worse than last season because Collyervis gone, Erikson is gone, Bruno is playing as a CM, Ugarte isn’t up to EPL standard and Casemiro csnbuive you just 30 mins. Mainoo is not a CM but more of a 10 AM. Blame Wilcox as it was his job to sort.
Sorry Scholesy it’s the system and Amorin’s intransigence to change it even though it nearly got us relegated