It has been 24 days since Manchester United played football, but on Monday, they finally returned to the game, and will face Leeds United.
When they last played, the Artemis II crew were still on the ground, Arsenal still had a chance to win the quadruple and Igor Tudor was in charge of Tottenham.
It’s crazy how quickly things can change in life, especially in the world of football.
For Michael Carrick’s boys, they have an opportunity to look at a big improvement in fortunes in 2026. It’s easy to forget that the Red Devils have only lost once in their last ten games.
However, how can they bounce back from the points they dropped last time? The game they played was 2-2 with Bournemouth. After all, changing the top can do the trick. That includes sidelining Bryan Mbeumo.
Why Bryan Mbeumo should be released by Manchester United
Man United made a big statement last summer when they signed Mbeumo from Brentford for a whopping £71m.
Last season, the Cameroon international was one of the best wingers in the Premier League, scoring 20 goals on his way to a big-money move from west London.
Although Mbeumo struggled to maintain consistency during his campaign on his Old Trafford debut, he has been one of the most dangerous players in the final third.
Indeed, the 26-year-old has scored ten goals since his departure but is now in the toughest spot of his Man United career so far.
In his last six games, he failed to score a single goal. In all those games, he failed to complete 90 minutes. In fact, when we faced the Cherries three weeks ago, Mbeumo was sent off with 20 minutes remaining for Carrick, which is proof that the manager is not happy with his level of play.
|
Mbeumo’s last 6 games |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Oppo |
Goals |
It helps |
|
West Ham (A) |
0 |
1 |
|
Everton (A) |
0 |
1 |
|
Crystal Palace (H) |
0 |
0 |
|
Newcastle (A) |
0 |
0 |
|
Aston Villa (H) |
0 |
0 |
|
Bournemouth (A) |
0 |
0 |
In the last two games, he played as a center forward in Carrick’s system but it didn’t work much. As a result, change must be timely; Benjamin Sesko must start.
The Slovenian international has benefited greatly from being appointed interim manager, scoring five goals in his last eight appearances for United.
He must enter the team, which means the start of the new team Alejandro Garnacho on the right side.
Man United’s new Garnacho must start
Last summer, Man United made the decision to drop two wingers, namely Marcus Rashford and Garnacho.
While the former enjoyed a good spell at Barcelona, scoring 12 goals and registering 13 assists, Garnacho has had a lackluster spell at Chelsea, including his time at Old Trafford as well.
There was that a famous overhead kick at Everton and while the Argentinian threatened to show signs of his greatest potential, he ended up being inconsistent.
Garnacho found the net 11 times last season, but only six of those came in the Premier League. Since moving to Chelsea, he has one Premier League goal during a difficult first year at Stamford Bridge.
Well, nowadays, it sounds like a certain Amad is cut from a very similar cloth.
Under Ruben Amorim, maybe he was i an outstanding player. The Ivorian scored 11 goals, the same number as Garnacho last summer but like his old team-mate, he has been very inconsistent again in 2025/26, conceding two goals in all competitions.
Maybe we can cut the 23-year-old some slack. He played most of the first half of the season on the right wing but since the arrival of Carrick, he has played exclusively as a right winger, moving up the pitch.
Like Mbeumo, Amad is also not in the best shape. He hasn’t scored at all during the new regime but has the quality to really cause problems for the Leeds defense on Monday night.
The easiest way for Carrick to take would be to just put Sesko on Amad and move Mbeumo to the right, but a change of strategy and some time without shooting could be useful for a player who has endured his worst spell in a United shirt.
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