Manchester United Thread 25/26 - Teamtalk/Transfers/Gossip Mod Note in OP 12.02.26

If we finish top four then the pool of managerial candidates will get bigger. At that stage those candidates will be outlining in great detail what they will do to maximise the opportunities the club has and the potential of the squad. I imagine the big-named managers will be better able to communicate that to the board. Carrick should certainly be invited to throw his name into the pot but right now, he only has to think about the next game and not take things for granted. City and Arsenal are great scalps but our real test over the last few years is beating opposition teams lower in the table than us. Fair play to Carrick though, he hasn't put a foot wrong. Yet.

Yeah you need to bring in someone to replace him as a starter and also sign someone to replace him as a sub. In an ideal world he'd stick around for another season and you would then have someone with his experience to come in for the last 30mins and start certain games.

Big fan of Casemiro but (like most other CMs and especially at his age) he needs to be playing regularly to see him at his best. If that isn't going to happen, then the timing is spot on imo.

I’ll have to hold my hands up and say this isn’t a post I thought I’d be writing a couple of weeks ago.

I was firmly in the Amorim camp and still think on balance he was very unlucky to get the sack. The team was on an upturn despite missing an awful lot of experienced and important players through injury and Afcon and I definitely feel he deserved more time.

I also don’t think a couple of good performances should rewrite months of context and I’d normally be the first to warn against getting too carried away about a new manager bounce.

That said …. I’m really excited about what we’re seeing under Carrick so far. Beating City and Arsenal is no small thing , but it’s not just the results that have impressed me …..it’s the performances . The team looks so together and united, the players seem to know exactly what’s being asked of them and there’s a real intensity and clarity to how we’re playing. Carrick comes across as an excellent man manager and you can see a renewed confidence in the players.

I do also wonder how much Steve Hollands influence is a factor because the set up and structure looks very polished , but either way there’s a really good vibe around the squad at the moment.

I’m still cautious…. football has a way of humbling you quickly , but I have to admit, this does feel different. If this isn’t just a bounce and the performances stay at this level , then I’ll happily admit that the change has been a positive thing . For now I’m just really enjoying watching a team that looks organised, confident and playing with a smile on their faces again.

It's not just individual players playing well in their positions, it's a team wide improvement. The last two games we've been playing our way out of tight spaces with short passes, triangles and 1-2s. Off the ball we're tackling in numbers and breaking up play far more efficiently than before. Our long passing is crisper and more accurate and the speed of our counter attack is lethal. We were creating a lot of chances under Amorim but we're finishing them off now. It's great to see.

He's like Carrick 2.0 the closest any England player has been to Carrick in style of play. Think you need to weigh up whether Mainoo and Wharton could play together or whether Wharton could be a replacement for Mainoo if you can't sort out a contract. I like Wharton as a player and he's still only 21 I believe a year older than Mainoo.

Has there been any respectable source linking Wharton to Liverpool?

I've only seen it from the "Sports Bible" level sites, ie bullsh*t.

Why would they be chasing Wharton when their defence has been their undoing?

He's 20 years old and just put in 2 very good performances against City and Arsenal.
If he was at Palace or Brighton we'd be fighting to give them 100m for him.

He's a young player who still had a ways to develop but Jesus the level of talent is undeniable.
"Jury out" is the wrong way to phrase it

To date, Mainoo looks like a much better footballer than Ugarte.

If anyone else apart from Casemiro should depart, it should be Ugarte.

Not to mention that Mainoo's younger and has higher potential to grow.

Is still feel that there is a role for Ugarte and I'm curious to see how him and Mainoo might play together. At this rate, I wouldn't judge any of the players from the Amorim days until we can see how Carrick uses them.

Now days if you're not an athlete you're dismissed as not going to be good enough at times to be a top level midfielder. He might never be the athlete that Baleba or Anderson are but the lads a very good technical footballer.

Good close control and works well in tight spaces. Look at some of the goals he's scored and how he beats players in and around the box. Good spatial awareness and has shown he can effectively drop deep to receive the ball and help beat the oppositions press.

As you said if he wasn't at United we'd be chasing him the way clubs are chasing Anderson, Wharton etc. We've got a kid whose only 20 so basically still developing and has already shown quality play. Went straight into our midfield at 18 which led to his England debut a few months later and then forced his way into England's starting XI at the Euros that summer.