Man United just had the worst start in Premier League history after 5 rounds when they only had 5 points. Before the match with Fulham took place, the home team at Craven Cottage was at the bottom of the table with 1 point after 4 matches. However, they almost beat Man United if the away team had not been accompanied by luck with Matheus Cunha's shot.
Among a series of personnel and operational issues from the beginning of the season, the most prominent is the attack line because the output of goals is too low and does not show any impressive combinations to maintain for a long time. Currently, Amad Diallo has not been able to reappear due to injury, Benjamin Sesko, after appearing occasionally at the beginning, can now continue to rest more. These 2 absences alone have put Michael Carrick in a difficult position, forcing him to choose the least bad option among the current bad options.
If considering the starting factors in attack, Man United still has 3 players: Marcus Rashford, Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo. All 3 appeared in the match against Fulham and the worst player was Rashford. Throughout 77 minutes of playing on the field, the English striker's expected scoring index was only 0.4 and touched the ball 56 times. Rashford tried to shoot a lot but was easily blocked and he also did not show too high a breakthrough ability.
When Rashford returned to Man United, he was naturally allowed to play on the left wing because he had tried many times for the center forward and right wing positions but was unsuccessful. Even during his time playing for Barcelona, Rashford did not show diversity in playing style, only focusing on playing purely on the left wing, so when he returned to Old Trafford, it left too much deadlock in Carrick's operation.
Rashford is currently receiving a salary of 32.5 million pounds/week, so when he reappears, it will be difficult for Carrick to put the English striker on the bench. The relationship between the two is also very good when Carrick was still playing for Man United and later as an assistant to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. It was keeping Rashford's position on the left wing that forced Cunha to play "number 9" in the context that the Brazilian striker had no qualities in this position. Meanwhile, Mbeumo was forced to drift to the right in the context that from the second half of last season to the pre-season period, he played very well as a center forward and scored countless goals from this position.
Immediately after Cunha returned to the "number 10 offside" position on the left flank, he scored from his signature shot. When everything changed, the effect came almost immediately, but Carrick was still stubborn with Rashford. On the Man United bench is Shea Lacey, a player who had a good performance in the League Cup match against Brighton and played well in the pre-season period. If Carrick does not dare to try the Cunha - Mbeumo - Lacey trio, he is destroying creativity, giving opportunities to young players and the very seat he is sitting in at Old Trafford.
Rashford's case is just one of Man United's extremely difficult cases, there are many other loopholes to patch, but clearly this is one of the most painful things, most clearly seen on the field.
