Manchester United’s stop-start first half of the season may unravel into one giant missed opportunity | OneFootball

At the last, Manchester United brought up their half-century. They finished 2025 with 50 Premier League points, one fewer than Fulham, far behind Brentford and Brighton, Everton and Crystal Palace, 26 shy of Aston Villa. The 50th came against Wolves and it was just the visitors’ third of a sorry season.

United began a year in 14th and ended it in sixth. A year ago, they had managed to lose six games in a month, for the first time since 1930. Now they have only lost six this season, though one was on penalties to Grimsby Town. Viewed one way, it is progress. Though perhaps only through the prism of the almost artificial low that was 2025, the 15th-placed, 42-point finish that reflected Ruben Amorim’s failings and choices.

Tuesday’s draw with Wolves contained a twist on a familiar theme. United missed the chance to go fifth, a statement that is true so often that it is almost easier to just copy and paste it in. On this occasion, they also missed the chance to go fourth. Results can be a microcosm: the danger is that the season becomes a giant missed opportunity.

When nine English clubs are weighed down by their European commitments, when their prowess in continental competition is such that fifth place seems set to have the symbolic significance of conferring a Champions League place, this seems United’s chance.

They should be fresher and better prepared as well as – typically, given their spending in recent years – better resourced, following a £230m outlay in the summer. When others are battling fatigue, United have had the lightest workload they can ever expect.

Yet when the games come sooner, there are issues. They have played four league games four days after another, two of them against Wolves, all against teams in the bottom six, and won just one.

Meanwhile, none of their last 10 league matches have been against teams who finished in the top four last season. United have won just three. They can squander seemingly promising positions. Boxing Day’s backs-to-the-wall win against Newcastle was admirable in its own ways but United have tasted victory in just one of five at Old Trafford. In three of the last four, they have drawn after leading (indeed, they led Bournemouth by three different scorelines). Before then, they lost to 10-man Everton, delivering a witless, clueless performance.

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Ruben Amorim’s men managed to draw with bottom side Wolves, handing the visitors only their third point of the season (PA Wire)

It was an illustration that they can struggle to win as favourites. Another enduring difficulty is backing up victories. October’s stirring triumph at Anfield was the centrepiece of a three-match winning run; apart from that, however, they have not mustered two in a row under Amorim in the Premier League.

There is a sense of a team who can lose their way just when they seem headed in the right direction, whether by winning the previous match or going ahead. But there is the question of what Amorim says to his players at the interval; only Wolves have a worse second-half record and United have won just two, neither at Old Trafford, while losing seven. Baffling substitutions, often involving centre-backs, are another reason why he struggles to turn games their way.

Amorim is at least entitled to say he has made United far more prolific. They have been outscored only by the top two; those goals have often been cancelled out because no one outside the bottom six has a worse defensive record and United have a mere two clean sheets.

United’s greater potency has come in spite of the unimpressive returns of two of the summer signings; Matheus Cunha only has three league goals, Benjamin Sesko two. Bryan Mbeumo and Senne Lammens represent the two successes of the summer trading, but United could come to rue the points dropped when Altay Bayindir was in goal.

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Summer signings including Matheus Cunha have not delivered so far (AFP via Getty Images)

And it conforms to a theme. There were so many ways their tally of 30 could be greater. If they were more consistent, more ruthless, better at the back, improved against the lesser lights, superior in second halves; though, of course, it may be simpler to say if they were a better team.

And, for all the underlying problems at Old Trafford, they ought to be better than this; not because of Sir Alex Ferguson’s United or the increasingly distant past, but given the time and resources Amorim has had. Instead, they are on course for only 60 points, which would be their joint third lowest in the Premier League era.

That, too, is when the half-way table may be altered by the fact United have had 10 home games so far and the team they have played twice is on course to end up with the smallest ever Premier League points total. They are still on course to qualify for the Europa League. But if they do, it could be with the sense that a spot in the Champions League was there for the taking, but that United repeatedly failed to grasp it.