Alan Shearer has delivered a savage verdict about Manchester United ahead of their game against Leeds this weekend.
Manchester United will be keen to draw a line under 2025 as Ruben Amorim gets set to oversee his first match of the new year, with a demanding trip to Elland Road to face Leeds United on Sunday afternoon.
Last year proved a disappointing one for United, who fell short at decisive moments, losing the Europa League final to Tottenham and ending the 2024/25 Premier League campaign in 15th place.
This season, however, the mood is far brighter. Amorim’s team reach the halfway stage sitting sixth, level on points with fifth-placed Chelsea, while their hosts arrive in strong form.
Leeds endured a slow and challenging start that saw them flirting with the relegation zone, but Daniel Farke’s side have since found their stride and are now unbeaten in six matches.
That sequence features draws against Liverpool on two occasions and Sunderland, alongside home wins over Chelsea and Crystal Palace, giving Leeds significant momentum heading into The Roses Derby.
Shearer delivers savage United verdict
While there have been plenty of positive moments for United this season, they continue to drop sloppy points like their 1-1 draw against Wolves last week.
It was a huge blow to Amorim’s side to not grab three points from that game considering Wolves had just two points from 18 games beforehand.
Alan Shearer spoke about United’s situation on The Rest Is Football podcast and claimed that he has never believed that United were a good team even when they have gotten positive results.
“I mean, I’ve never got carried away with Man United. You know, I don’t think they’re a good team anyway,” the ex-Newcastle striker said.
“I think they’ve got a long way to go. I mean, they beat Newcastle. It was back to the wall, wasn’t it?
“Newcastle, they just couldn’t score. It was viewed as a big performance in terms of sticking together. They changed the system.
“But then for him to sort of go back to it against Wolves, who were bottom of the table, have got a dreadful, embarrassing record this season.
“And then to draw the game, yeah, it’s a setback. There’s no doubt.”
United need to become consistent
United’s inconsistency means that they will never be rated as a team who are making serious progress. The main problem is that the inconsistency comes in terms of both results and performances.
With several players out of action due to injuries and AFCON, the results were expected to get worse but we are still seeing similar problems on the pitch.
The inability to keep clean sheets has been the most staggering issue for Amorim’s side, with just two across all games this season so far.
If problems like that are not solved soon then United will slowly slip away from the race for Champions League qualification.
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