With there being a lot of talk that new MUFC boss Ruben Amorim is in the market for a left-back and striker, it's clear to see that he wants new players who are better suited to his style and ones who improve the squad.
But which areas do I think needs most improving? Will I be on the same page as Amorim?
In order of least to most prioritised.
Centre-back
With the name Jarrad Branthwaite being mentioned in recent times, we know that the club are linked with a new centre-back.
At the current moment, we have Martinez, De Ligt, Yoro, Maguire, Lindelof and Evans as pure centre-backs with the likes of Mazraoui and Shaw being able to fill in whenever necessary.
Out of our six CBs though, I feel that only Martinez, De Ligt and Yoro have the capabilities to play how Amorim wants. They tick the boxes of defenders who can play in a three at the back. The importance of them needing to be good on the ball and calm under pressure is key because of how vital they are in the build up.
Evans, Maguire and Lindelof fall short in this area meaning that they aren't exactly what Amorim is looking for in a centre-back. This is where someone like Branthwaite comes in. He is another like the Yoros of this world who can play as the manager wants. United are also looking for younger players which again means that Branthwaite is perfect as he is just 22.
With the Portuguese manager wanting to play a certain style, whenever he doesn't have his main centre-backs available, he will prefer to have players like Branthwaite as backup so as to allow the team to keep playing Amorim ball.
I'm sure that two of Evans, Lindelof and Maguire will leave at the end of the season. It will be okay in my opinion to keep one of them and bring in another defender. Having five options would be ideal.
But for the moment, I don't think Amorim will be fretting too much about strengthening his centre-backs given the numbers available.
Midfielder
The same goes for midfield. It is a priority but not an area that needs immediate strengthening. We have basically all of our midfielders available again after we saw Mainoo and Mount as part of the matchday sqaud in Amorim's first game. Casemiro, Eriksen, Ugarte and Bruno are also 100%.
But out of those six, how many of them do tick the box for Amorim?
Ugarte is the obvious standout having done the role before but other than him, it is a bit of a struggle to identify who fits into his team perfectly.
Mainoo provides that number 8 who is good on the ball, is progressive, can go box-to-box and be the ideal partner to someone like Ugarte. But he is still young and as we've seen, does pick up injuries that keep him out for large (ish) periods of the season. The 19-year-old was out of action for the last month with an injury. Having not play under Amorim yet, it remains to be seen whether he is good enough or not.
Mason Mount is another whose profile is perfect for that CM or CAM role but as he is very injury prone, is he a player that we can rely on? That seems to be his only problem otherwise I do think he could be exactly what is needed in midfield. His versatility also gives him an extra advantage.
Bruno looks set to be a mainstay for another manager but his form has been very poor for a long time. His play style is also not one that is what the manager is looking for. Amorim even said post the Ipswich draw that Bruno "wants the long ball all the time" even though he was happy that his fellow Portuguese did keep things simple a lot more than usual.
The skipper will give absolutely everything for the team but at the moment, just isn't playing as well as we know he can. He is also 30-years-old and despite signing a new contract before the start of the season, sort of goes against the grain of what INEOS are trying to do in terms of bringing in younger players.
As for Casemiro and Eriksen, I doubt that we'll be seeing much of them under Amorim. That draw last Sunday highlighted that the pair of them appear to be on their last legs. Having to understand an entirely new system is something that will take time even for experienced players like them. Is it time that we can afford?
Recent news also suggests that Eriksen will most likely leave the club at the end of the season while United want to move away from deals like Casemiro.
So this means that only four of our current midfielders could be here for the long term and only one out of that four absolutely knows how to play Amorim ball.
Midfield is a bit of a concerning area.
Striker
It's no secret that United are looking to improve up top. Even though both Hojlund and Zirkzee were signed in the last year, it seems that they don't cut the mustard, at least at the moment.
They too are young and have much improvement plus with Ruben Amorim just taking over, it still remains to be seen whether they can be like Viktor Gyokeres for the Portuguese.
In the last day, Victor Boniface of Bayer Leverkusen has been linked with a move to Old Trafford. At 23-years-old, he's another who ticks the age profile and having played in a 3-4-3 for the past year under Xabi Alonso, is definitely capable of playing it for Amorim.
Other names that have been linked with that striker position is Omar Marmoush (Eintracht Frankfurt), Randal Kolo Muani (PSG) and another Victor from Nigeria, Osimhen.
And of course, the man behind the mask, the third Viktor (with a k), Gyokeres. Now he would be the perfect striker.
Before we do look to bring in a new marksman though, Amorim first has to address the problem of actually creating for that striker. At Sporting, his team was exactly that, a team. They worked for each other and looked for each other whenever possible with a lot of the final killer passes going through to Gyokeres who did the rest.
While one striker in Hojlund was injured for the early part of the campaign and the other in Zirkzee is a new signing, between them, in 31 games this season, they have managed just 3 goals and 2 assists.
The team doesn't create enough for them but they also have to take the responsibility onto their shoulders and try to be more involved in the game as well as bring others into it with their holdup and linkup play, by flicking the ball on, being strong against the centre-backs and making the right runs in behind. Hojlund and Zirkzee are not as good at these as we would've hoped.
Amorim even said of Zirkzee that he "has to understand to enter the box to help the crosses." To need to be saying that of your 'striker' is a bit of a problem.
This is why I believe he wants an out-and-out goal scorer and someone who does the all round centre-forward game pretty well.
What could a new number 9 mean for Hojlund and Zirkzee? Perhaps a backup striker role or in Zirkzee's case, to play as one of the two number 10s as he did when he came on at Ipswich.
Left-back
Yes, I agree that we need a left-back. Tbh, we needed a left-back whether Amorim was the manager or not simply because before this past weekend, we had none!
With Shaw and Malacia being out forever, we relied on players such as Dalot, Mazraoui, Antony (on the odd ocassion) and the now departed Sofyan Amrabat to fill in at left-back from last season to this.
We've also seen Martinez cover in that position under Erik ten Hag and Ruud van Nistelrooy in some parts of the season.
This obviously isn't ideal because none of those players are specialists in that position with some of them not being that strong on their left-foot. Chopping and changing also means that other areas of the defence was weakened.
Amorim likes his wing-backs and so, with Dalot and Mazraoui not being natural left-footers who would struggle in attacks, Garnacho and Rashford not the hardest workers and being inconsistent besides, Antony being shite, and Shaw and Malacia being unreliable, left-back is an obvious weak spot that needs the utmost attention in January (if possible) but definitely the summer.
We cannot go a season-and-a-half without a left-back. At a club like United, that is unacceptable.
The good news is that we've been linked with quite a few in recent weeks. Alphonso Davies seems to be the number one target for Amorim and at 24 and a contract that expires at the end of the season, he could be perfect even more so because his attributes are exactly what's needed of that wing-back position.
Milos Kerkez of Bournemouth, Rayan Ait-Nouri of Wolves and most recently, Theo Hernandez of AC Milan are all left-backs linked with a move to Old Trafford.
This shows just how seriously United are taking this position.
It would probably spell the end of the careers of one or both Shaw and Malacia at the club should we bring in another LB which looks highly likely. When INEOS see a target, they go and get it as we saw in the last transfer window. They also have more time now to get talking with these players as they are a lot more settled in at United.
We know what a difference a proper left-back makes to our team. When Shaw is available, he is arguably one of the best in the world in his position. Injuries have ruined what could've been one heck of a career.
We don't know how Malacia will fair having been out of first team action since the end of the 22/23 campaign.
This is why left-back is an absolute top priority.
Honorable mention
Winger
I do feel that we may need to look to bring in another winger or two. I feel that with Amorim also wanting to use wingers as wing-backs at times, what we have isn't good enough at the moment.
Rashford and Garnacho aren't particularly the hardest working players meaning that we would suffer a bit down whichever flank they play on and as they can be quite inconsistent, aren't a regular threat going forward.
Antony does work hard but fails miserably in all the other areas required of a wing-back.
Amad is the only one out of that quartet that ticks all the boxes. He was superb playing as a wing-back in Amorim's first game and got the assist for Rashford in 81 seconds. His defensive work was reasonably good and going forward, we know the quality he possesses.
As the manager wants another left-back though, could that mean that that left flank will be taken up by that player? What could this mean for some of our wingers?
It is very intersting to think which areas Amorim will prioritize. With the news, links and the quality of our players in certain positions, we can sort of gauge where he wants to strengthen.
Which areas do you think Amorim wants to improve the most?
Background Images: Luke Shaw, Casemiro, Ruben Amorim and Rasmus Hojlund | Images via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)