Manchester United are turning to Mauricio Pochettino to halt a season in freefall, with the former Tottenham Hotspur, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea manager set to replace the fired Michael Carrick. United have won only one of their past 11 matches and sit 18th in the Premier League, a position that has laid bare years of flawed planning.
Carrick's dismissal came almost 40 years to the day after the club hired Sir Alex Ferguson in 1986, and that was also the last season United were 18th after 10 matches. Ferguson needed more than three years to establish himself; United have not had a manager last three years since he retired. The club have lurched from David Moyes to Louis van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, interim boss Ralf Rangnick, Erik ten Hag, Ruben Amorim and Carrick, each appointment a stylistic reaction to the one before.
On the pitch this season, shot quality has been the biggest issue. United rank ninth in shots allowed per possession, roughly in line with Chelsea and Tottenham, but opponents are averaging 0.19 expected goals per shot, by far the most in the league and the same figure Manchester City's Erling Haaland is averaging in league play. Opponents have taken 74.6 percent of their shots inside the box, most in the league, while United defenders have blocked only 22.0 percent, second fewest.
United are decent in possession, with the sixth-highest possession rate and fourth-most passes per possession, and they rank second in progressive passes and third in progressive carries thanks to ball progressors such as Bruno Fernandes and Youri Tielemans. But the pressing is ordinary: they are eighth in high turnovers at 9.6 per game and 10th in passes allowed per defensive action. They rank second in shot attempts per possession, yet only 54.9 percent come from inside the box, the league's lowest share, and they sit 14th in expected goals per shot.
Finishing has been substandard too. Aside from Fernandes and Bryan Mbeumo, United players have scored five league goals from shots worth 9.4 expected goals, with Matheus Cunha, Marcus Rashford and Amad Diallo combining for one goal from 3.3. United are second in counterattacking shots per game and first in expected-goal margin from counters, but they have conceded six set piece goals, 18th in the league, and scored only one, 15th.
The squad Pochettino inherits is a patchwork assembled across six managerial eras, one in which Diogo Dalot has logged the most minutes at both right back and left back and Mbeumo has played the most at center forward and on the right wing. Of the 15 most-used players, six are 28 or older. Meanwhile Matthijs de Ligt, Mason Mount, Manuel Ugarte, Carlos Baleba, Joshua Zirkzee and Benjamin Sesko, signed for a combined 357.6 million euros and carrying estimated combined salaries of 58.7 million euros a year per FBref.com, have managed just 1,268 minutes between them in all competitions. United have the fourth-highest payroll in the league and sit 18th.
Pochettino's case rests largely on his Tottenham tenure, where he lifted the club from 68.4 points per season in the five years before his arrival to 73.6 across his first five campaigns, reached five domestic semifinals and took Spurs to the 2019 Champions League final. Since then he has spent a season and a half at Paris Saint-Germain, a season at Chelsea and most of a World Cup cycle with the United States, where he helped unlock young players such as Malik Tillman and Alex Freeman before a round of 16 loss to Belgium at the 2026 World Cup.
The rebuild ahead is considerable. Rashford, Harry Maguire and Mount are under contract through 2028, Dalot through 2029, de Ligt, Ugarte and Zirkzee through 2030, and Tielemans through 2031. The six most valuable players aged 24 or younger, Sesko, Mainoo, Baleba, Diallo, Leny Yoro and Lammens, are worth a combined 340 million euros per Transfermarkt, a core that ranks above only those of Arsenal and Tottenham among the 10 richest clubs in the Deloitte Money League. Academy prospects including Harry Amass, Jim Thwaites, Tyler and Jack Fletcher, Shea Lacey and Chido Obi offer depth, though 16-year-old JJ Gabriel is keen to leave, with Real Madrid a possible destination.
Plenty of managers have enjoyed short bursts of success at United. Sustained progress requires coordination between manager and front office, something the club have not produced in recent history. Pochettino's pedigree and personality may yet unlock the squad's potential, but after nearly 15 seasons of drift, the burden of proof sits with the club itself.
