Manchester United Are 12th, Spurs Are Last — Carrick Needs More Than Baleba
GOATIFYManchester United have a home fixture against the Premier League's bottom club and a chance to make their season feel normal again. That is the generous reading of Saturday's meeting with Tottenham. The less comfortable reading is that Michael Carrick's side have taken five points from five league matches, sit 12th, and still have not kept a clean sheet. Spurs arrive with only two points, but United have hardly established themselves as the kind of team that can assume three more are waiting.
The contrast between territory and results makes this a more revealing test than the table suggests. United can carry the ball into dangerous areas and dominate possession, yet their attacks too often end without a decisive final action. At the other end, opponents have needed relatively few visits to the penalty area to leave damage behind. A three-week international pause offered time to reset, but it also returned several players with injuries. Carrick now has to build a coherent team from an awkward set of choices, with new midfielder Carlos Baleba edging towards a competitive debut.
For Tottenham and Roberto De Zerbi, the trip to Old Trafford is an opportunity to turn an expensive rebuild into something visible. For United, it is the first checkpoint in a demanding October: can they control a match from beginning to end, or will another promising spell dissolve into dropped points?
The table is bad — the underlying numbers are stranger
Five points from five league games is an unambiguous warning sign for a club that expects to challenge near the top. Yet Manchester United's opening numbers suggest the problem is not simply that opponents are marching through them for 90 minutes. They have allowed fewer opposition touches in their penalty area than any other Premier League team at this stage. At the same time, United have registered more touches in opponents' boxes than anyone else. They are spending time in promising places without turning that presence into the advantage the scoreboard demands.
That contradiction is why the absence of a clean sheet matters so much. When a side gives away relatively little territory, a single defensive mistake becomes disproportionately costly. United have been good enough to move matches into the final third, but not efficient enough to put them beyond reach. They average around 60% possession, an amount that should let them set the rhythm. Instead, too many sequences end with a blocked shot, a misplaced final ball or a transition that invites the opponent back into the game.
The Manchester derby offered the starkest warning. Phil Foden's red card left City with ten men, but United could not convert the extra player into sustained, decisive pressure. Against Ipswich, Bruno Fernandes supplied the moments that lifted the result, including a hat-trick. Neither match established a repeatable attacking method. Carrick needs more than volume; he needs better shot selection, more coordinated movement and quicker decisions when opponents drop deep.
There is a difference between having the ball and controlling a contest. Real control means forcing the opposition to defend uncomfortable spaces, limiting counterattacks after possession is lost and creating chances that do not depend on one player producing something extraordinary. Tottenham may be bottom, but the same inefficiency that has cost United points against stronger sides could turn Saturday into another anxious afternoon.
Carrick's injuries remove the easy tactical fixes
United's international break was supposed to provide a chance to reset their season. It also reduced Carrick's room for manoeuvre. Patrick Dorgu returned from Denmark duty with a hamstring injury that is expected to keep him out for several weeks. Benjamin Sesko remains unavailable with a shin problem, while Noussair Mazraoui has been dealing with an issue sustained on Morocco duty. Carrick has indicated that Mazraoui is not quite ready; the precise timeline remains subject to assessment rather than a reason to announce a longer absence.
The mixed news is that Marcus Rashford, Kobbie Mainoo and Amad Diallo have resumed at least some training. That is encouraging without making every player an automatic 90-minute option. Amad has not yet featured this season, and fitness after a layoff is not the same thing as match sharpness. Matthijs de Ligt and Manuel Ugarte are further concerns, while experienced defenders such as Harry Maguire may have to provide stability as Carrick adjusts the balance of his back line.
Sesko's absence is particularly significant because he offers a different type of centre-forward. At 6ft 5in, he can occupy centre-backs, attack crosses and give the team a direct outlet when patient build-up stalls. Matheus Cunha has often operated as a roaming central attacker, a role that can create space for runners but may also leave the penalty area empty at the wrong moment. Bryan Mbeumo prefers moving inside from the right; Rashford is more comfortable taking on a full-back down the left. Their instincts are useful individually, yet those movements must be coordinated if United are to avoid several players drifting towards the same pocket.
Bruno Fernandes can connect those pieces, but relying on him to find a perfect pass every time is not a tactical plan. Carrick's job is to give each attacker predictable support: a runner stretching the defence, another arriving at the back post and midfielders ready to collect second balls. With options limited, the solution is less about a dramatic formation change than about making the available combinations work reliably. Tottenham's defensive struggles offer an opportunity, not a guarantee.
Baleba can add legs to midfield — but he cannot score the goals
Carlos Baleba's possible competitive debut is the clearest reason for cautious optimism. United agreed an initial £65 million deal with Brighton in August, with another £5 million in potential add-ons, and gave the 22-year-old Cameroon international a long-term contract. An ankle problem delayed his start, but he has trained during the break and taken part in a behind-closed-doors friendly. Carrick now has to decide whether Saturday is the right moment to introduce him, and for how long.
Baleba was not recruited as a conventional playmaker. His strongest qualities are mobility, recovery speed, ball-winning and the ability to carry possession out of pressure. Those attributes address a genuine weakness. United can move the ball into advanced areas, but their midfield has not always been positioned to stop the first pass when an attack breaks down. A player who closes those gaps quickly can make the defenders' work simpler and allow the full-backs to support attacks with less fear of leaving an enormous space behind them.
His arrival also complicates a selection puzzle rather than solving it automatically. Kobbie Mainoo has impressed in the early weeks, while Youri Tielemans and Andrey Santos arrived as part of the same midfield overhaul. Tielemans offers passing range and work rate, but his ability to cover transitions has come under scrutiny. Santos gives Carrick another option in deeper positions. If Baleba comes in, the manager must decide who provides the first pass, who protects the centre and who can join Fernandes between the lines. Those responsibilities are more important than squeezing the most expensive names into one starting eleven.
There is also a fitness question. Baleba's ankle has improved, but one friendly and a run of training sessions do not establish that he is ready to play the full match at Premier League intensity. A carefully timed appearance from the bench could be more useful than asking him to transform a struggling midfield from the opening whistle. His presence can reduce the amount of defensive scrambling United do. It cannot, by itself, make Cunha more clinical, give Rashford a first goal involvement or guarantee the final ball reaches the right runner. That distinction matters when a high-profile signing is being asked to carry the expectations of an entire club.
Tottenham are bottom, but they are not a free three points
Tottenham have made an extraordinary amount of noise in the transfer market and almost none in the league table. Roberto De Zerbi's team have two points from five matches after a summer rebuild reported at roughly £300 million. Their only league goals so far came in a 3-2 defeat against Aston Villa, a match that left the manager openly frustrated by his players' defensive concentration and emotional response when the contest turned against them. A side with that record should be vulnerable. But United's own problems make the matchup less straightforward than the standings imply.
Both managers want their teams to use possession to create an advantage. The danger for each is what happens when a promising move ends badly. United have been exposed by isolated mistakes despite spending little time under sustained pressure. Spurs have struggled to turn long spells with the ball into enough goals, and their defensive structure can lose its shape after turnovers. Saturday may therefore be decided less by who has the greater share of possession than by who reacts more effectively to losing it.
De Zerbi's teams are designed to draw opponents forward and exploit the space that appears behind a press. If United commit too many players to chasing the ball without securing midfield cover, they could offer Spurs the exact transition moments they have struggled to create through settled attacks. Conversely, if Carrick's players press in a coordinated way, Spurs' attempts to build patiently from the back could produce opportunities in dangerous areas. The tactical margin is narrow: intensity without discipline would be as risky as caution without a plan.
The calendar adds weight to the result. United face a busy October that includes trips to Leeds, Atlético Madrid, Como and Chelsea, as well as domestic fixtures requiring very different approaches. Carrick earned goodwill with last season's recovery, but a run of five league games with one win has used some of it. A convincing performance against Tottenham would not erase the wider questions; it would show that the team has a method capable of surviving the next set of tests. A flat result would invite the opposite conclusion. Spurs need a breakthrough just as badly, which is why neither side can afford to treat this as somebody else's crisis.
There is no single change that will turn Manchester United's opening month into a success. Baleba may improve the midfield's defensive range, but he cannot manufacture the final pass, finish chances for the forwards or prevent every lapse at the back. Recovering players could add options, yet the real measure is how well the available eleven function together. Carrick needs the possession his team already produces to become sustained pressure, and that pressure to become goals and controlled finishes.
Tottenham have their own urgent problems, which is precisely why this is a dangerous fixture for both clubs. A win could buy United breathing room before a crowded run of domestic and European tests; another draw or defeat would sharpen the questions about whether last season's recovery can be repeated. The headline will be the result. The more important evidence will be whether United finally look like a side that knows what to do when it has the ball, when it loses it, and when a match begins to turn.
