A passenger, an irrelevance and one who has regressed - Man United’s issues show colossal challenge

Manchester United’s poor run of form has continued to highlight the problems the club will face in the transfer market during the summer.

New co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos have taken on the sporting side at Old Trafford, and are understood to be willing to embark on a substantial rebuild of the squad, with key areas such as a centre-back, full-back, defensive midfielder and forward earmarked. The woeful structure and performances, however, suggest that United may need more serious renovation work to close the gap on the likes of Arsenal, Man City and Liverpool above them.

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Casemiro’s form, the lack of midfield options and a poor goalscoring return are all hampering United this season. Chief United writer Samuel Luckhurst and Steven Railston spoke about many of the issues in this week’s edition of Manchester is Red in the aftermath of the 22 draw at Bournemouth and with the FA Cup semi-final on the horizon.

How bad is Casemiro? More to the point, how bad is Amrabat?

SR: “Casemiro is a passenger, he has been for weeks. His positioning is bizarre at the moment, his legs do seem to have gone, his passing has been poor. There were a few times when he lunged in, really rash.

SL: “Casemiro is on his last legs but he would play on one leg with Sofyan Amrabat there. How bad is Casemiro, but how bad must Amrabat be when he’s not getting a look in? He’s a player who played for the manager, who the manager pushed to sign and they signed him on deadline day.

"He is an irrelevance at the moment. He's had one start since Liverpool game at Anfield on December 17. One start for United since then. Yes he was on AFCON duty but we know from Onana situation the players didn’t miss that many games. We are on repeat here with Casemiro. They have to sell him in the summer. The most important signing United will make in the summer is the midfield player to go with Mainoo.”

Is Mason Mount and Kobbie Mainoo a viable midfield partnership?

SL: “For all his faults, Casemiro does have know-how and experience and when he was unavailable for Liverpool it was seen as a setback. For the cup semi-final, even though he will be playing by default, you keep him in there.

“But when it comes to Seffield United on Wednesday you reunite Mainoo and Mount, who started pre-season together, and you see if they can develop a rapport. And if they do well - or even if they don’t do well necessarily, depending on the result - let them go again against Burnley three days later.

“Then it would be a nine-day gap until the Palace game on the Monday night. That would be more testing. Palace had a really good result (against Liverpool) and they seem to have made a really good signing in (Adam) Wharton from Blackburn - he looks a really good player in midfield so that would be a good challenge for United coming up against them.”

Rasmus Hojlund's form since his return from injury

SL: “He didn’t play very well at all (against Bournemouth) and he hasn’t played well since he came back from injury. Unfortunately he has regressed on a personal note. He looks like the striker who was struggling through Premier League games in October, November and the early part of December when there was no conviction there.

“With Hojlund, there is potential there. But I said it in pre-season, they needed a proven goalscorer, not an unproven goalscorer, and in the end they’ve invested £72million on a 20-year-old who had a very modest goalscoring record. You have to laugh, you look at Atalanta and their striker now, (Gianluca) Scamacca, who is a West Ham reject, he’s actually got more goals for them this season than Hojlund got for them last season.”

Jadon Sancho has intimated he would be open to a return…

SL: “It doesn’t matter if Ten Hag is dead man walking, you can’t have a player acting that way. Sancho got the treatment he deserved and he should never play for United again, regardless of whether Ten hag is in charge next season or someone else."