Manchester United are sliding back into ‘crisis’ mode, which makes a trip across the Pennines to play in form Leeds United a particularly daunting looking fixture.
A break for European football didn’t improve the mood around Old Trafford
For Manchester United fans, history is starting to repeat itself. Beaten comfortably by Atlético Madrid in the Champions League in midweek, they’re without a Premier League win since the end of August – their only one of the season so far – and the pressure is starting to build under head coach Michael Carrick.
As such, this is probably about the worst time to be having to travel across the Pennine hills to take on a Leeds United team who will be gunning to only increase the pain for their bitter rivals, and who have been in the sort of form this season which may facilitate such a result, with defeat at Arsenal last weekend being their first in the league.
Leeds’ win at Old Trafford in April was their first in 16 years
The last time these two sides met, at Old Trafford in April, Leeds recorded their first win against Manchester United since they knocked them out of the FA Cup in January 2010. Between those two fixtures, the two sides had met each other eight times, with Manchester United winning five and three draws.
Lisandro Martínez will inevitably be the centre of attention at Elland Road
All eyes will be on Lisandro Martínez on Sunday, in light of the explosive comments that he made following Tuesday night’s defeat in Madrid. Martínez’s form has been such that some may be tempted to think “physician heal thyself” when it comes to criticism of other players, and the atmosphere in the dressing room may have been somewhat frosty once he returned to it following that already notorious post-match interview.
With four goals in all competitions and a recall to the England squad, Dominic Calvert-Lewin has continued the strong form he showed last season following his transfer from Everton. He got eight minutes as a substitute against Czechia and has the capability to do some serious damage to a creaky-looking Manchester United defence.
Manchester United have two additional injury issues to worry about
Kobbie Mainoo and Luke Shaw are the latest injury doubts for Manchester United, who will. also be missing Benjamin Šeško, Patrick Dorgu, Matthijs de Ligt, Manuel Ugarte and Tom Heaton, while Noussair Mazrauoi is still being assessed. Mainoo isn’t expected back until the end of the month while Shaw, whose injury problems precede him, is a big loss for a club who didn’t strengthen their defence during the summer transfer window.
The big question mark hanging over Leeds ahead of this match concerns Daniel James, who missed their trip to Arsenal and may not be available for this match either. This would be a huge disappointment for the winger, who started his senior career at Old Trafford. Mateo Joseph and Joe Rodon are longer term absentees for Leeds.
Manchester United showed improvement at Atlético but there’s some serious work to be done
The great irony of the palaver that followed Manchester United’s midweek defeat in Madrid was that this wasn’t their worst performance of the season by a long chalk. It was certainly an improvement on their lacklustre display against Spurs last weekend.
But that doesn’t mean that the pressure is starting to build under Michael Carrick. He certainly exceeded expectations at Old Trafford last season in returning the club to the Champions League, but doubts were raised over his suitability for the position in a long-term sense at the time and those doubts seem to be manifesting in real time.
Ironically, what’s happened to his Leeds counterpart Daniel Farke offers a cautionary tale in terms of sacking managers. Farke was largely believed to be on borrowed time even after Leeds returned to the Premier League in 2025, but he steadied them last season and has built a team with a spine of steel this time around, who’ve defied expectations.
In that case, the decision to stick with Farke turned out to be the right one, though only hindsight offers the clarity of vision required to be able to see that. But the situation at Old Trafford is different. There’s no obvious replacement for Carrick, but Manchester United have tricky-looking fixtures against Chelsea and Aston Villa to come before the November international break. He needs improvement from his team, and he needs it immediately.
But if Leeds United are fired up for any fixture throughout a Premier League season, it’s always against Manchester United, and although they lost at Arsenal last week they put in a good performance and will be unhappy at not having taken something from that fixture. That in itself says something profound about the improvement they’ve shown this season, so I’m going to call this one as a 3-0 win for Leeds and for Carrick to be a couple of steps closer to the exit door by the end of the weekend.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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