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Manchester United sink to penalty defeat to Grimsby Town on a sorry night for the Red Devils on the River Humber.

The informed opinion among soccer analysts has been that Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim—formerly a right-sided midfielder for Portugal (14 caps) and Benfica (2008–17)—had a system but not the players. Yet after spending around £200 million before the 2025–26 season to recruit from the Bundesliga’s RB Leipzig, Slovenia’s right-footed centre-forward Benjamin Sesko; from Wolves, the right-footed Brazilian centre-forward/inside-left Matheus Cunha; and from Brentford, the left-footed winger Bryan Mbeumo (often inverted on the right), United were unceremoniously dumped out of the League Cup in the second round at fourth-tier Grimsby Town, losing at their coastal ground in Lincolnshire where the River Humber meets the North Sea.

United trailed 0–2 at half-time. Eyebrows had already been raised after Amorim failed to win his first league game at Old Trafford, losing 0–1 to Arsenal. In the 13th minute, Italian left-back Riccardo Calafiori headed in at the back post after goalkeeper Altay Bayındır—preferred to Cameroon’s sometimes hapless André Onana—could only paw away Declan Rice’s vicious, right-footed inswinging corner from the left.



United had taken just one point from their first two games. Away to Fulham, they led 1–0 when an own goal was credited to Brazilian striker Rodrigo Muniz on 58 minutes, although centre-back Leny Yoro seemed to have headed in Fernandes’ right-wing corner. The forward line’s start to the new campaign looked as ignominious as the end of the previous one. Defensively, United were caught square by a right-footed cross from the left by Nigeria’s Alex Iwobi. With Yoro and Matthijs de Ligt ball-watching, Emile Smith Rowe—on for Joshua King in the 71st minute—darted in at the near post ahead of the left-footed Luke Shaw and finished right-footed past Bayındır for 1–1.



In that first home game, Shaw, a left-back by trade, started on the left of Amorim’s preferred back three, with Portugal’s Diogo Dalot as a right wing-back—tactically sensible. As a defensive wing-back, Dalot could tuck in as a right-back when pressure mounted. Selecting a defensive right wing-back and a left-back allowed United to switch to a back four when required while still having the option to attack down the right. Consequently, Amorim’s 1-3-4-3 relied on choosing either a left-back plus two centre-backs or a right-back plus two centre-backs, complemented by defensive/attacking wing-backs on the flanks.

However, Amorim habitually selected three out-and-out centre-backs, evoking an old-style half-back line most familiar to supporters from the 1968 European Cup-winning side that beat Benfica 4–1 (1–1 a.e.t.) at Wembley: Pat Crerand (right-half), Bill Foulkes (centre-half), and Nobby Stiles (left-half). In that model the half-backs are ball-playing midfielders, with only the centre-half a pure stopper, flanked by rugged full-backs. Without similar ball-playing ability, Amorim’s trio of orthodox centre-backs became redundant as a platform. In short, twin centre-backs plus a full-back, with one defensive wing-back and perhaps an attacking wing-back opposite, is manageable—unless the back-three have the requisite skill, which hadn’t been evident.



Substitutions, crucial in such a system, also merit scrutiny. Leaving aside Amorim replacing top scorer Marcus Rashford, inverted at inside-left, with right-footed attacking midfielder Mason Mount—older fans will recall Dave Sexton replacing top-scoring winger Gordon Hill with Wales’ industrious Mickey Thomas in 1978—another telling decision was dropping the goalscoring Argentine right-winger Alejandro Garnacho in favour of Ivory Coast’s left-footed Amad Diallo as a right wing-back.

Selecting Amad—joint top scorer with Portugal’s Bruno Fernandes on eight goals in 2024–25—as a left-footed attacker on the right side of the pitch felt more punitive than strategic. Against Arsenal, 0–1 down after 13 minutes, Amorim’s first change on 55 minutes was Diallo (an attacking wing-back) for Dalot (a defensive wing-back). Later, Shaw made way on 80 minutes for Harry Maguire, joining Yoro and de Ligt to form a trio of natural centre-backs—seemingly to compensate for Amad on the right—while Denmark’s Patrick Dorgu continued on the left.



United’s core defensive problem was technical: they were too “square”. Centre-backs aligned in a straight line parallel to the goal are easily beaten by through-balls. By contrast, specialist full-backs, naturally left and right-sided, tend to defend in zones and on the half-turn rather than square-on.



At Fulham’s Craven Cottage, Amorim started Diallo as an attacking right wing-back, but despite taking the lead via Muniz’s own goal on 58 minutes, United could not close the game out after Dalot replaced Amad on 52 minutes to shore up the flank; it finished 1–1. In the League Cup at Deepdale, Tyler Fredricson (20), Maguire (32), and Ayden Heaven (18) formed a flat back three, with Dalot at right wing-back and Diallo as an inverted inside-right. United went 0–2 down inside half an hour, a product of inexperience and the formation’s tendency to be caught square.



In the 22nd minute, Heaven shuffled across to meet Irish right-winger Darragh Burns, who cut a left-footed cross from the right edge of the box beyond Maguire and Fredricson. The square defence turned to chase. Left-winger Charles Vernam arrived inside the box and drilled low, right-footed inside Onana’s right post for 0–1. On 30 minutes, after a short corner, Vernam delivered another cross from the left edge of the box, and Onana flapped, leaving right-back Tyrell Warren to tap in behind the error-prone keeper for 0–2.



Unsurprisingly for a squad with rare Premier League talent, United rallied late to 2–2. Mbeumo—on for Dorgu at half-time—curled a low left-footer from the right of the D into Christy Pym’s bottom-left corner on 75 minutes (1–2), before Maguire headed in at the far post from a Mount corner on 89 minutes (2–2). Cunha could have won the shoot-out at 5–3, but Pym saved low to his left. The penalties continued; at 11–12, Mbeumo struck the bar and United lost in sudden death.