Manchester United are planning a forward-looking approach to strengthen central midfield next summer after a patchy start to the 2025\u201326 league campaign. The club identified a need for a true No.6 to provide balance and control in the centre of the pitch.<\/p>\n
Interest was shown in Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Carlos Baleba but that pursuit did not progress. The Daily Telegraph writes that Baleba, Elliot Anderson and Adam Wharton \u201cmore than fit the bill\u201d for what United and others are searching for.<\/p>\n
Baleba is 21 and is valued by Brighton at more than \u00a3100 million ($134.5 million). He was discovered by Lille and moved to France as soon as FIFA\u2019s international transfer laws allowed in 2022. Before Brighton paid \u00a323.2 million to sign him 18 months later, he had made only 23 first-team appearances.<\/p>\n
Anderson, 22, and Wharton, 21, tick similar boxes. Both are young talents with their peak years ahead of them, but are equally already proven in the Premier League, each playing their into the senior England squad with Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace respectively.<\/p>\n
Any one of the trio is described as a potential boost to Ruben Amorim\u2019s side. The manager has favoured a 3-4-2-1 shape that requires an energetic midfield figure to knit the team together. That need has been exposed in recent weeks as United have lacked consistent midfield control.<\/p>\n
So far in the Premier League this season Amorim has tended to start Casemiro, 33, alongside club captain Bruno Fernandes, a player arguably better suited to a more attacking No. 10 role. Manuel Ugarte was substituted on for Casemiro in the Manchester derby, but that remains the only league fixture the Uruguayan has started.<\/p>\n
The picture the club is reportedly compiling is of three young, Premier League-proven options who could provide the defensive midfield platform currently missing in United\u2019s system. Any acquisition would be judged on its ability to deliver energy and balance in the centre of the pitch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United are weighing three young midfielders as solutions after a disjointed start to 2025\u201326. Season<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,969],"tags":[216,215,939],"class_list":["post-3060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-adam-wharton","tag-carlos-baleba","tag-casemiro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}