Manchester United Empire

🚨 Casemiro is one yellow card away from serving an automatic one-match suspension in the Premier League. He picked up his sixth booking of the season in the 1-0 defeat to Everton on Monday night, and will serve a one-match ban if he receives another during the next seven matches. Patrick Dorgu is also one yellow card away from serving an automatic one-match suspension in the Premier League. He picked up his fourth booking of the campaign in the 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur before the November international break, but did not pick up another against Everton. [Rich Fay]

🚨 BREAKING: Roma have Zirkzee’s approval and agent commissions are sorted — now they must find an agreement with Manchester United. Roma want a loan + buy option, but United prefer a permanent sale in January. Roma can’t buy in January due to UEFA restrictions, so they want to delay the €25–30M payment to summer, depending on their final league position. [CorSport, Sport Witness]

🎙️♥️ Senne Lammens on his goalkeeping idols: "Of course, Thibaut Courtois, because he's also from Belgium. I also watched him a lot growing up, especially in the national team when we played [in] World Cups and European Championships. "I think [Manuel] Neuer also is a big example for me because he's so all around, with his feet and helping the defence as well behind him. I think those two are the biggest, to be honest."

🗣️ Ferguson: "You are 1-0 down with 15 minutes to go. What's the point of keeping your back 4 and regular midfield? Of course there is a risk, but remember the dressing room after we scored those last minute goals? It was electric, absolutely electric. The fans can't wait to go to the pub to talk about, that is the value! That risk should ALWAYS be there at Manchester United!" 🚨 Last Monday, Manchester United had 10 players inside their own half in minute 88, despite being 1-0 down vs 10 men.

💣🚨Bournemouth technical director Simon Francis will reportedly advise Semenyo to choose Manchester United if the player expresses a desire to leave. [TEAMtalk]

🚨 Manchester United are assessing their options to strengthen their midfield and the recruitment plan next summer revolves around bringing in at least one top-level central midfielder. Elliot Anderson, Adam Wharton and Carlos Baleba are all among the names in the frame. Work has also been done to assess Wolves pair João Gomes and André, as well as Angelo Stiller and Conor Gallagher. [Rob Dawson ESPN]

🚨 Manchester United are one of the clubs monitoring James Garner’s situation, with his current contract set to expire at the end of this season. [alex crook]

🚨 Manchester United are privately targeting a top six finish in the Premier League this season and their budget would be buoyed by European qualification. The club hope to make major savings on their wage bill, with the cull saving a possible £2.1M a week. Manchester United are prepared to back Ruben Amorim with another clear-out to fund the next phase of their squad rebuild. [samuel luckhurst]

🚨🚨 Manchester United are now the second most valuable club in the world, valued at around $6.6B. They generated $834M in revenue last season, making them the most valuable club in the Premier League. [Forbes]

🚨 Manchester United are scouting RB Leipzig midfielder Assan Ouédraogo. [Plettigoal]

🚨 Diego Leon will go out on loan in January. The intention is to loan him to OGC Nice for six months.

🚨 BREAKING: Manchester United will accelerate discussions over the Africa Cup of Nations release dates for Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui following Monday’s defeat by Everton. Under AFCON rules, players must be released two weeks before their opening games. Morocco play in the tournament opener against Comoros on December 21, while Ivory Coast and Cameroon are first in action on Christmas Eve, so technically they shouldn’t stay with United any later than the Wolves game on December 8. Club sources say nothing has been decided yet. United struck a deal with Cameroon so Andre Onana ended up missing only one game during the last AFCON two years ago, and Amorim confirmed last week that the club are exploring ways to hold onto Mbeumo, Diallo and Mazraoui for as long as possible.

✅️ Diego Leon and Sekou Kone are two of the young United players who could go out on loan in January, and Ayden Heaven’s situation is also likely to be assessed. United having only one game a week has certainly put a major roadblock in Heaven’s development path. [Chris Wheeler]

🗣️ Andy Mitten on the positions United want to sign: "I’ve mentioned a few times, the central midfield area is going to be a priority. I’ve seen it consistently, a couple of central midfielders and a defender. Maybe, depending on the market, another attacker from a wide position."

🗣️ Andy Mitten: "I mentioned Elliot Anderson a couple of weeks ago. Absolutely Manchester United would love to sign him. It is obvious. He’s absolutely the player that Manchester United want."

🚨 BREAKING: Manchester United are hiring Kyle Macaulay as their new Head of Senior Scouting. The former Brighton, Chelsea, and West Ham analyst will report to Christopher Vivell. Kyle Macaulay discovered Moisés Caicedo for £4M, Kaoru Mitoma from Japan and Marc Cucurella. [David Ornstein, laurie whitwell]

🗣 De Ligt: “I had one shot on target and scored one goal for Everton? It's frustrating, but that's football. The Premier League is not for the faint-hearted. One chance can lead to a goal. They scored from one chance and we didn't, and that's what made the difference today.”

🗣 Ruben Amorim: "I feel afraid of returning to this feeling of last season, that is my biggest fear, we need to work together and we need to be better." "Today, it wasn't an individual mistake, it was the team. When you see the results from the weekend, you have to go out on the pitch with a different mindset." “We didn't understand the match and that's my fault. I need to explain better to the players how to play in each situation during the match.” “When you have more players with different characteristics, notably Cunha or Sesko,you have more options for scoring, especially against low blocks.” “I know where we stand. We are far from where we should be. There is still a lot to do to fight for the top spots in this championship.” "We cannot change the past and feel sorry for ourselves. We must prepare for the next game and understand that we have to play every match with intensity to win." on Gaya’s red card: “Fighting isn't a bad thing. It doesn't mean they don't love each other. Fighting means saying, 'If you lose the ball, you'll see.' That's my opinion. I don't agree with this sending off. I want to see my players fight each other when they lose the ball.” on Everton: “They were better with 11 and with 10.” “What could I have done better? Everything. I don't want to single anything out in particular. We didn't play well. We didn't understand how to play. That's my biggest concern.” “Surprised? Of course, but I've said several times that we still have a lot of work to do. I'm really frustrated with the way we played, especially at home, and when I see what happened this weekend with the other clubs, when I look at the table and see how we played from the first minute, it's really frustrating.” “The most important thing is intensity. You can feel it right from the start of the match, from the very first minute. You can tell whether there's intensity or not. And when there isn't, you can't win.” “I'm really frustrated, like everyone who supports Man United. The way we started the match, our inability to understand how to play against a team reduced to 10 men. They deserved to win. We had chances, but the quality and decision-making weren't there.” “Let's forget about the result. The result is really bad, but I was more concerned about the feeling I had during the match. Everyone should have played better today.”

🗣 David Ornstein on the futures of Zirkzee and Mainoo at United: “First and foremost there’s still a lot of time until the January window opens. We cannot saying anything with certainty, there’s no concrete news and nothing is set in stone. I think West Ham have shown an interest in Zirkzee. Reports say Roma too in Italy, but from what I hear that’s not necessarily the case. There’s been no progress on a new contract for Kobbie Mainoo that expires in 2027, there’s an option to extend it by a year. United would need a replacement if he was to go. There have been reports about Joao Gomes, sources I’ve spoken to around Molineux are playing it down. If Wolves are staring at relegation in January they might look to cash in on him then.”

⁉️ | HOW DID IT GO SO WRONG TODAY? 😳 | An embarrassing, agonisingly frustrating night at Old Trafford as United lose to 10-man Everton after a moment of madness between two of their own players. It is criminal - in a footballing sense - that United have not capitalised and fact that “attack, attack, attack” was being bellowed to a side playing with a man advantage says it all. Absolutely lamentable. 👎 | It was passive, slack and lacking in any urgency from United, with a lot of the ball used not remotely efficiently. Everton managed the game very well and defended expertly, but United were absent of idea and quality to break down the compact man-less defence. There is no doubt they played into the hands of their opposition, which included facilitating Everton’s canny gamesmanship with far too many fouls. ❌ | United offered too little of meaningful proportion in the final third, with no penetration and poor decision-making. They reverted to a mindless amount of crosses to no focal point or willingness to attack the ball - and against two giant centre-backs. Why this now, without Benjamin Sesko? Strange, to say the least. And when chances did come, execution wavered. 💭 | It did not feel as though United problem-solved they should in the man-more situation, instead persisting with something of a non-sensical approach, which often ended up with the wrong men in the wrong positions. They needed to be much more clever against the experience of the Everton defence but needed up being blunt and one-dimensional. 🔎 | Keeping a third man at centre-back seemed counterproductive - an example of where United could be more flexible. Yet somehow, there still felt a vulnerability, as shown by the all-too-easy first-half goal. This is a wake-up call as to the limitations that remain after a positive recent run at Old Trafford. Ultimately, a dreadful night that leaves United three games winless. #MUFC #MANUTD