Wolves draw sums up Man Utd’s year: Hope followed by howlers
MANCHESTER — “We’ve got a point; we’ve got a point,” chanted the Wolverhampton Wanderers fans in the corner of Old Trafford at the end of Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United.
You can understand their surprise after 11 Premier League defeats in a row, but it won’t have come as a major shock to the home fans who have seen plenty of performances like this in 2025.
For head coach Ruben Amorim, United’s final game of the calendar year was another reminder of just how much work there is to do to get this team back to where he wants them to be.
Again, the momentum generated by the Boxing Day win over Newcastle United was halted — this time by the worst side in the division.
Except Wolves didn’t look like the Premier League’s worst team and for that they had United to thank for throwing in the type of insipid display which has pockmarked Amorim’s 13-month reign.
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There was no real goal threat, a lack of pace and imagination, and ultimately a dour draw which was greeted with boos at full time.
“I understand why we play the way we play today, lack of fluidity, lack of one against one,” Amorim said.
“We knew it would be a completely different game [than against Newcastle] when we have more space to play. We didn’t have to work the play so much and today we have difficulties in that aspect. That is clear.”
It said everything about the performance that United’s best player was their goalkeeper Senne Lammens.
Had he not made two fantastic saves, one either side of halftime, the travelling Wolves fans would have been celebrating a first league victory of the season and the end of the longest winless start to a top-flight campaign since 1902.
They were happy at full time — understandably after a first point since Oct. 5 — but it could have been more.
Wolves generated a higher xG (1.02 to 0.81) and had more touches in the opposition penalty area (22 to 21).
United thought they had snatched a stoppage-time winner only for Patrick Dorgu‘s effort to be ruled out by the linesman’s flag. It would have been harsh on Wolves had it counted.
“It is nice to take something,” said manager Rob Edwards, who earned his first draw as Wolves boss since his appointment on Nov. 12.
“I do feel it is the least we deserved. It’s progress. We are better than three points, but the reality is that it is what we are on.”
Edwards can feel aggrieved at the nature of United’s goal.
It was Joshua Zirkzee who found the net, but only after his shot from the edge of the box took a sizable deflection off Ladislav Krejcí.
Other than that, Wolves keeper José Sá had little else to do apart from claw away a header from his own defender, Yerson Mosquera.
And there lies one of Amorim’s big problems.
Too often against teams happy to soak up pressure United struggle to find a way through.
Without Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo, Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo and Mason Mount against Wolves, there was very little in the way of creativity.
It has become a running theme at Old Trafford and it’s now just three points from a possible 12 in home games against Everton, West Ham United, Bournemouth and Wolves.
It didn’t help that Matheus Cunha, once of Molineux, had his worst game in a United shirt and that Zirkzee looks like a player who knows he might be leaving in January.
Zirkzee, poor as a substitute against Newcastle, is a good example of the predicament in which Amorim currently finds himself. He has done little in the past 18 months to prove he’s good enough, but right now Zirkzee is needed at Old Trafford. There’s interest from AS Roma and it’s possible he could move before the end of the window, which opens on Thursday. But nothing will happen until Mbeumo and Amad return from the Africa Cup of Nations and, even then, he could stay beyond the deadline.
Amorim revealed afterwards that Zirkzee’s substitution at halftime was “tactical.”
And yet with so few options for Amorim, he could be needed to start again against Leeds United at Elland Road on Sunday. The player United are banking on to be their headline goal scorer, Benjamin Sesko, is also struggling after finding the net just twice all season.
Sesko had three chances against Wolves, but when one tame header fell straight to Sá he showed his frustration by kicking the post.
“I think we are in one situation that you have a lot of players out at the same time,” Amorim said.
“When you play Casemiro and [Manuel] Ugarte in the middle you know it is different from when you have Bruno or Kobbie.
“We just need to recover our players from AFCON. We have lack of fluidity and then lack of quality and then we suffer a goal from set pieces.”
There’s an acceptance from most United supporters that Amorim is working with a thin squad and dealing with a long list of absentees.
However, there will also be questions about why he decided to revert to a back three against the Premier League’s bottom team when a back four had worked against Newcastle.
There were boos, too, when he swapped Ayden Heaven for Leny Yoro when United needed a goal and chants of “attack, attack, attack” in the second half.
Afterward, Amorim insisted he’s “really confident” that things will pick up once the likes of Mbeumo, Amad and Fernandes are back, but heading into 2026 there are plenty of fans who still need convincing that he’s the right man to lead the turnaround.
Against Wolves, Manchester United’s up-and-down season took another dive in the wrong direction.