Paul Scholes has rated Manchester United’s title chances under Michael Carrick this season and has tipped four starters to be replaced ahead of the next campaign.
The Red Devils are off to an inauspicious start to the 2026/27 season, losing 2-0 to Hull City on the opening day before thumping Ipswich Town 5-2 and then drawing 2-2 with Everton.
In Carrick’s first transfer window at the helm the club spent around £150m to revamp the midfield, with Andrey Santos drafted in from Chelsea, Youri Tielemans arriving from Aston Villa and Carlos Baleba joining from Brighton.
Ahead of United’s return to Champion League action on Thursday against Azerbaijani side Sabah, Scholes reflected on what his former side have achieved in the transfer window and what still needs to be be done for them to become genuine Premier League contenders once again.
At this stage he insists they have “no chance” of challenging Arsenal as he believes the defence – after conceding two goals in each of their first three games of the season – is “not good enough” and hasn’t been for a long time.
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With the forward line overhauled in the summer of 2025 and the midfield sorted out this time around, Scholes reckons the Red Devils will have an all new back four for the 2027/28 season.
“They will be top four, but don’t be expecting a title challenge, no chance,” Scholes said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast when asked about his expectation for United this season.
“It’s obvious that defensively they’re not good enough. They are going to concede goals. Recruitment wise, it seems they’re sorting it section by section. They did the forwards last year, very good, they’ve done the midfield this year, we still don’t know if that will work. There are players in there potentially who could be good, [Andrey] Santos and [Carlos] Baleba, we don’t know how good they will be. If those two come together they might help the team defensively.
“But the back four has not been touched and they’ve not been touched in years and they’ve not been good enough for years. So how you expect that to get better I don’t know.
“I’d expect next summer, hopefully Michael is still there and they have a decent season, I think they’ll have a new back four next season.
“It’s almost conceding this year that we’re not going to challenge for the league. That’s not Man United.”