Man Utd will be in Premier League relegation zone in December says Paul Merson as Michael Carrick's side hit by poor recruitment

Paul Merson is back with his latest Sky Sports column with a damning condemnation of Manchester United's recent form and a grim prediction for their upcoming prospects.

United were beaten 2-0 at Chelsea on Saturday as they dropped to fourth-bottom of the Premier League, having gone almost two months without a win in all competitions and beating only Ipswich in the league this season.

Goal difference is all which currently separates them from the relegation zone ahead of Crystal Palace - but Merson believes things will get worse before they get better for Carrick and his side.

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'Man Utd will be in bottom three in a month'

The first half at Chelsea was alright and then they shot themselves in the foot. What can Michael Carrick do about that? It doesn't matter who's sat on the bench, you could have Carlo Ancelotti, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson in the dugout, and you're not winning a football match.

The problem is the fans love Carrick. The people above, if they're making decisions, they've got to be careful. Then the fans go against them - they can see it's not really Carrick, is it?

Do the people making the decisions upstairs want the fans to turn on them? When that happens, they'll have to go because they'll be under scrutiny. They're not at the moment, because they're keeping the manager.

On December 5, they play Coventry. I'd be shocked if they're not in the bottom three by then. That'll be about a third of the season gone then. They might go and get a big result, Villa looked beatable the other day.

I don't see them getting relegated, absolutely not. But this is not Manchester United.

'Martinez would have never played again under Fergie'

The problem they have at the moment is they're just up against it in a situation where it's out of the manager's hands.

These players earn so much money, some of them will just go out and do and say what they want. They don't get punished, they're just playing the game.

When Lisandro Martinez then goes and gets sent off like that, if it was under Ferguson he'd never play for them again. But they haven't got a squad.

There's no quick fix. They got it all wrong upstairs. The first window, they went for the forward line but it wasn't good enough. Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko, they're nice players but they're not 20-25 goal-a-season players.

You've got to be a seven, seven and a half out of 10 every week at Manchester United. But they're a four one week, a nine the next. You can play for Wolves or Brentford and do that, no disrespect. The day you're a nine you win the match and everyone's pleased. When you're a four, people say that's just the way it is.

'Where's the balance? You can't build a house on a puddle'

The midfield they bought - I'd love to see what they saw paying £50m for Andre Santos. Tell me what you saw that I didn't when I was watching him every week at Chelsea.

Youri Tielemans, he's a good player but there's no legs around him in the team. He had legs around him when he was playing at Villa.

And then Carlos Baleba's been asked to come into a team that's not very good and be the saviour. He's a kid who played at Brighton, the way that they play, and if they won, they won and if they lost, they lost.

If Brighton had gone to Manchester City on Saturday and got beaten 4-0, no-one would have said a dickie bird. And Manchester United lose at Chelsea, they're fourth-bottom, and everyone's going mad. He must be thinking, 'oh my God'. I like him but he needs time.

How do I know there's no balance in the midfield they've bought and they don't? Two years ago, you're looking at Casemiro and saying he's a million miles off it. Now you look at it and think they miss him.

And now they say they'll work on the defence in the next window. It's madness - you can't build a house on a puddle. You just can't. Why not start with the defence first and then go from there?

They say they're going to go and outscore teams but they haven't bought players who score enough goals.

I don't know where everyone expects them to be. I didn't expect them to beat Como, I didn't expect them to beat Bournemouth, I didn't expect them to beat Chelsea and I don't expect them to beat Villa.

(c) Sky Sports 2026: Man Utd will be in Premier League relegation zone in December says Paul Merson as Michael Carrick's side hit by poor recruitment