The chief allegation levelled at United last season was a simple one: not enough goals. The final table had us exiled in 15th place – easily our lowest finish of the Premier League era – and the number that seemed to glower out from its many rows and columns was “44”
.
That was our goal tally come the end of 2024/25. Only Everton and the three relegated sides scored fewer.
But heading into this latest Premier League weekend, things looked somewhat healthier. While last season we averaged just 1.15 goals per match, this term we're up to 1.7. Only the top two (Arsenal and Manchester City) have scored more than our 26.
It's been a team effort, of course. A club effort. In the summer, the first three senior players in through Carrington's doors were all attackers: Matheus Cunha, then Bryan Mbeumo, followed by Benjamin Sesko.
Goalkeeper Senne Lammens was added on the final day of the transfer window, but the priority was clear: attack, attack, attack.
It has worked, with those new forwards netting nine of our 21 goals in all competitions so far, but one of the trio has been particularly fast out of the blocks, the reigning Premier League Player of the Month, Mbeumo.
The bearded Cameroonian has six goals and one assist in the league to date, but those numbers don't quite sum up the depth of Mbeumo's instantaneous importance to United.
Look through all of our goals from 2025/26, and the 26-year-old is almost always involved. Nowadays, fans are eager to tot up 'goal involvements' – an instinct perhaps driven by the cold, hard business of betting on sports, or playing Fantasy Premier League – and Mbeumo's numbers are strong when it comes to goals and assists, as noted above.
But if we're taking the word 'involvement' at its true meaning, you get a better picture of what Bryan adds. He's always there, in almost every United goal. Think back.
Take our first of the season, away to Fulham: a Leny Yoro header, deflected home by unfortunate Cottagers forward Rodrigo Muniz. The corner that forced the situation was taken by Mbeumo.
At Grimsby, the player opened his own account, instigating our comeback from 2-0 down. He later missed the deciding penalty in the shoot-out – a moment of private agony that might have crippled some.
But three days later he was more influential than ever, against Burnley. An unbelievable crossfield pass helped Diogo Dalot win the free-kick that led to our opening goal (a Casemiro header which rebounded onto Josh Cullen and over the line) and Mbeumo then tapped home Dalot's cutback to restore our advantage in the second half. He was also involved in the move that enabled Amad to win a last-gasp penalty, tucked home by Bruno Fernandes.
Against Chelsea, he nipped the ball past Robert Sanchez to ensure the goalkeeper was dismissed after just five minutes – an incident that laid the platform for a critical 2-1 win.
There he is again, at Brentford, distracting the goalkeeper before Sesko's maiden United goal, and winning the second-half penalty that Fernandes could not convert.
Crossing for Mason Mount's opener against Sunderland. Scoring in front of the Kop to initiate that brilliant win at Anfield. Shooting goalwards to force the ricochet that allowed Bruno to cross for Maguire's dramatic winner.
There were two more goals of his own against Brighton. At Forest, his crosses created the confusion needed before each of our goals there. He headed our first against Spurs, and then won the stoppage-time corner for De Ligt's equaliser, when all hope seemed lost.
You get the idea.
Mbeumo has been behind so much of the good that United have delivered in attacking areas. Impressively, he seems to have simply transported the form he demonstrated at Brentford to his new home. Since the start of last season, he has 26 Premier League goals. Only Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah have more.
United have, of course, signed many good players in the post-Ferguson era, some of whom soared at some of the biggest clubs in the world, but struggled in M16. Everyone knows that prior success means nothing here, but in just 16 appearances so far, Mbeumo has made the so-called 'step up' look a breeze, suggesting a real self-assurance.
We know well what Bryan can do on the pitch, where he's displayed more versatility than a Swiss army knife: right-foot finishes, left-foot finishes, headers, crosses, corners, free-kicks, dribbles, quality movement, graft, guts. But it's perhaps what Mbeumo possess inside that holds the key to his serene start to life at Old Trafford.
“People have come to Manchester United, huge names, and struggled with the pressure,”
mused our former midfielder Owen Hargreaves, who was a pundit on TNT Sports for the Spurs game. “But he just sits there, super-calm, super-chilled.
”He reminds me a little bit of Mo Salah in and around the box. When he gets it, he has a clear picture of exactly what he wants, whether the finish is near post or back post. He almost shows no emotion. It's just business in and around the box, and I love that. You can play into his feet, he can dribble... people have mentioned his touches and how sharp he is. Technically, I don't think he gets enough credit. People talk about his goalscoring, and rightly so, but he's an exceptional football player.“
Off the field, Mbeumo has revealed interests in chess and the piano – hobbies that hint at a character that enjoys deep focus, deep thinking. And, interestingly, that was a quality that his former youth coach at Troyes, Benjamin Bureau, alighted on when speaking to The Athletic recently.
“He was always focused on the game,”
said Bureau, admiringly. “Sometimes when the ball is far away, young players tend to switch off, but he would anticipate.”
Mbeumo's journey to United might also be instructive, when considering the rounded Premier League player he has become. In his early teens, he moved away from his family in Avallon, Burgundy, to join the Troyes academy in Champagne, more than 100km away.
At 19, he moved to Brentford and a new country. Such moves can break a young person. But they can also steel them. Sir Alex Ferguson once revealed that he was convinced Michael Carrick would be a success at United because of the character he had shown at 16 years of age, when moving from his family home in the North East down to West Ham.
Mbeumo's path, from anonymity to Troyes, to Brentford and the Premier League, reveals a similar hardiness. Mbeumo's talent did not take him straight to the top; his rise to stardom has been a long trek. Goals and assists have made our no.19 a household name, but graft and thought underpin everything. Amorim calls him “a working machine”.
You see also a level of humility in the way he interacts with team-mates. The relationship and collaboration he has developed with Amad on the right flank; his joshing with fellow summer signing Matheus Cunha.
While Mbeumo does not have the extrovert qualities of the Brazilian, who bounces into a room like a boxer making his way to the ring, Mbeumo's personality has a quiet, steadying influence.
Both Mbeumo and his new head coach won Premier League awards at the end of October, following United's perfect league record that month. But perhaps the best indication of how important the forward has become to United, in such a short time, was the head coach's honest comments about how we will “suffer”
when Mbeumo and his partner-in-crime, Amad, jet off to the Africa Cup of Nations in December.
Amorim went for some positive spin, nothing that there were plenty of players waiting in the wings, thirsting for opportunities. Players who might have enjoyed more game time in other seasons. But United will undoubtedly miss our leading scorer and his trusty sidekick over the challenging New Year period, because only the aforementioned Haaland and Salah have been more consistent providers of Premier League goals in recent years.
That's a concern for the short term, though. The long-term picture is that Mbeumo's move to United has been a great boon for Amorim's improving squad.
We're only a few months in, but this quiet, thoughtful, confident player already feels like an integral part of the Reds' future.
This article first featured in United Review, our official matchday programme, available online and in-person at all home games.