Steven Gerrard worked his way through Manchester United’s spine and found most of it wanting. Speaking on The Overlap Daily, he named six players he believes should have been moved on by now, including a defender he once lined up alongside for England.

The verdict landed two days after a 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth left United 16th in the Premier League and Michael Carrick’s job hanging by a thread.

Gerrard’s six:

• Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw, the two defenders he grouped together as players who had “a really good career” but no longer belong at Old Trafford.
• Lisandro Martínez, criticised for being “only interested in the World Cup” last season before an injury.
• Andrey Santos, the £50m midfielder signed from Chelsea, dismissed as “not a Manchester United player”.
• Carlos Baleba, the £70m summer buy from Brighton, said to have potential but “not ready to help Manchester United compete at the top of the league now”.
• Amad Diallo, called “hot and cold” and said to have offered nothing this season.

“They’re not Manchester United players anymore. They should have been moved on quicker,” Gerrard said of the back line.

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He reserved his sharpest point for the club’s recruitment, asking why United keep signing players he regards as beneath the standard the shirt demands.

Shaw was in the England squad Gerrard captained at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, called up as an 18-year-old Southampton defender. Twelve years on, he is one of three defenders Gerrard says the club should have replaced long ago.

Scholes names Fernandes and Martinez as the two he would sell

The praise, such as it was, went to Bruno Fernandes. Gerrard called the captain “a pleasure to watch” and the one outstanding talent in the squad.

Paul Scholes went a different way on the same day. On his The Good, the Bad & the Football podcast, the former United midfielder named Fernandes and Martínez as the two he would sell, calling Fernandes’s conduct the previous weekend “unforgivable”.

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NYSE listing holds up Carrick announcement

Carrick, who has not won in eight matches and has overseen the club’s worst-ever start to a season, remains Manchester United head coach as of Tuesday. An expected announcement on his future did not come on Monday because United’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange obliges the club to meet US disclosure rules before confirming a change of head coach.

Eddie Howe and Julian Nagelsmann are the two names most frequently linked with the vacancy. Gerrard, who has been out of management since leaving Al-Ettifaq in January 2025, has himself been linked with the vacant Burnley job in recent weeks.

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