Mbeumo scores, Man Utd still can't win

Mbeumo got on the scoresheet again on 18 October, the latest entry in a run of form that looks increasingly like a one-man rescue mission. The goal itself will do little to change the conversation inside Old Trafford, because the result around it didn't give United the three points their position in the table badly needs.

United go into the fixture sitting 13th in the Premier League, with seven points from seven games: one win, four draws, two defeats, and a goal difference sat flat at zero. That's a club with United's history and resources producing numbers that belong nowhere near a side of this size.

The dugout has shown flashes, Mbeumo's continued scoring among them, but flashes aren't form. A goal at Elland Road against Leeds was supposed to be the platform for a result that steadies things. Instead it's another data point in a pattern: United score, United still don't win.

Mbeumo's numbers are starting to separate from the team's. He arrived at the club carrying goalscoring pedigree, and nothing since has suggested that dried up, it's the collective that's stalling around him. With the manager under scrutiny, having your most reliable attacker still delivering is the one thing keeping the worst questions at bay, for now.

Goals from Mbeumo were never supposed to be the plan, they were supposed to be the bonus on top of a functioning team. Instead they're carrying a side that can't turn promising moments into victories, and every week that run extends, the pressure on the touchline gets heavier.