Manchester United will be hoping to avoid a similar League Cup embarrassment to the one they suffered under Louis van Gaal – 11 years ago now – when they head to Grimsby Town.
Isaac is a senior NCTJ-trained journalist with an MA in News Journalism. He has experience of working for national and regional news organisations including the Express, the Mirror and the Manchester Evening News. He currently covers sport across all national and regional sites at Reach PLC.
Man Utd head coach Ruben Amorim.(Image: CameraSport via Getty Images)
Manchester United will be chasing their first win of the season when they travel to Grimsby Town tonight.
It’s perhaps no surprise that Ruben Amorim‘s team have made a slow start to 2025/26. United‘s opening fixture against Arsenal was always going to be a tall order, considering the opposing directions of both clubs in recent times.
The Reds played well in their 1-0 defeat to Mikel Arteta’s side – but still lost at home to a team they earned a point against last term. The 1-1 draw at Fulham a week later was perhaps of greater concern, although United have rarely had an easy game at Craven Cottage in recent times.
Now, Amorim’s men face two games they dare not lose – against Grimsby and Burnley. In the eyes of some, only convincing wins will do, but United will take any victory at this stage.
And there are, eerily, similar parallels for Amorim to one of his many predecessors over the past decade. Louis van Gaal took a winless United side to MK Dons 11 years ago after a defeat and a draw in their opening two games that season.
Van Gaal picked a much-changed team which featured Anderson, Shinji Kagawa, Will Keane and Nick Powell for a second round League Cup tie. Just like United in 2025, the Reds failed to qualify for Europe the previous season, so they were placed in an earlier round of what was then called the Capital One Cup.
The resulting 90 minutes were among the most sobering in United’s long history, with braces from Will Grigg and Benik Afobe handing Van Gaal’s strugglers a 4-0 humiliation in front of 26,969 people.
There was a certain irony that day when the Reds unveiled the signing of Angel di Maria from Real Madrid for a then-British record. That signing, like many others since, became a symptom of United’s flawed transfer strategy, which they continue to pay for to this very day.
Now, Amorim will be desperate to avoid the many mistakes made over the past decade and a humiliating early League Cup exit to a team from a lower division.
Wednesday night’s match should provide his squad with the perfect platform to kick-start their season. Benjamin Sesko is set to make his first start for the club and will be desperate to get off the mark with a goal or two.
But things have rarely been that simple for United in recent times. It says a lot about Amorim’s side that there will be genuine fears – in some quarters – over a fresh League Cup embarrassment.
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