Manchester United dispelled concerns of a looming crisis with a decisive victory over Wolves, once again setting their sights upward.

For the first hour, the match was lackluster, but United eventually dominated a Wolves team that appears to be sliding toward relegation to the Championship.

Bruno Fernandes delivered an exceptional performance, as did Mason Mount, while Casemiro’s play reinforced the importance of his continued fitness for the team.

THE MYSTERY BEHIND SELLING FERNANDES

A segment of Manchester United supporters continues to speculate that parting ways with Bruno Fernandes might ultimately benefit the team’s long-term success.

That is a notion I just cannot ever come around to subscribing to.

Fernandes is far and away United’s best player in his technical quality, his leadership, his mentality, and his poise when the going gets tough (it does a lot as Manchester United captain).

This was Wolves, a dreadful Wolves at that, and while he didn’t win Man of the Match, his two goals and an assist was just accepted as ‘what he does’. His greatness is normalised. This is what he does.

So the idea that pushing Fernandes out the door – he has said himself he will only go if the club want him to – and reinvesting to fill the void and make United better seems like fool’s gold.

You can win with Fernandes as a centrepiece of the team and I will argue that against anyone who says otherwise.

MOUNT COMING INTO HIS OWN

Speaking to Mason Mount after he scored at Crystal Palace the other week, the message was clear: I can’t just be a player of moments.

He’s had flashes in a United shirt but now he is stitching it all together, rewarding every bit of faith his manager has put in him injured or fit.

‘He has a great quality,’ Amorim said. ‘He can defend, he can attack, is really the quality that when he touched the ball is really good.

‘So it’s not a surprise for me, but of course, we need to take care of him. Sometimes you need to protect them in training in games, but when you build, that is going to happen the same, the same thing with Luke Shaw. So he’s going to build that and it’s going to be really important for our club.’

Watching Mount it is what he does off the ball that is as impressive as what he does on it.

His football IQ is on a par with Fernandes, the best player in the United side, and his running to drag other players away can go under the radar when it absolutely shouldn’t.

Those behind the scenes at United have long praised Mount for his leadership skills away from the pitch when it comes to helping youngsters settle in – Harry Amass last season was one who benefitted immensely.

But Mount is flowering as a leader in big moments and at 1-1 at half-time, he was one who came out and showed it.

‘He’s a different type of leader,’ Amorim added. ‘It’s not like Licha, for example. It’s a guy that leads by the example. It doesn’t matter the situation.

‘Mason Mount is always the same thing, training, talking, dealing with people around Carrington. That is not easy. So he’s a very, very good player.’

…BUT CUNHA NEEDS TO STEP UP

Ask Ruben Amorim about Matheus Cunha and more often than not he’ll light up.

He loves his devilment. He loves his character, his bite, his will to win. Amorim wanted Cunha as his first summer signing and he got him.

Cunha needs goals and assists though, as good as all those intangibles can be behind the scenes. He needs goals and assists not least to boost his own confidence but soon he will be tasked with carrying this attack on his back.

Arriving here back at Molineux – he was all smiles sat on the ‘home’ bench before the game with some of his former team-mates and was joking around during the warm-up despite pantomime boos – he had just one goal and zero assists to his name from 12 appearances.

There were some nice flicks and tricks in a one-sided first half that United still found a way to muck up. Amorim and United need more though.

A big part of the appeal in bringing Cunha in was his 15 Premier League goals last season in a relatively poor Wolves side (not as bad as this one, I hasten to add). He added six assists to that.

Here he stumbled to his first assist of the campaign, badly miscuing a simple square ball to Bruno Fernandes which took all the brilliance of the United captain to turn into the back of the net.

Cunha was the main man at Wolves, the talisman that every attack would run through, and with Benjamin Sesko’s return still to be determined, Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo with bags packed ready for the Africa Cup of Nations, it is imperative Cunha steps into – and embraces – the spotlight.

‘He’s at a different club, different pressure,’ Amorim said recently, trying to explain the Brazilian’s low-key start to life at United.

‘He was struggling because he was not scoring, he was thinking too much about the numbers. But the influence that he has in the team is so important for us. I think I think Cunha has so much to grow defensively and offensively.’

There was a collective intake of breath at the start of the second half when he opened up to shoot from the edge of the box, only to blaze over.

A second chance, this time inside the area, arrived when played in by Mbeumo, only to be challenged by Emmanuel Agbadou after dithering for a second.

Cunha had moments here and overall looked bright. It was his quick-thinking to play Diogo Dalot in in the move for the second goal.

But in a week or so the attacking hopes hinge on him having his shooting boots. The hope is one goal will trigger a flurry of them. That didn’t happen after his solitary goal versus Brighton… but it really needs to happen now.

BEWARE CASEMIRO BURNOUT

By now it’s abundantly clear that Amorim has no desire to start Kobbie Mainoo in midfield, nor does he have any appetite to begin Premier League matches with Manuel Ugarte in the XI.

Sekou Kone and Jayce Fitzgerald are promising academy players, as are the Fletcher twins, but none of them have made their first team debut. None are looking all that close, in truth.

Therefore keeping Casemiro fit and fresh, even for one game a week, is one of the most important pillars for Amorim and his staff.

There was no Casemiro at Brentford – they lost badly. There was no Casemiro from the start at Man City – they lost badly.

Casemiro isn’t perfect; he’s not the player that lit it up in his first season at the club. But Casemiro has stepped up in a big way this season and was a disruptor and a playmaker from deep against this truly dreadful Wolves side. He was immense on the night.

While Casemiro is playing well the temptation is to play him and play him and play him. The alternatives don’t inspire Amorim with confidence after all.

Heed a warning, though (and it looks like Amorim realised it here after taking Casemiro off after 78 minutes).

Casemiro arrived at Molineux having played back to back 90 minutes for the first time in the Premier League since October 2024. You have to go back to the conclusion of the 2023-24 season to find a longer sequence of completed games when he went eight in a row without coming off.

There are miles on the legs now in what is the final year of his deal. As tempting is it is to ride the crest of a wave, Amorim must play the long game with Casemiro or risk burning out his go-to man at a point in the season where he needs him the most.

As good as he is, he can ill afford to lose him like he has Sesko, Mount, Cunha and others already this season.

WOLVES NEED A HARD RESET

Pound for pound this current iteration of Wolves is as bad as anything the Premier League has seen since its inception.

Not just the quality – or major lack thereof – but also the effort, the belief, everything about the club right now feels broken.

In the South Bank, which saw hundreds if not thousands flood in after a 15-minute protest against club ownership outside, made the feelings known throughout.

After United took the lead through Bruno Fernandes, players were chastised.

‘You’re not fit to wear the shirt!’ Wolves fans chanted, accompanied by very loud boos.

Ask Wolves fans what they think of this team and they may well have more choice expletives to lean on but the issue here is far bigger than a group of players that will likely be heavily altered for what looks an inevitable drop into the Championship.

Wolves as a club badly needs a reset on and off the pitch after eight straight league defeats. Relegation will be a blessing in disguise if they actuallywant to get their house in order.

They’ve got the manager in Rob Edwards but the only way this club is going to get itself back on track is with a reshuffle in the boardroom.

Fans have had enough of executive chairman Jeff Shi.

‘Jeff Shi, you’re a w***er,’ came the chant, followed up by one of many renditions of ‘We want Fosun Out’ from the South Bank.

‘He’s sold the team, now sell the club,’ came another, as ‘SHI OUT’ banners pockmarked the most vocal stand behind one of the goals.

Fans no longer see the vision, no longer trust the shot-callers to fix the mess they have now found themselves in. Bit by bit the team has been ripped apart with limited investment to put it right.

‘I get the anger and the frustration completely,’ Wolves boss Rob Edwards said. ‘If I was a supporter I’d be angry myself because we all want to see our team competing, and at the moment, we aren’t doing that.

‘I can’t control that (about whether the protests will continue). I can only look after the team and try to help build some confidence and belief.’

Fans are furious, players aren’t much happier, and given things will only get worse from here as they bid to avoid being the worst Premier League side ever, a hard reset is needed or they are going to plunge to even deeper woes.