The increasingly serious injury situation is causing Man United to face many difficult problems to solve with the defense before the key match in round 4 of the Premier League this weekend.
Currently, Manchester United is considered “paralyzed” on the left wing with two injuries to Tyrell Malacia and Luke Shaw. 48 hours after the comeback against Nottingham Forest, Raphael Varane once again gave bad news to the Old Trafford team when he had to rest for nearly 2 months after a knee injury. The French midfielder has missed 1/3 of the matches since joining the “Red Devils”.
In the match against Nottingham, Erik ten Hag used Diogo Dalot on the left wing to fill the position left by Shaw. Overall, the Portuguese defender played well and made no mistakes. However, if going long distances and meeting stronger opponents, Dalot cannot be the left wing option and Ten Hag has to rush to find someone. Among the targets being contacted, Nicolas Tagliafico (Lyon) and Marc Cucurella (Chelsea) are quite close to The Red Devils.
If one of these two players joins the Old Trafford team at the last minute of the summer transfer window of 2023, Ten Hag will theoretically have a left-wing factor to replace Luke Shaw. However, using a rookie only after nearly 48 hours of landing (the player market in England will close at dawn on Saturday morning) is almost impossible. Most likely, Dalot will still start and people like Cucurella or Tagliafico will sit on the bench. They can be used in the later minutes of the second half.
On the opposite wing, Aaron Wan-Bissaka is in stable form. Ten Hag must thank God because at the end of last season, there was a time when the English defender was listed on the liquidation list. The progress of the former Crystal Palace star is helping Ten Hag worry less on the right wing. AWB itself is also working to improve its offensive capabilities.
The Dutch strategist’s biggest concern is the central defender position. At this time, in the hands of Ten Hag, Lisandro Martinez, Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Jonny Evans are the ones who can play. Of these four factors, only Martinez is sure to play in the starting lineup and he is waiting to see who his coach puts in after Varane has to take a long break. If there are no last-minute injuries, Maguire or Lindelof will be selected. Evans’ mission in this re-signing with Man United is just to be a backup plan in domestic cups and guide young players.
During the 2022-2023 season, Martinez paired Maguire with 7 matches in all competitions. This number is more with Lindelof (9) and also has a higher win rate. When Martinez paired up with Lindelof, Man United won 8 and lost 1. With Maguire, this number was 5 wins and 2 losses. In particular, when Martinez pairs with Lindelof or Maguire, Manchester United has never ended the match with a draw. This could be a reference to Ten Hag and in fact, Lindelof also proved himself more, especially at the end of the last season during the 2023 summer tour.
If you look back at the journey of the “Red Devils” throughout the last season, you can see that the team’s center-back pair was very chaotic. The main starting pair is still Varane – Martinez, but because Varane was injured too much and Martinez also had a long period of time on the sidelines, Ten Hag had to be patched up many times. Some central defender pairs last season, in addition to Martinez – Varane, also included Mengi – Martinez, Shaw – Varane, Lindelof – Maguire or Shaw – Lindelof. Especially when lacking players, Casemiro also had to retreat to center-back.
