Should Man Utd Have Signed Another Left-Back?
Manchester United didn’t sign a left-back in the summer, meaning Luke Shaw remains their only recognised senior option. Will they come to regret that decision?
Manchester United bolstered their midfield this summer to the tune of three new signings in Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba. But there are still plenty of supporters and pundits who feel their attentions shouldn’t have been solely focused on that area of the pitch.
Clearly, United’s squad isn’t perfect and there are arguably multiple positions that in an ideal world could have done with reinforcing, but for many, the most pressing need (after central midfield) was at left-back.
It was certainly an area United considered strengthening. They were strongly linked with Barcelona’s Alejandro Balde, Jorge Salinas of Racing Santander and Lewis Hall of Newcastle, though no moves materialised.
Seemingly, United didn’t feel their need was quite as dire as some supporters thought, but their squad building was a key topic in Carrick’s pre-match press conference on Friday.
“What squad’s ever the perfect squad? You’ve always got to find ways of adapting,” Carrick said. “When you’re building and trying to push through a period where we’re trying to get to the top, that’s the ultimate goal. You’ve got to make steps.
“It’s not going to be one hit. I’m not just talking about players, individuals, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the whole thing of improving as a group, improving as a squad. It’s not just an instant fix and you finish top of the league and you stay there.”
He added: “You can always look at it, and there’s other things you can do or could have done, possibly could have done. Some things become available, some don’t. That’s just part of evolving the group and trying to push all the time. We obviously had certain things that we needed to fill and try and improve the group. Largely, I think we’re in a good place. We’ve got pretty good balance within the whole squad.”
Does that extend to left-back, though?
Luke Shaw is their undisputed first-choice left-sided full-back and, to be fair to him, he’s coming off probably his best season as a United player – certainly the campaign in which he was most available.
He made 38 Premier League appearances in 2025-26; in 12 seasons at the club, it was only the third time he played in more than 29 top-flight games, with injuries previously plaguing him.
Ithiel Piñero / Data Analyst
Unsurprisingly, then, it was the first time he’d ever played in all 38 matches of a Premier League season. But considering his fitness record, can he really be expected to maintain that level of availability this season when United will have at least eight more games in all competitions than in 2025-26, and probably a fair few more.
That is the sticking point for most supporters. United do have some options beyond Shaw, but there are downsides to all of them.
Harry Amass, 19, enjoyed a solid pre-season with the first team, he’s a natural left-back and looks a decent talent technically. But questions have been raised about whether he has the physical capacity to play at Premier League level, and he was widely expected to leave the club in some way over the summer.
The other likeliest alternatives would be Patrick Dorgu, Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot.
Dorgu arrived in January 2025 from Lecce as a specialist left wing-back for Ruben Amorim’s back-three system.
After Amorim was dismissed, Michael Carrick used him as an orthodox left winger; it would seem that’s where the coach sees the Dane being of most use. But while the graphic below doesn’t differentiate between left-back and wing-back, it does highlight that Dorgu has played left-back in a back four for 14% of his minutes in club football, so it’s not a completely alien role for him.
As such, Carrick confirmed on Friday that Dorgu will be considered an option for full-back.
“He can certainly play there. He has done, without doubt,” said Carrick. “I’m not sitting here saying he can’t do that. It’s just the way we’ve been since I’ve been here [that he has played on the wing] … he’s played off the right for Denmark, scored a great goal in the summer playing off the right in a forward position; he can play left-back. He’s that type where he can do a number of things.
“It’s something he can [do], we just haven’t had to explore that. At some point, we might have to [play left-back], at some point he might do that. He can do that, absolutely no problem. There are times in training when he does it.”
Mazraoui and Dalot have each filled in – unspectacularly – on the left as well, while even new signing Carlos Baleba has very occasionally played there in the past.
United do have options to fill in on a short-term basis, then. But what if Shaw suffers a bad injury that rules him out for months? Does their depth of makeshift backup options and the relatively untested Amass make up for the lack of a quality second-choice left-back? Possibly not. Just because a player can fill in doesn’t mean they’ll be effective.
Then again, who knows, Shaw might end up enjoying a second successive injury-free season; Amass may exceed expectations and actually challenge Shaw; maybe Dorgu will find his true home in the United team at full-back.
But there’s no denying that it does feel United have taken a considerable risk.
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