The narrative around Manchester United has changed yet again after one poor result, and a ‘massive talent’ at the club is under the scanner.
Not many players covered themselves in glory during Man Utd’s 0-1 loss to Everton, as they huffed and puffed to no avail despite having a spare man.
From Joshua Zirkzee failing his audition for more minutes to Bruno Fernandes looking like a shadow of himself in a deeper role, the questions are many.
One player is flying under the radar in these discussions, and despite having massive talent, the feeling within the club is that a key thing is holding him back.
Man Utd’s sole worry about Leny Yoro
Of all the players to worry about at Old Trafford, Leny Yoro arguably stands somewhere near the absolute bottom of the pile.
The centre-back came into a chaotic team that was historically bad in the Premier League era, and still managed to enhance his reputation.
He’s been called a potential best in the world by Rio Ferdinand, and it’s a claim that received the ultimate backing from Ruben Amorim as well.
Rio Ferdinand has always urged patience with Leny Yoro
“He’s a student of the game, he sees his mistakes, he acknowledges his mistakes and he tries to learn from those mistakes.”
Rio Ferdinand
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However, against Everton, the one area to improve the most for him was visible during the goal conceded, as he was not assertive enough to close down Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
Andy Mitten, speaking on The Athletic’s Talk of the Devil podcast, said people inside the club think Yoro needs to improve his aggression.
He said: “There’s a feeling within the club that he needs to be more aggressive. You know that he’s a massive talent, but the one area he’s got to improve in is his aggression.”
Yoro has missed senior mentorship
The point about Yoro mentioned above is correct, but the mitigating circumstances of his time so far at Old Trafford make it difficult to drag him too much for this.
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In a fully functional team, Yoro would be the crown jewel of the defensive ranks, learning from senior players while getting minutes of his own.
As it stands, he was the £60m hope of a broken team that lacked leaders, with Yoro never seeing his team compete and win consistently.
If anything, his growth during his tumultuous time deserves even more credit, because he has missed those senior mentors who could have helped him along on this journey.
Aggression is also something that can be worked on by seeing clips, like the goal conceded against Everton, so that it doesn’t happen again.
After all, if all the other problems at United were as simple as this one for Yoro, the club would be in a far better place already!