Manchester United have a lot of work to do this summerplaceholder image
Manchester United have a lot of work to do this summer | AFP via Getty Images
Manchester United desperately need a new left-back this summer - and a player with immense potential could be the answer to their prayers.
Much of the discussion at Old Trafford has focused on the need to rebuild the midfield, which was a priority even before Casemiro announced that he intended to leave the club at the end of the campaign, while the gossip columns have also been filled with rumours concerning the possibility that United look for attacking reinforcements too. One key position, however, has gone rather under the radar…
Why Manchester United direly need a new left-back this summer
As it stands, the left side of Manchester United’s defence is perhaps their biggest weakness, at least from a long-term perspective. There are stop-gaps available, but it’s a positional issue which has to be addressed for the team to compete at the highest level consistently.
Patrick Dorgu has been outstanding in patches, but is far closer to a left winger than a left-back – if United end up moving back to a wing-back system under their next head coach, whoever that may be, then the young Dane is a fine fit, be he doesn’t have the natural defensive qualities to be a starting left-back in a more traditional back four.
Luke Shaw does have those qualities, but has been bedevilled by fitness problems for years. Tyrell Malacia is likely to leave on a free transfer after being plagued by injury issues of his own. Nouassir Mazroaui and Diogo Dalot can play on the left in an emergency, but a naturally right-sided players. United simply don’t have a long-term solution at hand.
With the bulk of their transfer budget likely to be spent on signing midfielders like Adam Wharton, Elliot Anderson or Carlos Baleba (and with much of the rest potentially earmarked for an attacking player like Yan Diomande), United may not have enormous sums to throw at left-back in the next off-season.
That could make it trickier to land one known target, Eintracht Frankfurt and Germany star Nathaniel Brown – especially given that Brown is also a target for a number of other sides, including Manchester City. Another full-back who seems to be on United’s radar could, however, be both more affordable and slightly easier to acquire…
Why Barcelona’s Alejandro Balde could be just what Manchester United need
Go back just a year or two and most pundits would have had Alejandro Balde down as being the most promising young left-back in the game – but despite the fact that the 22-year-old remains Barcelona’s first choice for the position, there is mounting evidence that he could be on the move.
TeamTalk are just one of a number of outlets reporting that United have a very real chance of landing the Spaniard this summer, with Barcelona considering a sale partly due to their continuously perilous financial position. Apparently the Red Devils are even putting together an offer worth around €40m (£35m), a sum which may prove to be too low but which sets the bar rather lower that which will be raised by Frankfurt when negotiations over Brown inevitably begin.
Fast, dynamic on the ball and offering excellent support on the overlap in the final third, Balde is an aggressive left-back who would suit a 4-2-3-1 formation, such as the one deployed by Carrick, or a 3-4-3. More conservative managers might prefer a player who was a defender first and offensive support second, but Balde is also perfectly capable of holding his own around his own penalty area.
The downside to Balde, and the other reason that Barcelona may sell this summer, is that he has struggled for consistency over the course of the past year or so and has yet to really hit the heights he promised when he first broke through – before a serious injury laid him out for six months back in 2024. He has never quite found his very best form since.
He still retains immense potential, however, and Barcelona still have him down as their first choice for a reason – and anything in the region of £35m would represent a fair price for the player on current form while representing a potential bargain should he take the forward strides expected over the coming years. It’s also the kind of fee which shouldn’t disrupt United’s work elsewhere in the transfer market.
There may be other left-backs available at a similar price point who suit the next full-time manager’s system better, but surely none with such a steepling ceiling. Balde could be one of the best in the world if he finds steady form – and United should surely consider taking a chance on that happening.
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