Manchester United left Old Trafford with three points and a morale-boosting 5-2 win over Ipswich Town.
The match highlighted United’s blistering attack but also shone a light on their defensive frailties.
Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United player Gary Neville also paid close attention to this problem.
Defensive issues
Commenting after the match, he claimed, “in a perfect world, if you’d said to Michael Carrick, ‘what would you have done this summer?’ he would have said, ‘rebuild the midfield, and I would rebuild the defence'”.
United have signed Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans and Carlos Baleba to support Kobbie Mainoo and, as of yet, have not signed a defender.
He did try to rationalise Ineos’ thinking by stating, “but, to be fair, last season, they’ve spent, whatever it is, £170m on attackers. They’ve spent £150m this year on midfielders. They’re doing it piece by piece. That might be the sensible thing to do, to not overhaul everything at once.”
Neville also added, “if they could get a centre-back and a full-back before the window closes, that will stop problems that we know we’re going to see. I’m not saying they’ve been bad all the time, but you just know full well, in Champions League football, Premier League games, they will have problems and they will have issues. It’s not being harsh. Everybody knows it.”
He said that, whilst the defenders are all good individuals, he worried that there was no clear and obvious back four to rely on.
Neville also highlighted how important Carlos Baleba could be as the most defensive midfielder in the current squad once he is fit to play.
The pundit asserted, “we knew that because it’s the same defenders as last season and the season before. They conceded 50 last season, so it’s not going to change unless they play better – which let’s hope they do – but also that the midfield two protects them more.”
He also criticised United’s squad depth in defence, with Noussair Mazraoui and Leny Yoro coming on as full-back subs, and claimed, “that’s not ideal at all.”
Solutions
Neville brought up the names of Lewis Hall and Myles Lewis-Skelly as targets but admitted the club could not sign them so late in the window.
Summing up United’s issues, he stated, “but that is going to be the question for Manchester United this season – how do they stem the flow of goals going into the back of their net?”
He highlighted that he can try and make the team more compact but that is also a risk as he has won over fans with exciting, attacking football.
With upcoming league fixtures against Everton and Manchester City, he claimed United must find a way to defend better.
Neville concluded, “can Michael Carrick get a defender or two in the next 48 hours? If he can’t, then how does he structure the team? Carrick may have a thought process of how he can solidify the defensive part without bringing another defender in and that’s something that could be possible, but bringing in at least one defender in, maybe two, would change the whole dynamic of how you think about Manchester United’s season.”
Featured image by Naomi Baker/Getty Images
