One senior left-back, and a very long season
Manchester United closed the window with three midfielders and nothing else. Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos, Carlos Baleba. Sensible business, probably. It still leaves Luke Shaw as the only recognised senior left-back at the club.
United did look at the position. Alejandro Balde at Barcelona, Jorge Salinas at Racing Santander, Lewis Hall at Newcastle. All linked, none signed. Whether that was a judgement call or a failure of execution, the squad list reads the same either way.
Michael Carrick was asked about it in his press conference on Friday and did not pretend the job was finished. “What squad’s ever the perfect squad? You’ve always got to find ways of adapting,” he said. “It’s not going to be one hit. I’m not just talking about players, individuals. I’m talking about the whole thing of improving as a group.”
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Shaw’s best season is also the problem
Here is the awkward part. Shaw is coming off the strongest campaign of his United career. He played all 38 Premier League games in 2025-26. That had never happened before. Across twelve seasons at Old Trafford it was only the third time he had gone past 29 league appearances in a season.
Betting on a repeat is a different proposition. United face at least eight more fixtures across all competitions this season than last, and realistically more than that. Shaw is being asked to do the thing he has managed once in twelve years, and to do it with a fuller calendar.
Behind him the depth chart turns vague quickly. Harry Amass is 19, a natural left-back, technically sound, and had a solid pre-season with the first team. He was also widely expected to leave the club over the summer, and the questions about whether his frame is ready for Premier League football have not gone away.
Dorgu, and the makeshift plan
Patrick Dorgu is the obvious fallback. He arrived from Lecce in January 2025 as a specialist left wing-back for Ruben Amorim’s back three. Amorim was dismissed, Carrick moved him to orthodox left wing, and there he stayed. Fourteen percent of his club minutes have come at left-back in a back four, so the role is not foreign to him.
Carrick confirmed on Friday that the Dane is in the conversation. “He can certainly play there. He has done, without doubt,” the coach said. “It’s just the way we’ve been since I’ve been here. 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.”
Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot have both covered on that side without ever looking convincing, and Baleba has done it occasionally in the past. That is the contingency if Shaw goes down for three months. Nobody inside Carrington will call it comfortable.
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