Manchester United £50m summer transfer can unlock the best from Patrick Dorgu

Patrick Dorgu is in good company when it comes to left-backs who lasted only 45 minutes on their Manchester United debut. Patrice Evra played another 378 games for the club after his nightmare introduction at the Etihad in January 2006.

It's not an exact comparison. For starters, Evra actually played left-back on his debut, unlike Dorgu. And while the Dane was pretty bright against Leicester City on Friday, Evra did endure a debut to forget in defeat to Manchester City.

United have had their issues on the left since Evra left in 2014. That was the summer in which Luke Shaw arrived to replace him, but into his 11th season at the club, Shaw has made only 278 appearances and has only twice managed more than 30 Premier League games in a season.

The arrival of Dorgu in the January transfer window for an initial £25m and a further £4m in add-ons looked to have solved that problem, but the 20-year-old lined up on the right against Leicester City, with Diogo Dalot continuing to try and make it work on the left.

Dorgu was a surprise withdrawal at half-time, having linked up well with Amad during the opening period for United's only bright moments in a dull first 45 minutes. His appearance on the right bemused fans, but Ruben Amorim stuck by it after the game, telling critics that a look at the online scouting platform Wyscout would reveal that he is equally adept on that side.

It did mean Dalot continued to struggle on the left and that was probably the bigger issue, but Amorim interestingly described his wing-backs as wingers after the game on Friday and included the Portuguese in that description.

"If you see the history of Dorgu in the last team he played a lot of games on the right," he said. "We have to have wingers who can