Manchester United new manager can save them £125million on defence

When Manchester United spent a combined £125million to bring Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka to the club in the summer of 2019, there was no great outcry of complaint. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s ‘cultural reset’ of the club had began in earnest a few weeks earlier with the slightly underwhelming (but potentially underrated) signing of Daniel James for £15million from Swansea but now, before the 2019/20 season got going, was the double defensive move that had been anticipated.

Signing Maguire and Wan-Bissaka, 26 and 21 at the time, from clubs lower down in the Premier League — Leicester City and Crystal Palace, respectively, where they had proven themselves — was seen to be a smart double swoop. Okay, United were paying over the odds for both defenders, but since Liverpool’s £75million Virgil van Dijk transfer in January 2018 the market for defensive players had changed dramatically.

There was a great hope that both Maguire and Wan-Bissaka would slot straight into the United defence and perform to standard and that’s pretty much what happened. Solskjaer placed great trust in both players and the signs in that debut season were promising.

READ MORE: Paul Pogba gives verdict on 'difficult' Manchester United season

After managing just two Premier League clean sheets in the first 19 games of the campaign as the new boys bedded in, United managed a run of eight in 10 matches between January and March. In a similar time-frame 12 months on, in the 2020/21 campaign, United kept 10 clean sheets in 14 matches. The United boss regularly commented on how his defence was improving.

“Every goal you concede at Manchester United is going to be scrutinised,” said Solskjaer of his defenders. “That’s just the way it is. I know these