Manchester United's Defensive Struggles Exposed
Manchester United’s defensive issues are no longer a subplot. They’re the story.
Last season’s third-place finish and return to the Champions League masked an uncomfortable truth: United shipped 50 goals in 38 league games, while champions Arsenal gave up barely half that. The numbers were a warning. United chose not to listen.
Carrick’s rebuild went through midfield and attack. The back line, the area that bled most, was largely left alone in the 2026 summer window. Now, with only four points from four games and not a single clean sheet in the Premier League, the questions over that recruitment strategy are landing hard.
They conceded twice at Hull. Twice again at home to Ipswich. Then again away at Everton. And when they looked set to grind something out in the Manchester derby at Old Trafford, Erling Haaland struck a controversial winner for City to twist the knife.
For former United full-back Danny Simpson, the pattern is obvious and the diagnosis blunt.
“They're conceding too many goals,” he told GOAL, speaking on behalf of Free Bets. “Yes, we're good going forward though, most of the time.” The problem, in his eyes, sits behind that front-foot football.
Left-back and full-back chaos
Simpson points straight at left-back as a fault line that everyone at the club could see coming.
“It was well documented that we needed a left-back with Luke [Shaw],” he said. Shaw excelled last season, but his fitness load has always been a concern. “Everyone knows Luke can't play two games a week. We want to be in all the competitions. So there's now eight games in the Champions League, and you want to go far in the cups.”
Patrick Dorgu has been thrown in at left-back, including in the derby against City. Simpson likes what he saw from the Dane in a more advanced role before injury last season, calling him “a decent threat” higher up the pitch. But this is a different job, in a different context, with the stakes ramped up.
At centre-back, Simpson is clear: “I think Harry [Maguire] and [Lisandro] Martinez are the two.” That pairing, in his view, forms the spine Carrick should lean on.
It’s out wide where the real unease kicks in.
“I do worry about full-backs,” Simpson admitted. “I think the inconsistency – one week it's [Noussair] Mazraoui, then it's [Diogo] Dalot, then one week they are an eight, next week they are five.”
That volatility, he argues, is fatal for a team with serious ambitions.
“I don't think anyone in any league, whether you're playing in the Premier League, the Champions League, trying to do well, you can't have players in your defence that are one week doing eight and the next week five.
“I think up top you can, because if you've got a winger that's playing a five, you're going to change him and he normally gets swapped after six or seven. You can't do that with your defence. You need a set back four that's a seven every week. And then if they're not playing, who comes in?”
Right now, United don’t have a convincing answer.
Yoro under the microscope
On paper, Carrick has options. In reality, Simpson sees too many maybes and not enough guarantees.
Dalot is injured. Young defender Ayden Heaven has vanished from the picture since a difficult afternoon at Hull. “We haven't seen him since the Hull game, not surprised, probably the wrong game for him to play in,” Simpson said. “Hull away in the start of the season against Oliver McBurnie, probably not the best.”
Then there is Yoro. Signed from Lille in 2024, the Frenchman was supposed to be one for both the present and the future. Two years on, Simpson is unconvinced.
“Yoro hasn't kicked on at all. He's been here two years now?” he said. The numbers say he has featured – 69 appearances for United at just 20 years old – but Simpson questions the development behind those minutes.
“You look at everything, when he came in he was young and slight, why is he not in the gym? Why has he not got any bigger? Why is he not stronger? He doesn't look like he's done anything in two years in terms of his physique. You know the Premier League is tough.”
For Simpson, that physical plateau sums up the broader issue: a defence that hasn’t evolved to meet the demands placed on it.
“So, your back four is your back four – which is Shaw, Martinez, Maguire and Dalot,” he concluded. That, in his view, is the only reliable platform United have right now.
The problem? Injuries, form, and a relentless schedule mean Carrick can’t simply lock in that quartet and forget about it. With the Champions League group stage expanding to eight games and domestic cups to navigate, United’s fragile back line is about to be tested like never before.
If 50 goals conceded was the warning, how many will it take before this version of United finally finds a defence it can trust?
