July 18, 2024 marked a major moment for Manchester United when they beat Real Madrid to the signing of Leny Yoro. More than two years on, the picture around the defender is far less secure, with reports indicating United are exploring other young centre-backs as Yoro continues to be linked with an exit from Old Trafford.<\/p>\n
The early setback that shaped his spell came in his first pre-season, when an ankle injury disrupted his momentum before it had properly begun. By the time he finally made his debut in December 2024, Erik ten Hag had already been replaced by Ruben Amorim. On paper, Amorim\u2019s system, built around three centre-backs, should have given Yoro a clearer route into the team.<\/p>\n
In practice, it did not unfold that way. After needing time to regain sharpness, Yoro was pushed into a defensive unit that struggled badly. Poor results fed uncertainty, and his performances were affected as errors and nervousness became a recurring theme. At United, where every misstep is magnified, that proved difficult to sustain.<\/p>\n
When Michael Carrick later took over, his first objective was stability. He shifted back to two centre-backs and prioritised dependability, with Harry Maguire and Lisandro Mart\u00ednez preferred. Yoro\u2019s opportunities increased only when Mart\u00ednez was unavailable through injury.<\/p>\n
Carrick\u2019s side lost only two matches in the second half of the 2025-26 season, and Yoro started both. There was also the frustrating 2-2 draw with Bournemouth, a result that threatened to interrupt United\u2019s progress. After one win in four, Yoro suffered a knock that kept him out of the trip to Chelsea. In that match, Ayden Heaven impressed in a 1-0 win and appeared to move ahead of him.<\/p>\n
Yoro has not started a Premier League match since that injury in April 2026. Since then, he has made five substitute appearances totalling 56 minutes and sat unused on the bench five times.<\/p>\n
His standing was further tested in pre-season, when he was used more at right back as emergency cover than in his natural role. He has had two cup starts, including a 4-0 Champions League win over Sabah, but the 3-2 Carabao Cup defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion brought another difficult display.<\/p>\n
With fewer rotation chances available and greater reliance likely on experienced defenders, Yoro\u2019s pathway looks increasingly narrow. As the article asks, would supporters truly prefer to see him play if it does not help results?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yoro\u2019s United future is under pressure after injuries, limited starts and a setback in Carrick\u2019s plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2019,1977],"tags":[242,180,1980],"class_list":["post-21153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united-news","category-player-analysis","tag-injury","tag-player-news","tag-pre-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}