What Man Utd fans can expect from Leny Yoro

Tom Weber

Updated: 18 Jul 2024 20:01 BST
4 min read

Manchester United have completed the signing of French wonderkid Leny Yoro.

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The Red Devils have surprisingly managed to beat off competition from the centre-back's dream club Real Madrid to snap up one of Europe's most exciting young talents.

Man Utd have broken the bank to land the 18-year-old, something Real Madrid were unwilling to do, in what represents a major gamble by a side thought to be operating on a restricted budget.

With the deal potentially rising to as high as €70 million, expectations of Yoro will be sky-high and the pressure on the teenager will be immense. However, there is a good reason why Europe's elite were after the Lille prospect and why Man Utd shelled out a pretty penny on him.

Yoro's swift rise to stardom

As mentioned the signing of Yoro is still a risk despite his blatantly obvious potential. Prior to his move to Old Trafford, Yoro had made only 60 senior appearances for Lille.

Considering his age, that is of course quite a lot of minutes already, but it is not a lot of experience in the grand scheme of things. However, the crucial point is that Yoro made the most of his opportunities in Ligue 1.

The Frenchman became a regular starter for Lille aged 17 and is coming off a campaign in which he made the French top flight's Team of the Season.

Yoro's rise to prominence has been exceptionally quick and Real Madrid were keen to make him their next Galactico, seeing him as a Raphael Varane or Kylian Mbappe-esque prospect.

In the end, Man Utd won out due to sheer persistence and they are now getting themselves a very unique defender.

Current ETV

Leny Yoro

D (C)

Lille

Leny Yoro

D (C)

Lille

ETV Range

€21.4M - €35.6M

What Man Utd fans can expect from Yoro

Why unique? Because Yoro is not really a modern defender. The Frenchman is a throwback. He is not particularly outstanding on the ball and would likely struggle in a team such as Arsenal or Man City.

Instead, Yoro is an incredibly intelligent and natural defender, always knowing when to step up and when to drop off. His timing is impeccable and he often plays as more of a sweeper rather than a front-foot, super-aggressive centre-back.

Given that he's still a teenager, Yoro's calmness when coming up against established, high-level forwards is quite astounding. Because he is an expert at timing challenges, the 18-year-old rarely commits fouls, though he did make a few mistakes last season.

Yoro prefers playing safe rather than carrying the ball or passing it progressively, but this may not be much of an issue at Man Utd. Given that Erik ten Hag wants to turn the Red Devils into the "best transition team in the world," there will not be an onus on Yoro to become a master at build-up play.

A potential concern could be the problem that haunted Man Utd a lot last season, which is the huge space between the more conservative backline and the numbers in attack, which often left Ten Hag's side exposed in midfield.

Yoro, with his tendency to sit deep, won't solve this issue, but Man Utd will hope that the potential arrival of Manuel Ugarte or a different defensive midfielder will mitigate the problem.