Alejandro Balde's Manchester United Link Revived Amid Barcelona Bench Role
Alejandro Balde’s Manchester United link has flickered back into life – not because he is starring for Barcelona, but because he is barely playing for them.
The 22-year-old, who was on United’s radar for a loan move late in the summer window, watched from the bench as an unused substitute in Barça’s 5-1 demolition of Feyenoord in their opening Champions League fixture. Hansi Flick instead pushed former Manchester City right-back Joao Cancelo over to the left, a clear tactical choice that left a natural left-back sidelined on a big European night.
That decision was no one-off. Since United’s attempt to bring Balde to Old Trafford, Flick has not used him at all. Not a single minute in any competition. Balde has been named among the substitutes every time, but the door to the pitch has stayed shut, underlining his slide down the pecking order at the Camp Nou.
Flick has already gone public with his demands. He wants more from the defender. More edge. More hunger. More fight.
Before the transfer window closed, Balde’s situation was already under scrutiny when Flick left him out of the match-day squad entirely for Barcelona’s La Liga opener against Elche. The coach later explained that the omission was not about pushing the youngster towards the exit.
“No, I'm not asking him to leave,” Flick said at the time. “This morning I felt there was something wrong. I spoke to him and said: 'At this moment, I have this feeling, and I think it's best for you to clear your mind, sort out your thoughts, and then we'll talk again tomorrow.'
“And he agreed as well. He agreed to it because there are so many things going around in his head, and that's why he's not here.”
Balde has since been reintegrated into the squad list, but only on paper. On the pitch, nothing has changed. He warms up, he sits back down, and the game passes him by.
All of this plays out against a quietly worrying backdrop at Old Trafford.
Michael Carrick goes into United’s Champions League clash with Sabah with just one senior specialist left-back: Luke Shaw. Behind him, it’s a patchwork of makeshift solutions. If Shaw were to suffer an injury, Carrick would be forced into a reshuffle – Lisandro Martinez shunted out wide, or one of Noussair Mazraoui or Diogo Dalot flipped to the opposite flank. None of those options fit the ideal blueprint for a side trying to reassert itself at the top level.
That vulnerability may be exposed sooner than expected. Shaw did not take part in United’s final training session before facing Sabah at Old Trafford. Carrick moved quickly to cool any panic, indicating the former Southampton defender is likely to be rested with the Manchester Derby looming at the weekend.
“We just gave him an extra recovery day today. We'll see by tomorrow how he is,” Carrick explained. “It's not an ongoing thing or a plan or anything like that. It was just off the back of the game the other day. So, as normal, each individual has different little things that we manage.”
For now, United insist Shaw’s absence is precautionary. For now, Balde remains rooted to Barcelona’s bench. But if Flick continues to overlook a 22-year-old international and Carrick’s only senior left-back continues to walk a tightrope of managed minutes, the question almost asks itself: how long before those two storylines collide again in the next window?
