Carrick Considers Dorgu as New Signing at Left-Back for Manchester United

Manchester United’s failure to land a back-up left-back before the transfer window slammed shut has opened the door for an in-house solution – and Michael Carrick already sounds like he knows where to look.

Patrick Dorgu, signed from Lecce for £25million in January 2025, has been used almost exclusively as a winger under Carrick. Now he could be about to rewind his career a little.

The 21-year-old Dane has started four times for Carrick but lost most of last season to a hamstring injury. He began this campaign on the left wing at Hull City on the opening day, then dropped to the bench for the win over Ipswich. For his manager, though, his real value might only just be emerging.

“You could almost argue that he played three or four times for us last season, so for me, he’s almost like a new player, you know, to have, and it’s almost like a new signing in some ways because he’s added so much to the group,” Carrick said.

United’s planning at full-back has been brutally exposed. Late moves for Alejandro Balde and Rayan Ait-Nouri went nowhere before Tuesday night’s deadline, leaving Luke Shaw as the only specialist left-back in the squad. Behind him, it is a patchwork of possibilities: Dorgu, Noussair Mazraoui, Diogo Dalot. None of them natural, all of them options.

That is where Dorgu’s past comes back into focus. While Carrick has only trusted him higher up the pitch and Ruben Amorim previously used him as a wing-back, Lecce deployed him as a conventional left-back. United bought that versatility. They may now have to lean on it.

“He can certainly play there. He has done, without doubt,” Carrick said. “I’m not sitting here saying he can’t do that. It’s just the way we’ve been since I’ve been here.

“He actually has been injured, unfortunately, for some time… it’s almost like a new signing in some ways.”

Dorgu has caught the eye as a left-winger for United and shown another side of his game with Denmark, operating off the right and scoring a standout goal in the June internationals from that flank. He looks comfortable wherever he is asked to line up. That might soon mean a step backwards on the pitch, but a step forwards in his United career.

“He’s played off the right for Denmark, scored a great goal in the summer playing off the right in a forward position,” Carrick said. “He can play left-back. He’s that type where he can do a number of things. I’m certainly not saying he can’t do that at all.

“It’s something he can, we just haven’t had to explore that. At some point, we might have to, at some point he might do that. He can do that, absolutely no problem. There are times in training when he does it.

“And then he’s only young, being such a young age and having the attributes that he’s got, we’ve just got to keep trying to get the most out of him.”

United are stacked with wide players. They are thin at full-back. Carrick doesn’t need a scouting report to see the obvious solution. The only real question now is when he decides that his “new signing” is ready to reclaim the role he once knew so well.