Leny Yoro: The Next Step in Manchester United's Defence
Leny Yoro has been at Manchester United for two seasons now, long enough for the anticipation to turn into a question: when does the potential become reality?
Right now, he’s doing his running in the wrong channel. Or at least, the unfamiliar one. Yoro started pre-season at right-back in the defeat to Wrexham, shunted out wide as Michael Carrick improvised with a thin early-summer squad. He may find himself there again in Trondheim against Rosenborg, a £52million central defender temporarily learning the trade on the flank.
These games, though, are not about positions on a team sheet. They’re about proximity. About who is close to Carrick’s thoughts when Hull City appear on the opening day.
Yoro was back at Carrington on day one of pre-season. That matters. While others ease their way back from international duty or injury, he has already banked minutes, already put himself in front of a manager who values rhythm and reliability above almost everything else.
For now, the centre of defence belongs to others. Harry Maguire and Ayden Heaven started together against Wrexham and are in line to continue as the pairing against Rosenborg. Matthijs de Ligt remains at Carrington, still working through his rehabilitation from back surgery, already ruled out of the start of the new campaign.
Lisandro Martinez completes what, on paper, looks like a formidable defensive unit. But football doesn’t play out on paper. Martinez has just walked away from a World Cup with both acclaim and anguish – named in the team of the tournament, but leaving the pitch with his shirt over his face after injury cut short his campaign. He is on holiday now, a sign the problem is not thought to be severe, yet as of Wednesday he still did not know the full extent of the issue.
Even in the best-case scenario, the clock is against him. If he returns to training only a week or so before United’s Premier League opener on August 22, he will be racing to reach match sharpness. That race is likely to be one he loses. Which leaves a vacancy alongside Maguire at the MKM Stadium.
Heaven, 19, is the natural stylistic replacement for Martinez: a left-footer, comfortable on that side, and already drawing quiet comparisons to the Argentine in the way he steps out with the ball. But Yoro is further along the road. United didn’t beat Real Madrid to his signature in 2024 and pay Lille £52m for a project to be parked on the bench indefinitely.
At 18, he arrived with a reputation as one of the best young defenders in the world. Dan Ashworth, United’s sporting director at the time, made it plain.
"Leny is one of the most exciting young defenders in world football; he possesses every attribute needed to develop into a top-class centre-back," he said.
Those attributes have not disappeared. The pace across the ground. The calm in tight spaces. The sense that he reads danger a second earlier than most. But they have flickered rather than burned. Across two Premier League seasons, Yoro has started only 30 games. He has been named among the substitutes 28 times in the league without getting the nod. Too often, his United story has been told in cameos and glimpses.
That is why this summer feels different. He turns 21 in November. The label of “young prospect” does not last forever at a club that measures careers in trophies, not birthdays. There is change on the international stage too, with Zinedine Zidane set to replace Didier Deschamps with France. A new manager, a new hierarchy, and an opening for a defender who finally strings together a full, convincing season.
Yoro knows what this year can become. A regular in United’s back line. A name on a France squad list. A career finally matching its billing.
To get there, he needs something simple and ruthless: a place in Carrick’s strongest XI. That has been the real barrier so far. Carrick’s success last season was built on consistency. He trusted Maguire and Martinez in the middle and rarely broke up a partnership that delivered. For players like Yoro, that reliability became a locked door.
The dynamics may be about to shift. De Ligt will return with his own point to prove. Martinez will fight to reclaim his spot. But inside the club, the future is being sketched in a different shape. Maguire has already spoken about Yoro and Heaven as a potential long-term pairing, United’s answer to Gabriel and William Saliba at Arsenal – two young defenders who grew into the most imposing partnership in the Premier League.
That is the challenge. Not to be a useful squad option. Not to be a versatile defender who can fill in at right-back in July. To be the cornerstone.
If Carrick turns to Yoro at Hull, the opportunity will be clear. Ninety minutes to lay down a marker, to convince his manager that the defence of tomorrow can start today. He may begin this pre-season hugging the touchline, but the season that defines him will only truly start when he steps into the heart of that back four.
He has waited two years for that walk from the tunnel to the centre circle as an undisputed starter. This campaign will decide whether he ever truly makes it.
