Leny Yoro: A Season of Opportunity at Manchester United
Leny Yoro has already had two seasons at Manchester United. He has the price tag, the reputation, the glowing references. What he has not yet had is a season that truly belongs to him.
That opportunity is coming.
Out of position, but in the picture
United’s pre-season opened with defeat to Wrexham, and Yoro found himself shunted out to right-back, a role that does little for a young centre-half trying to prove he should be trusted in the middle. It was unfamiliar, awkward at times, but important in one key way: he was on the pitch, and he was there from day one.
With most of the big names still away, Michael Carrick is likely to take a similar squad to Trondheim to face Rosenborg. That probably means more minutes for Yoro on the flank rather than in his natural role. These games, though, are not about tactical perfection. They’re about running in heavy legs, timing returning, coaches taking mental notes.
Yoro has already banked something more valuable than a clean sheet in July. He has banked time in front of Carrick.
Back at Carrington from the first day of pre-season, he has stolen a march on some of his rivals for a starting place against Hull City on the opening weekend. When the real football starts, those early sessions matter.
A gap opens at the heart of defence
At the moment, the centre of defence belongs to others. Harry Maguire and Ayden Heaven started together against Wrexham and could continue as the pairing against Rosenborg. Matthijs de Ligt, still working his way back from back surgery, remains confined to rehabilitation at Carrington and is already ruled out of the start of the new campaign.
On paper, once everyone is fit, Carrick has a strong defensive unit. Lisandro Martinez, named in the World Cup team of the tournament, is the emotional core of that back line. Yet his summer ended with a familiar, painful image: shirt pulled over his face, forced off with injury. He has gone on holiday, a sign the issue is not believed to be serious, but as of Wednesday he still did not know the full extent of the problem.
Even if the news is positive and Martinez returns to training in early August, match sharpness is another matter. Being technically fit is not the same as being ready to start a Premier League game on August 22. United’s opener away to newly-promoted Hull City could arrive too soon.
That creates a vacancy. Someone will stand alongside Maguire at the MKM Stadium. Someone has a chance to change the story of their United career in 90 minutes.
The heir apparent who has waited too long
On the left side, Heaven, 19, mirrors Martinez as a naturally left-footed defender. He is promising, assured, and stylistically aligned with what Carrick wants. But inside the club, Yoro is still considered ahead of the former Arsenal defender in his development.
United did not spend £52 million to bring an 18-year-old from Lille to Old Trafford in 2024 just to watch him warm the bench. When they beat Real Madrid to his signature, the expectation was clear: this was a defender who would grow into a regular, an anchor for the next decade.
Two seasons on, the reality has been more subdued. Yoro has started only 30 Premier League games. There have been flashes of the player scouts raved about – the timing in the tackle, the calmness under pressure, the ability to step out with the ball – but not yet the sustained run of performances that define a United centre-back.
Dan Ashworth, United’s sporting director at the time of the deal, called him “one of the most exciting young defenders in world football” and insisted he had “every attribute needed to develop into a top-class centre-back.” Those words still hang over him. The attributes have not gone away. The development has simply stalled.
Since arriving, Yoro has been named on the bench 28 times in the Premier League. Watching, waiting, learning. Now the waiting has to stop.
A season that could change everything
Yoro turns 21 in November. That number matters. At 18 or 19, a slow integration can be excused. At 21, especially at a club of United’s scale, a player either steps forward or risks being overtaken.
The stakes are rising beyond club level as well. With Zinedine Zidane set to replace Didier Deschamps as France head coach, the international landscape is shifting. New managers bring new ideas, new hierarchies, new chances. Yoro knows that if he nails down a regular spot at United this season, he could finish the campaign not just as a fixture in Carrick’s side, but as part of a refreshed France squad.
That possibility sharpens every training session, every pre-season minute, every duel in the air in Trondheim or Helsinki. They all lead to Hull.
If he starts at the MKM Stadium, it will not just be another line on a team sheet. It will be an invitation to lay down a marker, to show Carrick that the future of United’s defence does not need to be postponed any longer.
Breaking the established order
Carrick built last season’s success on ruthless consistency. He picked a core XI and stuck with it. The upside was stability and results. The downside was clear for players like Yoro: if you were not in that strongest side, opportunities dried up.
At centre-back, the trusted pairing was Maguire and Martinez. When both are fit, logic says they remain the default choice. De Ligt, once he returns, will arrive with his own point to prove, eager to reassert himself after back surgery and reframe his reputation in England.
Yet within the club, there is a sense of what the next back line should look like. Yoro and Heaven are seen as the long-term partnership, the duo who could grow together into something formidable. Maguire has even told people he believes they can become United’s version of Gabriel and William Saliba, the bedrock of what many regard as the Premier League’s best defence.
That is the level being talked about. That is the standard Yoro must now chase, not in theory, but on the pitch.
For now, he starts the summer at right-back, filling gaps, doing a job. It is not glamorous, and it is not where he wants to be. But the real prize lies straight ahead, in the middle of Carrick’s defence, under the lights, with the season on the line.
By the time United walk out for that first league game, we will know whether Leny Yoro has turned pre-season opportunity into something more permanent – or whether this is the last warning before his promise risks slipping into someone else’s story.
