Leny Yoro: A Pivotal Season Awaits at Manchester United

Leny Yoro has been at Manchester United for two seasons now, long enough for the anticipation to turn into a question: when does the talent everyone talked about actually take over?

This summer might be his answer.

Out of position, but back in the frame

United’s pre-season began with a jolt in Helsinki, a defeat to Wrexham and a curious sight: Yoro, the £52million centre-back, operating at right-back. It was an unfamiliar role for a player groomed to patrol the middle, but at this stage of July, the job description is simple – run, sweat, sharpen.

With the big names still absent from Carrington, Michael Carrick is likely to lean on the same travelling group for the trip to Trondheim to face Rosenborg. That could mean another stint for Yoro on the flank, watching the centre of defence from a few yards wider than he’d like.

Yet the real story is not where he is playing in Norway. It is that he is there at all, back on day one of pre-season, banking minutes and impressions while others are still easing into the summer. In a squad where places will be tight for the opener at Hull City on August 22, that early return matters.

A gap opening at the heart of defence

Against Wrexham, Harry Maguire and Ayden Heaven started together at centre-back and may well continue that partnership against Rosenborg. Matthijs de Ligt remains at Carrington, still working his way back from back surgery, and he will not be ready for the start of the new campaign.

Lisandro Martinez completes what, on paper, looks like a formidable central unit for Carrick. But paper doesn’t factor in heartbreak. Martinez has just endured World Cup agony, leaving the tournament with his shirt pulled over his face after being forced off injured, and he is now on holiday without full clarity on the issue.

The early signs suggest it is not a serious problem, yet timing is everything. As of Wednesday, he still did not know the full extent of the injury. Even if he returns to training in early August, he will be racing the clock to be sharp enough to start at the MKM Stadium.

That uncertainty creates an opening. Someone has to line up alongside Maguire against newly-promoted Hull. Someone has to step through the door that Martinez’s delayed return has left ajar.

Yoro can see it.

The price tag and the pause

When United beat Real Madrid to Yoro’s signature in the summer of 2024, paying Lille £52million for an 18-year-old, the expectation was clear. This was not a project for the distant future. This was a defender tipped as one of the best young centre-backs in the world, a player Dan Ashworth described as having “every attribute needed to develop into a top-class centre-back.”

Those attributes have not vanished. The pace, the timing in the tackle, the composure on the ball – they are still there. What has been missing is a sustained run to show them.

Across two Premier League seasons, Yoro has started only 30 games. Too often, his contribution has come in fragments: a sharp intervention here, a commanding header there, then back to the bench. He has been named as a substitute in the league 28 times since arriving, trapped on the fringes of a settled first-choice pairing.

Carrick’s success last season owed a lot to that consistency. Maguire and Martinez formed the spine of a defence the manager trusted, and once that hierarchy was set, players like Yoro found the door to the XI almost bolted shut.

Now the dynamics are shifting.

A season that could define him

Yoro turns 21 in November. At an age when some defenders are still learning their trade in quieter surroundings, he is standing at the edge of a pivotal year at one of the most scrutinised clubs in the world.

There is change beyond United, too. With Zinedine Zidane set to replace Didier Deschamps in the France setup, the national team picture is about to be redrawn. Yoro will know exactly what that means. A strong season could carry him not just into United’s regular XI, but into the conversation for a place in the French squad.

To get there, he needs more than cameos. He needs a starting shirt and the kind of trust Carrick handed to Maguire and Martinez last term.

If he starts against Hull, the stakes will be obvious. That game would not just be an early-season outing against a promoted side; it would be a chance to plant a flag, to show he belongs at the heart of this defence when everyone is fit and available.

The future waiting to be claimed

Inside Carrington, the long-term vision is clear enough. Yoro and Heaven are seen as the future of United’s back line. Maguire has even told people he believes they can be the club’s answer to Gabriel and William Saliba, the Arsenal pairing that has grown into one of the Premier League’s most formidable duos.

For now, that remains a projection rather than a partnership. De Ligt will return with his own point to prove. Martinez will not willingly relinquish his place. Maguire, rejuvenated under Carrick, is not stepping aside.

So Yoro starts the summer at right-back, a centre-half playing out of position, waiting for his moment. The path to the middle is not clear, but it is there.

If this really is the season when potential hardens into presence, it will not be because of the fee United once paid or the reputation he arrived with. It will be because, when the vacancy appeared beside Maguire and the games started to matter again, Leny Yoro finally walked into the centre of defence and refused to walk back out.