Have Man United made a mistake waiting until next summer to rebuild the defense?

Manchester United are planning to fix their leaks next summer, even though they know that winter is coming and it’s going to rain. But this isn’t about the club’s latest attempts to plug the holes in Old Trafford notoriously porous roof; it’s the club’s grand idea to build a new defense.

Three games into the Premier League season, Michael Carrick’s team has conceded six goals in 270 minutes — four of those against promoted Hull and Ipswich — and they face Manchester City at home Sunday. They did keep a clean sheet in their UEFA Champions League clash with FK Sabah on Thursday night, but United’s failure to bolster the back four during the summer is already looking a costly mistake, and now they welcome Erling Haaland — who has eight goals and three assists in seven league meetings with United — to Old Trafford.

Incredibly, the back four that started United’s last two league games, against Ipswich and Everton, was the same quartet that played in the 4-0 defeat at Brentford in August 2022. Cristiano Ronaldo and David de Gea started that game and left United long ago, but Diogo Dalot (27), Lisandro Martínez (28), Harry Maguire (33) and Luke Shaw (31) have survived all of the club’s subsequent clear-outs to retain their places in the team four years on.

What is perhaps an even greater indictment of United’s dismal recruitment in recent years is that Carrick’s first-choice back four was constructed by four different managers over a period of 12 years.

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Shaw arrived from Southampton in a £30 million transfer in July 2014 — a deal instigated by David Moyes and signed off by Louis van Gaal. Dalot was signed by Jose Mourinho for £19 million from FC Porto in June 2018, Maguire became the world’s most expensive defender in an £80 million move from Leicester under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in August 2019, and Martinez cost £49 million when signed from Ajax by Erik ten Hag in July 2022.

Four players signed by four managers, but United’s 4 x 4 defense is no longer — and perhaps never has been — fit for purpose. But don’t worry, United fans. The defense will be sorted out … next year.

United overhauled their forward line in the 2025 summer transfer window by signing Matheus Cunha (from Wolves), Bryan Mbeumo (from Brentford) and Benjamin Sesko (from RB Leipzig), while the midfield rebuild was done this offseason with the additions of Andrey Santos (from Chelsea), Youri Tielemans (from Aston Villa) and Carlos Baleba (from Brighton). According to sources, the next stage in United’s strategic revamp will take place at the end of the season, which is when the back four will get a much-needed makeover.

It will be a case of out with the old — the very old, in some cases — and in with the new, or at least that’s the plan, anyway.

While their Big Six rivals spent huge sums to strengthen all areas of their squads this summer — Manchester City (£450 million), Chelsea (£349 million) and Tottenham (£302 million) all surpassed £300 million and signed at least one player for a nine-figure fee, while Liverpool signed the £123 million winger Bradley Barcola — United flew under the radar with their total outlay of £148 million.

Despite returning to the Champions League for the first time this season since the 2023-24 campaign, Carrick’s squad has only one recognized senior left back in Shaw. The club’s recruitment team, led by director of football Jason Wilcox, opted against a move to upgrade on the former England defender this summer in order to focus on signing one in 12 months’ time.

United were made aware of Rayan Aït-Nouri‘s availability at City late in the window, but opted against a move due to the requirement of a permanent transfer at the end of a loan deal. Interest in Newcastle’s Lewis Hall, who has since signed a new five-year contract at St James’ Park, did not develop to the extent of a bid being made for the former Chelsea player.

“In Michael’s interview at the end of the window, you sort of knew that he wanted defenders,” former United right back Gary Neville told Sky Sports. “If Shaw gets injured, which he does usually when he gets put under pressure during a season, and Maguire too, you look at what would be left and that’s a real problem.

“They have left themselves short in defense. I think conceding goals is going to chase them and hunt them down the road, and I don’t know how Michael deals with it because he already has his best back four out on the pitch.”

When asked about the lack of defensive reinforcements after the deadline, Carrick suggested he is content to build slowly over the long term.

“What squad is ever the perfect squad?” Carrick said. “You’ve always got to find ways of adapting. When you’re building and trying to push through a period where we’re trying to get to the top, that’s the ultimate goal. You’ve got to make steps.

“There’s a whole kind of road that we’ve got to go down with that and making sure that we keep improving. In the end, we want to be getting to where we want to be.

“The situation is what it is in terms of finance, what we can work with and what we’re trying to get the most of.”

There are many reasons why United find themselves in a situation in which they have decided to rebuild the team area by area. The club’s finances remain tight after more than two decades of poor recruitment and decision-making under Glazer ownership. The arrival of Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos Group in February of 2024, as minority shareholders with control of football operations, triggered a new approach, but one in which financial realities have led to United steering away from the top end of the market.

Furthermore, mistakes under the Glazers are still being dealt with. Players on excessive wages handed out by previous CEOs Ed Woodward and Richard Arnold have largely been moved on though some still remain — notably Marcus Rashford, who has two years to run on a £325,000-a-week contract.

One source told ESPN that the Glazers lurched from excess to parsimony, lavishing huge wages and fees on big-name players — Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Casemiro, Raphael Varane, Alexis Sánchez — while opting to hand new contracts to underperforming or injury-hit players including Shaw, Dalot and Victor Lindelöf, now at Aston Villa, because it was deemed to be cheaper to extend their deals rather than spend to sign a player to replace them.

Wilcox and CEO Omar Berrada have been tasked with unpicking the tangled mess they walked into 2½ years ago, but they both must also shoulder some of the blame for the defensive headache that has not been dealt with. Since their arrival at Old Trafford, the club has signed just three defenders with first-team experience: Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Leny Yoro.

Sources told ESPN that De Ligt was not a club target when he signed from Bayern Munich in 2024, but his £38.5 million transfer was sanctioned because, after handing Ten Hag a new contract, the United hierarchy wanted to show faith in the manager. Ten Hag was fired three months later.

Morocco international Mazraoui, a £12.8 million signing from Bayern, has been a value-for-money signing given his ability to fill both fullback positions while Yoro, a £52 million signing from Lille in July 2024, was regarded as one for the future when he arrived as an 18-year-old, yet he has so far failed to justify that billing. De Ligt, meanwhile, has been hit by injuries and hasn’t played since November.

Wayne Rooney, a close friend of Carrick’s, is unconvinced by the defensive options the United manager has been left with.

“You want a squad of players who are going to compete and I think Michael has been left short on that,” Rooney told Match of the Day. “Luke Shaw is not going to play every game, and with Dalot and Mazraoui coming on at left back [against Everton], again, we’re seeing too many players playing in unfamiliar positions to them.

“I think that’s where the club should have gone out and got players to help. You would certainly be asking questions. The back line, I don’t think is the strongest, and the fullback area is a big concern.”

So what happens next, and where will United turn for reinforcements next summer?

Hall would now appear to be off limits following his new contract at Newcastle and a number of England defenders — Marc Guéhi, Ezri Konsa, Djed Spence and Trevoh Chalobah — have all made moves this year, with United declining to pursue any on them. Similarly, Premier League proven defenders including Maxence Lacroix (Crystal Palace to Chelsea), Lucas Digne (Aston Villa to PSG), Marcos Senesi (Bournemouth to Spurs), Jan Paul van Hecke (Brighton to Spurs), Cristian Romero (Spurs to Atletico Madrid) and Nathan Aké (City to Fenerbahce) all moved without United being in the running.

But United have plenty of work to do next summer, and four new defenders is unlikely to be enough.

Shaw and Maguire are both out of contract next summer and unlikely to be offered extensions while Martinez is also in his final year, albeit with United having the option to extend for a further 12 months. But is the mistake-ridden and injury-prone Argentina defender really worth a new contract?

Dalot has two years remaining on his contract and remains a useful option on both sides of defense, but the Portugal international’s lack of defensive instinct means he is only likely to be good enough as cover rather than first-choice.

Beyond the first-choice back four, Mazraoui is a safe bet, but Yoro remains inconsistent and unreliable, as does the 19-year-old center-half Ayden Heaven. As for De Ligt, the 27-year-old’s fitness problems place a huge doubt on his reliability.

Diego León and Harry Amass, both 19, are inexperienced and untested options to cover for Shaw at left back, with Patrick Dorgu another potential option if required. Yet as all of those names show, United have a dearth of quality in defense, and “rebuild” is probably an understatement when it comes to the task facing Wilcox and his team next summer.

After failing to upgrade their defense in any of the last four transfer windows, United must now do it all at once, finding the finances and the players to make it work after seeing so many proven defenders change clubs this summer. It’s either a masterplan or an accident waiting to happen.

United will hope it’s not the latter.