Leny Yoro's Pivotal Season at Manchester United: A Chance to Shine

Leny Yoro has been at Manchester United for two seasons now, long enough for the hype to fade and the questions to grow louder. The talent that persuaded the club to beat Real Madrid to his signature has flickered, not burned. That has to change. And this summer might finally give him the opening he has been waiting for.

A right-back out of place

In Helsinki against Wrexham, Yoro found himself shunted to right-back, a role that fits his CV about as well as a goalkeeper’s jersey. It was Manchester United’s first pre-season outing, a defeat that will be forgotten quickly, but the image of a £52million centre-back patrolling the flank lingers a little longer.

He is likely to be there again in Trondheim. With no major stars back at Carrington yet, Michael Carrick is expected to lean on the same group that faced the Championship side last weekend, which points to another makeshift shift at right-back for Yoro against Rosenborg.

These games, though, are not about positions on a team sheet as much as they are about timing. Yoro reported for day one of pre-season. Others did not. That matters.

While some of his rivals ease back into work, he is already building fitness, rhythm and trust. When United walk out at the MKM Stadium to face Hull City on the opening day, that head start could be the difference between a place in the XI and another season watching from the bench.

A vacancy in the heart of defence

For now, Harry Maguire and Ayden Heaven have the shirts. They started together at centre-back against Wrexham and could continue as the first-choice pairing in Norway. Behind them, Matthijs de Ligt remains at Carrington, still working his way back from back surgery and already ruled out of the start of the new campaign.

On paper, Carrick has the makings of a formidable defensive group. Lisandro Martinez completes the core, a World Cup team-of-the-tournament defender whose aggression and left foot have underpinned United’s best spells under the current regime.

But football rarely follows the neat plan on paper.

Martinez ended his World Cup with his shirt over his face, forced off through injury. The early signs are that the issue is not serious – he has gone on holiday and is not in the treatment room – yet as of Wednesday he still did not know the full extent of the problem. His return to pre-season is not expected until roughly a week before the Premier League kicks off on August 22.

Even if he is cleared to train, he will be racing the clock. Match sharpness does not arrive on command. That makes it unlikely he will be ready to start against newly-promoted Hull, and it opens up a clear vacancy alongside Maguire.

Heaven, 19, is the natural stylistic stand-in for Martinez. A left-footer, comfortable stepping out, he mirrors the Argentine’s profile. But within the club, Yoro is still viewed as the more advanced defender in his development. United did not spend £52m on an 18-year-old from Lille in 2024 with the expectation he would be a long-term project parked on the fringes.

They thought he would be a regular by now.

Promise on pause

The reality has been more modest. Across two Premier League seasons, Yoro has started only 30 games. There have been glimpses of the player who dominated youth scouting reports in 2024, the teenager touted as one of the finest defensive prospects in world football, but only glimpses. Too often he has been the man waiting for a knock, a suspension, a rotation call that never quite comes.

He has been named on the bench in the league 28 times since joining. That is a statistic that speaks of trust withheld, of opportunities missed or never fully seized.

The faith in his ceiling remains strong. When he signed, United’s sporting director Dan Ashworth called him “one of the most exciting young defenders in world football” and said he had “every attribute needed to develop into a top-class centre-back.” Those words have not aged badly. They have simply been put on hold.

The pace, the reading of danger, the composure in tight spaces – they are all still there. What is missing is the sustained run in his natural position that allows a young defender to make mistakes, learn, and grow without constantly glancing at the bench.

A season that can change everything

Yoro turns 21 in November. It is a milestone age, the point at which “young talent” starts to sound like a label from yesterday rather than tomorrow. The landscape around him is shifting too. On the international stage, France are preparing for a new era, with Zinedine Zidane set to replace Didier Deschamps. A fresh manager, a fresh set of eyes, and a fresh chance.

Yoro knows what this season can mean. Nail down a place at United and he can push his way into the French squad. Drift through another campaign on the margins and he risks being overtaken by the next wave of centre-backs.

If he does start at Hull, that game becomes more than just an opener against a promoted side. It becomes a statement. A marker. Carrick built last season’s success on a ruthless consistency of selection. Once he settled on his strongest XI, he rarely tinkered. For Yoro, that was a problem. Maguire and Martinez locked down the centre of defence, and when both were fit, the Frenchman’s path into the side narrowed to almost nothing.

De Ligt’s eventual return will only increase the competition. The Dutchman has his own point to prove, his own narrative to rewrite after surgery and setbacks. This is not a dressing room that leaves space for passengers.

The future, or another nearly man?

Inside Carrington, there is a belief that Yoro and Heaven can be the long-term foundation of United’s back line. Maguire has even told people they can be the club’s answer to Gabriel and William Saliba, the duo who have driven Arsenal’s rise with their blend of power and poise.

That is the vision: Yoro on the right, Heaven on the left, a partnership that grows together and anchors United for years.

But visions need minutes. They need trust. They need a manager willing to live with the occasional error from a 20-year-old if the payoff is a 25-year-old commanding the Premier League.

This summer, Yoro starts out of position, tucked in at right-back, doing a job for the team. He will accept it for now, knowing that every training session, every pre-season outing, is a chance to shift the conversation from “promising” to “undroppable.”

By the time United walk out on that first day of the new season, he does not want to be covering the flank. He wants to be exactly where he was always supposed to be: at the heart of the defence, with the season – and perhaps his career trajectory – finally bending his way.