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Victor Lindelof has now played seven seasons at Manchester United, making 259 appearances across all competitions.
Signed from Benfica by Jose Mourinho in the summer of 2017, the centre back known as “the Iceman” was supposed to be United’s main centre back for years to come.
It has never really worked out this way however; he has consistently fallen down the pecking order as the club seem to bring in at least one new centre back in every summer window.
Under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the Swede was a first team regular alongside Harry Maguire but with the signing of Raphael Varane in 2021, his influence in the first team began to wane.
The signing of Lisandro Martinez a year later and the purchase of Leny Yoro this summer only seems to have decreased the Swede’s chances of playing a significant role at the club.
In his favour, Lindelof is a level-headed professional who has a plethora of experience of senior club and international football at 30 years old.
He can pick a pass and can be quite dangerous raking long balls for the pacy forwards of Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford to run onto.
At his best, he can be a calming influence on the defence and has regularly played over 30 times a season for the Red Devils since joining.
Unfortunately there are many weaknesses to the Swedish captain’s game.
Probably his biggest issue is just how passive he is as a defender. United fans love the raw energy of Lisandro Martinez and even Harry Maguire, for all his faults, can get stuck in.
Perhaps it is an outdated concept but it feels like any defender in the Premier League who is not particularly pro-active must excel at numerous other aspects of the art of defending. Sadly for Lindelof, he does not.
The former Benfica man is regularly bullied by physical centre forwards and rarely looks to have the stomach for a battle.
This over-cautiousness tends to give attackers too much time and in the incredibly high standard of the England’s top division, this is punished all too often.
The defender is also physically weak compared to numerous other defenders in the league. “In 2022, he was dispossessed an average of 1.4 times per game, highlighting his susceptibility to losing the ball in duels with opponents. Unfortunately, this issue persisted into 2023, with Lindelof being dispossessed an average of 1.6 times per game.”
Pundits over the years have noted these glaring defensive issues as Paul Scholes claimed that he “lacked authority” and Jamie Carragher claimed to “feel sorry” for the defender as he was “out of his depth” playing for Manchester United.
In years gone by, Lindelof may even have been an acceptable back up but with Yoro, Martinez, Maguire, Jonny Evans and possibly Matthijs de Ligt, if United can reach an agreement with Bayern Munich, there is simply no space for the Scandinavian.
It has been reported here that the Red Devils are working hard to sell the defender and in a summer where every penny counts with PSR restrictions, even a small fee could be useful for United in acquiring a target that Erik ten Hag would value significantly more.
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