Leny Yoro: Carrick has found a surprise new role for Frenchman

Open menu

OneFootball's home page

Settings

The Peoples Person

18 July 2026

Manchester United’s first pre-season game of the summer ended in a 0-1 defeat at the hands of Championship side Wrexham in Helsinki on Saturday.

Head coach Michael Carrick selected a senior team for the first-half, which included new signing Andrey Santos, as well as heavy hitters like Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, and Bryan Mbeumo.

There were genuinely nice touches from the Brazilian, who dovetailed nicely with Mason Mount in the middle of the park.

The Welsh team scored in the first half, while in the second half, they barely saw the ball against a youthful-looking United side full of academy wonderkids.

Players who spent last season out

on loan

like Radek Vitek, Harry Amass, Toby Collyer, Jacob Devaney, Dan Gore, Ethan Wheatley and Ethan Williams were all seen in action.

Shea Lacey and Amass caught the eye, as United kept hold of the ball well but hardly showed any impetus to draw level on the day.

It was a limp performance in the end, but at this stage of pre-season, it is all about getting minutes under the belt while staying injury-free.

What was particularly intriguing was Carrick’s positioning of two of his senior stars — Mason Mount and

Leny Yoro

against the Red Dragons.

The former Chelsea ace played as a No. 8 alongside Santos, like

he did during the last two games of the previous season

With the Red Devils struggling to sign that elusive third midfielder, the United No. 7

might need to get used to playing in this new position

in the upcoming season.

Another fascinating positional switch involved

, who was asked to play as a right-back. Currently, the 20-time English league champions do not have a specialist senior option there with both Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui on break after their World Cup exertions.

The new boss could have opted to play Jaydan Kamason as a right-back, while asking the Frenchman to start at the heart of the defence in the second half.

Instead, Yoro was asked to play as the right full-back and he demonstrated his pace and willingness to get up and down the pitch.

The

former Lille star

certainly possesses the engine to play there, and with

Mazraoui linked with a surprise exit

, it will be interesting to see if Carrick sticks to this position for

moving forward this pre-season.

Feature image Justin Setterfield via Getty Images

online polls

The Peoples Person has been one of the world’s leading

Man United

news sites for over a decade. Follow us on Bluesky:

@peoplesperson.bsky.social

Leny Yoro: Why Man United star will be key for Carrick this season

Mason Mount: Carrick continues to deploy United No.7 in new role

Three things we’ve learned from Manchester United vs Wrexham

Man Utd beaten by Wrexham in pre-season opener

Playmakerstats

Manchester United beaten by Wrexham in first game of pre-season as summer signing makes debut

Evening Standard

Predicting which clubs the summer's biggest free agents will sign for

There are still some massive names who are set to become free agents in the summer, with some high-profile deals due to expire at the end of next month.As speculation...

Tottenham: Why James Maddison was not awarded a penalty against Leeds as Premier League issue statement

Spurs midfielder denied a big moment on his return from injuryThe Premier League has explained why Tottenham were not awarded a penalty in their draw against Leeds.As the clock ticked...

Bento's howler delays CR7's first title in Saudi Arabia 😱

An ugly mistake by Brazilian goalkeeper Bento prevented Al-Nassr from winning the Saudi League title this Tuesday.Cristiano Ronaldo’s team was leading 1-0 until the 53rd minute of the second half,...