After Manchester United lost 4-0 to Brentford, Erik ten Hag made some significant changes to the team's backline. Since then he has stuck with the same four: Diogo Dalot, Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez and Tyrell Malacia.
Malacia was one of United's lower profile signings this summer, but since he arrived at Old Trafford he has impressed the fans with his high work rate and tenacious defending style. And it seems like Ten Hag agrees as since he became a fixture in the starting XI he has only been substituted once.
Part of this may have been due to Luke Shaw's fitness. The defender was out for most of the second half of last season with a string of unfortunate injuries which ended in him having an operation to remove pins from his leg that still remained for his operation to fix his broken leg many years ago.
