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.
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But in recent weeks it seems like Shaw has moved closer to being match fit again. He was pictured in good shape in United training before finally making his first start in weeks against Germany for England.
The left-back was impressive, he was reasonably reliable at the back and looked a threat going down the wing. Shaw was rewarded for his efforts with a goal which levelled the scores at the time.
And this will be a blessing for Ten Hag with a packed calendar on the horizon. He now has depth in a key area of the pitch which provides him with different ways of approaching the game.
Against someone like Manchester City, he may choose to play Malacia, who is a much more aggressive defender and would be able to track Riyad Mahrez or Bernardo Silva. This will be key to stopping Erling Haaland as he will look to overpower United's defenders if the ball gets into the box.
However, against someone like Everton, who will likely sit back and cede a lot of possession to United, Shaw could be preferred. One of the downsides of Malacia is that his playstyle does not synergise well with Jadon Sancho, who usually requires support to create space for him to work in, whereas the Dutch full-back prefers to invert.
Shaw is much more experienced going forward and has shown he is able to under and overlap accordingly which should help Sancho to be more effective on the ball out wide.
Overall, this is the depth that United should aspire to have, especially if they hope to compete with the likes of City; two starting level players in one position who either seamlessly slot in for each other if Ten Hag wants a specific role fulfilling or offer different skillsets for the manager to utilise depending on the situation.
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