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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Casey Evans

Victor Lindelof helped prove worrying Aaron Wan-Bissaka suspicion for Manchester United vs Leeds

Since the appointment of Ralf Rangnick as Manchester United's interim manager, Diogo Dalot has seemingly been the undisputed right-back for the team over Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Though neither are truly great going forward, Dalot looks a lot more comfortable in possession than his English counterpart and this seems to play in his favour.

Former United defender Rio Ferdinand commented on this battle for the right-back position late last year, saying: "I’ve got to be honest, Wan-Bissaka has got a hell of a job getting back in this team. The same for Luke Shaw.

"They’ve both got one hell of a job. One thing this manager likes is full-backs who can actually play and get on the ball. As well as doing the other stuff like pressing, he wants output with the ball. That’s the weakest part of Wan-Bissaka’s game, there’s going to be a big fight for him to get back into this team."

Where Ferdinand has been proved wrong over Shaw, who since his recovery from injury has seemingly slotted back into the starting XI and been a big part of United's game at least going forward, it seems he was right about Wan-Bissaka who has seen limited game time.

But with an important Champions League fixture against Atletico Madrid just around the corner, Rangnick decided to take the opportunity to rotate some players against a Leeds United side who had been struggling with form and injuries.

Wan-Bissaka was brought in and unfortunately proved why he has been made a substitute under the German.

Defensively he was largely solid enough and showed many of the attributes that initially made him a success under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with his tackling and one-on-one defending, but he did make a mistake allowing Daniel James to cross the ball in for Leeds' second goal as Raphinha slid in a leveller. It wouldn't be hypercritical to question whether more could have been done for Rodrigo's goal, either.

But going forward it was clear to see his limitations and it was made even more apparent by one moment in the first half from Victor Lindelof that eventually led to the second goal right on the stroke of half-time.

Noticing Wan-Bissaka's reluctance to go forward, Lindelof drove forward with the ball and then played a neat one-two with Jadon Sancho before continuing his run.

He then found the English winger out wide again who crossed it in to find Bruno Fernandes to head it home. Without Lindelof's proactivity down the right, United would not have scored that second goal in that particular instance.

Admittedly this is not always something that Diogo Dalot does often either but he looks to pass it from deep instead to progress the ball up the field.

As always, what Wan-Bissaka is good at he proved exceptional at but he, unfortunately, doesn't have the skillset to be successful as United become a possession team under Rangnick's lead.

Do you think Manchester United need to sign a right-back in summer? Follow our United On My Mind writer Casey Evans on Twitter and get involved in the discussion in the comments section below.

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