Carrick Considers Dorgu as United's Left-Back Solution

Manchester United spent deadline day chasing left-backs and finished it with none. Except, perhaps, one hiding in plain sight.

Patrick Dorgu, signed from Lecce in January 2025 as an attacking threat from wide areas, is suddenly back on the table as a defensive answer. Michael Carrick did not quite announce a positional conversion, but the hint was loud enough.

“He can certainly play there. He has done, without doubt,” Carrick said when asked about using the 21-year-old at left-back. Then came the line that will echo around Carrington: “For me, he's almost like a new player… it's almost like a new signing in some ways because he's added so much to the group.”

United’s summer business has left them dangerously light in that area. Late moves for Alejandro Balde and Rayan Aït-Nouri went nowhere before the window shut on Tuesday night, and the squad now leans heavily on Luke Shaw as the only natural left-back. Behind him, it’s a patchwork of possibilities: Noussair Mazraoui, Diogo Dalot, and now, potentially, Dorgu.

This is not a wild experiment. Before United paid £25 million to bring him from Serie A, Dorgu had already shown he could operate as a conventional left-back for Lecce. Ruben Amorim later pushed him higher as a wing-back, and Carrick has so far used him exclusively as a winger.

Under the current United manager, the Dane has started four times but saw last season shredded by a hamstring injury. He opened this campaign on the wing at Hull City on the first day, then dropped to the bench for the win over Ipswich. His story at Old Trafford still feels like it is waiting to be written.

Carrick knows he has a versatile weapon on his hands. Dorgu has impressed on the left for United and even switched flanks for his country, where he scored a standout goal from the right wing during Denmark’s June internationals. That kind of flexibility is priceless in a squad that is rich in wide forwards but thin at full-back.

“He's played off the right for Denmark, scored a great goal in the summer playing off the right in a forward position,” Carrick said. “He can play left-back. He's that type where he can do a number of things. I'm certainly not saying he can't do that at all.”

The manager stopped short of confirming a permanent move backwards, yet the direction of travel is clear. Training sessions have already offered glimpses.

“It's something he can, we just haven't had to explore that,” Carrick added. “At some point, we might have to, at some point he might do that. He can do that, absolutely no problem. There are times in training when he does it.”

United’s depth chart almost demands that “at some point” arrives sooner rather than later. One Shaw injury, one suspension, and the debate ends. Necessity will make the decision.

For Dorgu, that might be the opportunity that finally unlocks his United career. Still only 21, with the engine to run a flank and the attacking instincts of a winger, he fits the modern full-back profile Carrick craves.

“And then he's only young, being such a young age and having the attributes that he's got, we've just got to keep trying to get the most out of him,” Carrick said.

The transfer window is closed. The market is shut. United’s next left-back might already be in the dressing room, waiting for his number to be called.