MANCHESTER UNITED fielded their 11th different back four of the season in the chaotic 4-4 draw with Aston Villa.

Only Lens across Europe’s top five leagues have conceded more often than United, who have sieved 30 goals in 15 games. Their only clean sheet was against Champions League debutants Sabah on September 7.

United have played against teams who had a man sent off and still conceded after Manchester City and Tottenham were reduced to ten men.

The wretched record makes it all the more remarkable that United did not sign a single defender in the summer transfer window.

United wanted Lewis Hall to compete with, and eventually supplant, Luke Shaw at left back. Shaw has started five times this term and missed the past seven games.

Overall, Shaw has appeared in 330 out of a possible 664 United games since he joined the club in June 2014. He is likely to be released when his contract expires in June.

Shaw’s fitness regression has seen Michael Carrick play Patrick Dorgu, Diogo Dalot, Noussair Mazraoui and Ayden Heaven at left back. None of them is a specialist left back.

Harry Amass, a left back by trade, has not made a single start and was left out of the squad again against Villa. Amass has already changed agencies twice this season ahead of a possible departure in January.

Carrick recognises Dorgu as a winger, Dalot and Mazraoui are right backs while Heaven is a centre back. United have lost four of the five games Heaven has started in and he came off with them trailing in the 3-2 comeback win against Roma.

Although Shaw has played in only a third of United’s games, their injury issues have not been as severe in defence as they were in Erik ten Hag’s second season. Ten Hag picked 32 different defensive combinations in 2023-24.

Heaven has been sidelined for three games, Martinez and Mazraoui have been unavailable for two, Yoro has missed one through suspension and Matthijs de Ligt has made every matchday squad since his return at Atletico Madrid on October 13.

Dalot and Harry Maguire have been named in every squad and Amass has been injury-free.

The only back four Carrick has selected on three occasions was Dalot, Maguire, Martinez and Shaw against Ipswich Town, Everton and Fulham. The quartet are undefeated but Shaw was substituted in all three fixtures and Dalot was hooked in two.

That was the same defence Ten Hag picked in his second match as United manager, a 4-0 shellacking by Brentford in August 2022. All four goals came in the first half and the performance is one of United’s worst in the Premier League era.

Carrick’s muddled thinking became more acute in the eight-game stretch between the international breaks. Shaw’s lay-off after the 1-1 draw with Tottenham compromised the balance but that did not excuse Carrick picking Heaven at left back, where he started for the first time since his Arsenal Under 21 days against Atletico.

For the 3-0 drubbing by Bournemouth, the centre back Yoro played at right back and right back Dalot started at left back. 

Yoro has played at right back five times even though a specialist right back has always been available. Yoro started there during pre-season but was keen to stress after the friendly win against Atletico in August that he is a centre half first and foremost.

The die was cast when Carrick started Heaven in the opening defeat at Hull, where he was bullied by the streetwise Oli McBurnie. Carrick favoured a right-footed-left-footed combination, as his dogmatic old manager Louis van Gaal was insistent on.

Martinez, deemed match-fit for the following fixture against Ipswich, replaced Heaven. Martinez’s criticism of the hierarchy in Madrid and red card at Chelsea have been compounded by supporters booing him when he emerged against Roma.

Carrick dropped Martinez in response to his reckless fouls 82 seconds apart that cost United at Stamford Bridge three days earlier. The quandary is that Heaven, the other left-footed centre half, is even more of a danger to his own side.

Carrick had his hand forced by the dismissals of Yoro at Atletico and Martinez at Chelsea. United conceded six goals in the two matches they were banned for.

Goalkeeper Senne Lammens has also started to let in saveable goals on a regular basis. With expectations raised, the scrutiny more intense with United back in the Champions League and the back four unstable, Lammens’ true level has perhaps been exposed.

The board played the United ‘keeper and defence a hospital pass, though. The United defence required a shield yet defensive midfielder Carlos Baleba did not arrive until the final fortnight of the transfer window. And he was injured.

By the time Baleba made his debut, it was October 10 and United’s spiral had started. Baleba’s hamstring injury is expected to keep him out until well into December, at the earliest, and United do not have an alternative No.6.

United were never in the market for a centre half in the summer. Tellingly, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham have bought a new centre back this calendar year.

De Ligt and Martinez were unsellable due to their injury situations. De Ligt’s only enforced start after nearly 11 months out came in Como (where Yoro, Heaven and Martinez were absent), where United suffered their heaviest defeat under Carrick. 

A quirk of United’s defence is four of them were signed during the Ineos era. Yoro, De Ligt and Mazraoui all joined in summer 2024 and Heaven headed up the M6 from Arsenal in the 2025 winter transfer window.

But there was no consistent strategy. Yoro and Heaven were club-led buys but Ten Hag got a couple more Dutch-born former Ajax graduates who played for him.

Come next summer, United can clear the decks. Shaw, Martinez and Maguire could all be released. Dalot and Mazraoui will have a year left on their contracts and at least one has to make way for an upgrade at right back.

The substitution of Dalot against Villa was loudly cheered and the Portuguese was booed as he jogged off the pitch. Mazraoui, who had tights on again against Villa, is suffering a raging World Cup hangover.

Dalot has played at left back dozens of times for club and country yet his recent stints there have been totally avoidable. His crisis of confidence will not be eased by his scapegoat status.

Yoro, Dalot, Martinez, Mazraoui, Heaven and Amass are all now on international duty. Maguire came off against Villa at half-time with a back spasm but, if fit for United’s next match at Liverpool on Sunday week, is a certain starter.

Shaw has not been pictured in training for a month, so is up against it to return at Anfield, where there could be more square pegs in round holes.