Manchester United need to offload defenders in January

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer did a nice job rebuilding his defence this summer, but Manchester United now have too many centre backs in his squad. 

Manchester United looked light at the back last season, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has done a magnificent job of tightening things up this season. The only problem the gaffer has now is trying to keep all of his centre backs happy.

To Solskjaer’s credit, he already understands that’s a fool’s errand. Harry Maguire and Victor-Lindelof?utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-” onclick=”sr_record_analytics_event(‘newsfeed_click’,”, sr_record_directory(),’sr_tracker’);”>Victor Lindelof are currently nailed on as his starting center back pairing. Officials at Old Trafford still have high hopes for Axel Tuanzebe‘s future. As such, he’s going to provide cover at both spots for the foreseeable future.

The former United player recently told ESPN that the summer transfer window has left him with “too many” centre backs to keep happy. Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo would all like to be in contention for playing time at the moment. The situation will only get worse when Eric Bailly returns from injury.

While it’s possible that United could offload a defender or two before the European transfer window slams shut, January seems like a more reasonable time frame for Ed Woodward and company. Their challenge will be deciding which players they actually want to part with. Part of that formula will be based on which players can reasonably command significant transfer fees.

United fans shouldn’t expect massive sums of transfer cash for any of the players in question. Assuming Bailly enjoys a full recovery, he might be the one defender who can still command a strong fee. The towering centre back still has admirers inside England and could bring United upwards of £30 million.

The rest of the group will be lucky to fetch that figure as a group. Smalling and Jones might see their values inflated due to their homegrown status, but neither is the sort of dynamic defender that clubs are actively searching for at the moment. Rojo will likely be the toughest player to offload. His penchant for shocking defensive errors will cause tons of clubs to pass on his services.

The good news for fans at Old Trafford is that Maguire, Lindelof and Tuanzebe look like a trio that can be relied upon for years to come. It’s much better for United to have too many defenders than too few.