31 August 2026

Manchester United walked away from Old Trafford with all three points and a confidence-lifting 5-2 victory over Ipswich Town.

The game underlined United’s explosive attacking quality, but it also exposed the team’s defensive weaknesses once again.

Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United defender Gary Neville focused closely on that concern after the match.

Speaking after the final whistle, he said, “in a perfect world, if you’d said to Michael Carrick, ‘what would you have done this summer?’ he would have said, ‘rebuild the midfield, and I would rebuild the defence’.”

United have brought in Andrey Santos, Youri Tielemans and Carlos Baleba to add support around Kobbie Mainoo and, so far, they have still not signed a defender.

Neville also tried to explain Ineos’ possible line of thinking, saying, “but, to be fair, last season, they’ve spent, whatever it is, £170m on attackers. They’ve spent £150m this year on midfielders. They’re doing it piece by piece. That might be the sensible thing to do, to not overhaul everything at once.”

He went on to add, “if they could get a centre-back and a full-back before the window closes, that will stop problems that we know we’re going to see. I’m not saying they’ve been bad all the time, but you just know full well, in Champions League football, Premier League games, they will have problems and they will have issues. It’s not being harsh. Everybody knows it.”

Neville said that while the defenders are all good individual players, his concern is that there is no settled and clearly identifiable back four that the side can depend on.

He also pointed to how significant Carlos Baleba could become as the most defensive-minded midfielder in the present squad once he is fully fit and available.

The former United man stated, “we knew that because it’s the same defenders as last season and the season before. They conceded 50 last season, so it’s not going to change unless they play better – which let’s hope they do – but also that the midfield two protects them more.”

He further questioned United’s defensive depth, noting that Noussair Mazraoui and Leny Yoro were introduced as full-back substitutes, and said, “that’s not ideal at all.”

Neville mentioned Lewis Hall and Myles Lewis-Skelly as possible targets, though he admitted the club would not be able to sign them this late in the transfer window.

Summing up the main issue facing United, he said, “but that is going to be the question for Manchester United this season – how do they stem the flow of goals going into the back of their net?”

He also noted that Michael Carrick can attempt to make the side more compact, but that approach carries its own risk because he has already won over supporters with exciting, attack-minded football.

With league matches against Everton and Manchester City coming up, Neville insisted United have to discover a way to become stronger defensively.

He concluded, “can Michael Carrick get a defender or two in the next 48 hours? If he can’t, then how does he structure the team? Carrick may have a thought process of how he can solidify the defensive part without bringing another defender in and that’s something that could be possible, but bringing in at least one defender in, maybe two, would change the whole dynamic of how you think about Manchester United’s season.”