Manchester United’s 0-0 draw against Aston Villa at the weekend meant that they’ve only picked up eight points from the first seven matches of the 2024/25 Premier League season.
This officially marks their worst start to any Premier League campaign (after seven games) in the history of the competition as pressure keeps mounting on Erik ten Hag.
The one silver lining amidst their poor league form is that Andre Onana is currently leading the Golden Glove race charts.
Indeed, the Cameroonian goalkeeper has kept four clean sheets in seven matches already, with the majority of them coming in away games itself. He’s had more shutouts than any other goalkeeper in the division.
But the Red Devils overall defensive quality has been shaky. They’ve conceded three goals in back-to-back home games and looked all over the place defensively.
A major issue has been that of troubles in their centre-back situation. Summer signing Matthijs de Ligt is yet to impress, but an even bigger worry has been Lisandro Martinez’s drop in form.
Martinez has made a flurry of errors this season, which caused him to be benched against Aston Villa.
The Argentine defender has been responsible for the Red Devils’ conceding multiple goals in the UEFA Europa League and was tormented by Tottenham Hotspur as well as Liverpool.
This season, Lisandro Martinez has lost more duels (19) than he’s won (17) in the Premier League.
A reason for Martinez’s stuttering form because of the major injuries that tormented him last season.
It appears that the Red Devils might be looking for another left-footed centre-back who can add serious competition to the Argentine defender and add more options to their defensive shape.
Manchester United appear to have persisting interest in Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite.
As per Football Insider, the Red Devils are closely monitoring the situation of the English centre-back, who has been troubled with injuries and only been restricted to one appearance for the Toffees this season.
This comes after United’s major attempts to sign Branthwaite in the summer transfer window.
They reportedly had multiple bids rejected by Everton for the centre-back, despite the Red Devils willing to offer as much as £50 million.
United have not been perturbed by their failed attempts to sign the English centre-back in the summer and are keen on recruiting him despite signing De Ligt and Leny Yoro in the summer.
Football Insider also claims that the Red Devils are expected to return with new bids to sign him in the 2025 summer transfer window.
With that being said, they might face stiff competition for the 22-year-old. Manchester United’s former Chief Scout Mick Brown, who played for Hull City in his playing career and also worked as a scout for Blackburn Rovers and Aston Villa, claims that multiple club remain interested in Branthwaite and told Football Insider: “That interest is definitely still there. But what’s happened is, at a time when everybody’s interested in him and his development is going well, he’s picked up quite a bad injury.
“That will have knocked him back, and the big clubs will be looking for him to come again now having gone through all of that. I went to watch him when he was at Carlisle and he played in central midfield. His work on the ball was fantastic, but there were concerns about his mobility in the middle. All the top clubs in the country were there that day, and nobody took a chance on him except for Everton. They’ve helped his development massively. Now, most of those top clubs are interested in him again and they’ll have to pay a top price to get him out of Everton.”
The likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and Real Madrid are all claimed to have an interest in signing Branthwaite, who helped Everton keep 10 clean sheets last season and played a key role in helping them stay alive in the Premier League.
It’s because of the overwhelming interest in the Everton man that the Red Devils are probably keeping their options open.
They seem to be very keen on recruiting a left-footed centre-back to compete with Martinez. It’s now being reported by Spanish outlet Fichajes that United have reignited their interest in signing Aston Villa centre-back Pau Torres.
The Red Devils have a long-standing admiration for the Spanish defender. They were reportedly eager to sign him in the 2021 summer transfer window but a transfer could not materialize in that year due to multiple issues.
But Fichajes now claims that United have shortlisted Torres as one of their centre-back transfer options for 2025 and are lining up a possible £40 million transfer offer for him in the January transfer window. The Villans had signed him last year for a rumoured price of £31.5 million.
United’s interest in Torres isn’t surprising considering his excellent start to the new season.
He’s helped Villa keep three clean sheets this season, including a huge one in their 1-0 win over Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League.
But with Torres being contracted to Villa until 2028, the Red Devils face a monumental task in signing him for that amount.
Despite signing so many centre-backs in recent years, Manchester United still don’t seem satisfied with their depth of options.
Irrespective of whether Erik ten Hag stays for this season or is replaced, the new recruitment team – spearheaded by sporting director Dan Ashworth – is already getting work done behind the scenes for signing a new-footed centre-back to compete with Martinez next year.