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Manchester United fullback Tyrell Malacia endured a horror show of a performance as he was hooked at half-time yet again in an embarrassing 3-0 home loss to AFC Bournemouth yesterday.
The Dutch full back had been out of action since May 2023 until he finally made a long-awaited return to face Bodo-Glimt in the Europa League under Ruben Amorim.
Despite the victory in that match, Malacia struggled and was to blame for one of the goals as he was easily overpowered and out-paced by the Norwegian side’s goalscorer.
He has since made a shock return to the starting line up against Arsenal and Viktoria Plzen where he played 61 minutes of action.
Yesterday however was his worst showing and The Peoples Person has commented that he perhaps showed why he is not good enough for the Premier League, never mind Manchester United.
Malacia clumsily gave away the free kick which resulted in Dean Huijsen’s opening goal of the game.
He also only won one of his five duels and lost the ball seven times despite only touching it on 34 occasions.
As a result of his performance, he was taken off at half-time by Amorim and replaced by Leny Yoro.
It seems harsh to judge Malacia so much after he was out with such a serious injury and his bravery to come back and play at the highest level must be applauded on a human basis.
Nonetheless, United are in such a mess that they cannot afford to carry passengers.
To be fair to Malacia, he is only one of a number of players who are not good enough to play for the football club and at least he has the excuse of coming back from serious injury.
However, with Ruben Amorim’s system so dependent on attacking wing backs to function properly, United are so poorly underprepared as Luke Shaw continues to be out and Malacia just cannot do what the Portuguese coach requires him to do.
United have already signed Paraguayan left back Diego Leon for next season, but at 17 years old coming from the Paraguayan league, he is a project for the future.
If the Red Devils are to salvage anything from this season they need to invest in a proper left wing back this January such as Alvaro Fernandez or Milos Kerkez and stop the experiment of trying to resurrect Malacia’s career at Old Trafford.
From the 25 year old’s perspective, he is clearly a decent footballer who can have a successful career somewhere and most fans will hope he finds it. It just can’t be at United if they want to be the club that Ineos claims they are trying to build.
Featured image Justin Setterfield via Getty Images
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