Manchester United have identified a new target to play out wide for next season, but it may well be a difficult business decision to pursue.

With the club hoping to reunite Ruben Amorim with the highly-rated youngster Giovani Quenda, they were beaten to the punch by Chelsea, who wrapped up a £42million deal ahead of the summer window last month.

Quenda would have been the perfect addition to play in Amorim’s wing-back system which he has only been able to add one player to since arriving at the club. Given there is set to be a mass exodus of players, he will have to ensure that his squad is built in his image ahead of next season.

One player they have since identified as a replacement for Quenda is Como’s Assane Diao. The 19-year-old has shone since joining Cesc Fabregas’ side and he has scored seven times and provided three assists for both Real Betis and Como this season.

He found the net five times in his first eight Serie A appearances and is a talented player who recently made his debut for the Senegal national team and looks to be on upwards trajectory.

Italian journalist Nicolo Schira reports that the club has started looking at Diao and has claimed that a United scout was in the stands when Como drew 1-1 with Empoli.

It remains unclear whether Como would be open to selling Diao at this stage having just signed him, and both Fabregas and club president Mirwan Suwarso have been vocal about maintaining the club’s current course. 

“We have no intention of selling any of our players, at least not in the near future,” Suwarso told Calcio e Finanza last month. “Maybe in three or four years – because it would be naive to say that player sales aren’t part of the business. And we’re not short on money – we are well-backed.”

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Amorim’s wide options

Wide players only exist in Amorim’s system as wing-backs, tasked with joining attacks but also requiring great pace and energy to help the team in a defensive shape. It is one reason why a player like Alejandro Garnacho, a typical attacking winger in a 4-3-3 setup, has struggled as he was forced into an inside forward role in the 3-4-3 formation.

Jadon Sancho, Antony and Marcus Rashford will all likely be sold this summer and one of Joshua Zirkzee and Ramsus Hojlund are speculated to exit as well leaving plenty of room for new recruits.

As it stands, there haven’t been many links to players in those positions, but they have been linked with striker reinforcements such as Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike, who has 19 goals this season.

They still have Luke Shaw to eventually return to the fray but they are lacking true, natural players to feature in this system.

A new report claims Manchester United’s decision to reward Luke Shaw with a new contract ‘didn’t align with the data’ at the time.

When fit, Shaw is capable of being one of the best full-backs in the Premier League and arguably remains England’s best left-back without the injury factor.

However, the 29-year-old has been marred by injuries at Man Utd and he’s barely featured for the Premier League giants over the past two seasons.

Since the start of the 2023/24 campaign, Shaw has made only 14 Premier League appearances, including only two outings this season.

Shaw recovered from knee and calf issues before the New Year and came off the bench against Ipswich Town and Everton, but he has been out of action with a muscle injury for around four months.

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Man Utd have also been without Tyrell Malacia, so head coach Ruben Amorim has had limited options at left wing-back and had to enter the market to sign Patrick Dorgu in January for around £25m.

Shaw has experienced his injury woes after he shone for Man Utd during the 2022/23 campaign. His form this season earned him a new four-year contract, but they will regret their decision to extend the 29-year-old’s deal.

 A new report from The Telegraph claims Man Utd have been impacted by ‘market misjudgements’, with an ‘error’ made with Shaw.

The report delved into Dominic Jordan’s role at Man Utd before his exit in July 2024. He served as their director of data science before being let go as part of the first round of staff redundancies sanctioned by INEOS chief Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

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The report revealed:

‘Jordan’s team were tasked with building the statistical models covering physical and technical performance, injury history and financial profiling as well as providing the benchmarking to adequately compensate for the relative strengths or weaknesses of a competition against the Premier League.

‘In that regard, fans will justifiably wonder how United then continued to make so many errors of judgement in the market. Some of those frustrations were also felt internally.

‘Ultimately, the work of a data team is undermined if the red flags they raise – and recommendations they make – are overlooked as decision-makers act out of desperation or indulge a manager’s fancy.

‘In April 2023, United opted to award Luke Shaw a new four-year contract on highly lucrative terms that did not align with the data on the England left-back’s worrying injury record. Shaw had averaged just 17 Premier League starts over nine seasons and, in the two years since being handed that deal, he has made just 20 league starts, his last coming 13 months ago.’

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has provided an injury update, with two of his players “ready” to return against Nottingham Forest.

Man Utd’s first game after the international break is against Champions League-chasing Nottingham Forest at The City Ground on Tuesday night.

The Red Devils lost 3-2 in the reverse fixture at Old Trafford in December, and Forest head into Tuesday’s match as the favourites as they look to boost their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League.

Amorim‘s side have nothing to play for in the Premier League as they are languishing in the bottom half of the table, but they could do with building momentum before their Europa League quarter-final against Lyon.

Speaking ahead of Man Utd’s match against Forest, Amorim confirmed Harry Maguire and Leny Yoro are “ready” to feature.

“Luke [Shaw] is not ready yet. We are starting to do some drills with the team but we are building Luke,” Amorim revealed.

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“Mason Mount is feeling better but he was on the bench in the last game, Kobbie [Mainoo] is almost ready, Jonny [Evans] is recovering, [Lisandro Martinez] is out.

“[Harry] Maguire is also ready to go to the game and [Leny] Yoro, yes.”

On teenager Ayden Heaven, he added: “It is not so serious. He is recovering.

“He is not yet ready to play but he will return this season, for sure.”

Amorim was also asked about Marcus Rashford’s return to form at Aston Villa and delivered a blunt response to the question.

“We have a lot of games to play and I am focused on my team and my players and Rashford is not my player at the moment,” Amorim responded.

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“But every player that performs well on loan is good news for my club so we are happy with that.”

Man Utd are enduring a woeful season, but Amorim insists they are “looking up” heading into the final few months of this campaign.

“You can say I am really confident. I feel the players are more confident, the energy is different. But I also know that can change with results,” Amorim said.

“We are focused on maintaining the energy and we are working on some things we can improve a lot. Even winning the games, we can acknowledge that we have a lot to improve. But we are in a different moment, more confident and we are ready for the final two months of the season.

“I don’t know which place we are going to finish but we are looking up and we want to win games.”