Manchester United have been flying since the appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in mid-December, with the Reds winning 11 out of 13 games.
United’s resurgence under Solskjaer has seen the club overtake Arsenal and Chelsea to move into the Premier League’s top four. A win in the massive fixture against Liverpool this Sunday will be seen as a significant step towards Champions League football next season – something which seemed almost impossible when Jose Mourinho left the club in December.
Solskjaer has completely turned the ship around by giving the players confidence and freedom to express themselves on the pitch. Of course, Manchester United aren’t a finished article and are miles behind from challenging the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool for the Premier League title.
This United squad needs to go through a big surgery and one of the most important areas that should be fixed ahead of the 2019/20 campaign is the defence. Victor Lindelof has established himself as a regular fixture in the team with a series of colossal displays at the back. But none of United’s other centre-halves have delivered the goods consistently this term, depriving Lindelof of a reliable partner.
Although Chris Smalling and Phil Jones have signed new contracts, neither of them nor Eric Bailly have looked solid, while Marcos Rojo has spent another season on the treatment table. Therefore, it’s important for the Reds to spend on a new centre-half and they’ll do a good job by recruiting Hertha Berlin ace Jordan Torunarigha.
Jordan Torunarigha, 21, broke into the Hertha Berlin first team in the final months of the 2016/2017 campaign. Since then, he has slowly but steadily established himself as a regular starter in Hertha colours. And the youngster has hit the ground running this season as well, scoring twice and assisting once in 11 Bundesliga appearances.
Standing at 6ft 3in, Jordan Torunarigha is an all-action centre-back who excels with his upper body strength and aerial prowess. He is an excellent tackler but his main traits are his strength, positional awareness, agility and composure in possession.
The German is capable of timing his jump to perfection to beat his offensive counterparts to the aerial balls inside the box, making him a genuine threat from set-pieces and crosses on both sides of the pitch. Torunarigha is extremely comfortable in bringing the ball out from the back and has the ability to send pin-point crosses forward. To sum it up, he is a brilliant young centre-back in the making with his accomplished physical and technical attributes.
Torunarigha certainly fits the bill at United as he is young, promising and possesses the technical abilities needed in a modern-day centre-back. That said, the Red Devils should spend big to bag the 21-year-old German’s signature this summer.
