Manchester United are keen to strengthen their depth at full-back in upcoming transfer windows, having initially made a point of prioritising attacking players during the summer transfer window.

United brought in four attacking players this summer – Lucia Garcia, Adriana Leon, Rachel Williams and Nikita Parris – as well as midfielder Grace Clinton. The arrivals of Aissatou Tounkara and Maya Le Tissier have also strengthened the centre of defence.

Le Tissier had been excelling at right-back for former club Brighton but has quickly made the seamless transition to centre-back, which already looks set to be her long-term future.

But it has left a potential weakness in the full-back roles, where United lack specialist depth behind usual starters Ona Batlle and Hannah Blundell, having let both Kirsty Smith and Martha Harris go at the end of last season. That has been highlighted in recent weeks by the absence of Batlle because of a concussion and Blundell twice coming off, replaced at left-back by winger Leah Galton.

United manager Marc Skinner isn’t urgently concerned by the situation because of the versatility of Galton, as well as having Le Tissier and Maria Thorisdottir, the latter of whom replaced Batlle against Brighton a week ago and started instead of her against Leicester on Sunday. But he has confirmed that full-back is definitely an area of interest to the club in the transfer market.

“It is something we will address going forwards, for sure,” Skinner explained.

“When I looked at how we could structure these next few [transfer] windows, I always wanted to hit the front line first so that we could win games of football,” he added, referring to the four forwards that were recruited in his first full summer window at the club.

“The beauty is Leah could easily be a wonderful left-back as well…that’s the strength of her. With Ona not there, you’re always going to miss a world class full-back, but I though Maria did a great job coming in [against Leicester]. Also Maya can play at full-back. We have that depth and ability.”

United also face the situation that Batlle, a player Skinner recently described as ‚one of the best, if not the best‘ right-backs in the world, is out of contract at the end of this season. The club remains keen to secure her future, and she is part of the squad’s four-player leadership group alongside Aoife Mannion, Hayley Ladd and captain Katie Zelem.

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