Alex Grimaldo is the recently added player to Jose Mourinho’s bucket list with reports suggesting that the Portuguese is interested in the defenders’ services. The 22-year-old left back seems to have caught Jose’s eye when his team met Benfica in a Champions League group stage clash. Hindered by injuries to their left back option in Marcos Rojo and Luke Shaw, a replacement is a need of the hour for Manchester United.
Alex Grimaldo is a Barcelona academy graduate who made the move to the Portuguese outfit last season. He is full of pace and precision, a quality indispensable for today’s fullbacks. A fullback who swerves free kicks into the box, and also finds the net consistently. In his 14 games with Benfica last season, he bagged two goals and three assists.
While his attacking prospects look quite impressive, he doesn’t deviate from his primary task either. Averaging 2.9 tackles per game and a cumulative total of 35 interceptions, the Spaniard knows his duties. For a left back, he holds a commendable pass success percentage of 84.6% last season, a figure higher than one of the best left-backs in the world Marcelo, who holds a percentage of 81.6
Whether Mourinho decides to go with a back four and the orthodox left-back position, or a 3 man defence with wing backs supporting them, Grimaldo could flourish under both. This flexibility provides a manager to change systems at ease.
The backing that the players can adjust to any system is a huge confidence boost. Although the move doesn’t provide enough time for Grimaldo himself as he would be expected to get things underway right away, he is known to settle into his role quite early as was his case at Benfica. Blending into the squad and life at Manchester could be made easy knowing that he has the likes of Mata, Herrera and de Gea.
Grimaldo would be a great addition to this United line up given their problems with left backs in recent times. The left part of the defence has been a position of mere rotation with no fixed figure. It is only because none have been able to fill in that position and to make things even worse, constant injuries to Rojo and Shaw have not helped United either.
Since the stalwart, Patrice Evra’s departure left-back has been a problem for United. Being one of the best left-backs in the league back in his days, United have seen no successor. Mourinho’s Portuguese influence could be pivotal in persuading Benfica to offload their star.
