Generation defining centre-half partnerships tend to only come around, well, once in a generation or so.
From Steve Bruce and Gary Pallister of the 1990s to the double-winning glory days of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, with Camp Nou heroes Jaap Stam and Ronny Johnsen in between.
Now, it may feel like asking for trouble suggesting that Leny Yoro and Lisandro Martinez can become the modern day answer to Bruce and Pallister, or Ferdinand and Vidic.
Talk about setting the bar high.
18-year-old Yoro has not even played a competitive game for Manchester United, after all. Martinez, meanwhile, spent much of last season on the treatment table.
But with world-leading central defenders few and far between in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era – Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire, Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and co never quite getting out of ‘good’ and into ‘great’ – a Leny Yoro/Lisandro Martinez partnership certainly gets the mouth watering.
- READ MORE: Who is Lisandro Martinez? Step inside the life of Manchester United’s tenacious Argentine
Leny Yoro has a huge future at Manchester United
A relative late-bloomer, it took Martinez until the age of 24 before establishing himself in one of Europe’s major leagues.
Yoro, in contrast, is six years the Argentine’s junior. Though he arrives at Old Trafford – to much excitement from Harry Maguire and co – having made nearly 50 appearances for Lille in Ligue 1 before his 19th birthday.
For Oliver Szkwarok, who coached Yoro at Under 16 level, it was apparent from day one that the 6ft 3ins Frenchman was a footballer of considerable promise.
“When Leny was an under-16, I said to the under-19 coach that he needs to play in the under-19s,” Szkwarok tells The Athletic, Yoro making a habit of out-performing those supposedly far further along in their development.
“The first time he (started for the under 19s), he never returned with me. He was the best on the pitch.”
Man United fought off competition from Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain to snap up the so-called ‘Kylian Mbappe of defenders’.
There was interest from arch rivals Liverpool too, and not for the first time.
“Liverpool and Monaco saw a lot of potential in him,” Szkwarok recalls, the Merseyside giants long-time admirers of a man who established himself in Lille’s first-team at the age of just 17.
“After that, he was with the under-23s, and it was easy for him. Lille needed him to sign a professional contract and they invited him into the first team. Jocelyn Gourvennec, the first-team coach, loved his potential and said he could train with professionals full-time.
“I was a little surprised, but not (too) surprised. Leny is a competitor and a hard worker.”
Liverpool miss out on £52 million star again
Yoro had spells as a midfielder in Lille’s youth teams.
Szkwarok feels that helped hone the teenager’s outstanding reading of the game, teaching him how to track runners and deal with movement in behind.
Now, having added real pace to the precision and poise in which he plays his game, Szkwarok feels that Man United may have snapped up their answer to a player who has accumulated six Premier League winners’ medals down the road at City.
“For a tall player, he had good technique. But he was missing the speed,” adds Szkwarok, who now works at Toulouse. “He had a good personality. Like today, he was a leader who always encouraged his team-mates.”
“He had a very good technical level and a very good in-game intelligence. He can see and play quickly, with his left or right foot, and I think, at professional level, he can play in midfield if a coach needed him to.
“A little bit like John Stones at Manchester City. In my opinion, Leny has a better potential than John Stones.”
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/sWHmdYM