[Why Manchester United should buy Sergio Reguilón - THREAD]

According to @lauriewhitwell, Manchester United are happy with their left-back options for the upcoming season. In this thread, I will explain why Reguilón should be a priority for United.

Overview of this thread:

• Athletic abilities
• Offensive profile
• Defensive profile
• His fit at United

Standing at 5’10, Reguilón is tall but a bit lightweight for the Premier League. However, he makes up for it by his willingness to always go into duels and most importantly his speed/acceleration. His particularly unique speed is highlighted below. He is faster than most PL FBs.

While he plays in a system who favors overlaps, Reguilón knows when to take them. He also knows when to take the overlap and when to take the underlap. His willingness combined with his awareness is pretty rare for a left-back.

But his willingness to take the overlap would be nothing without a good final ball. Fortunately enough, his crosses as well as his cutbacks are often finding a teammate. This is highlighted below.

His spatial awareness is also remarkable. He knows when to come inside or outside to either provide width and stretch the opponent’s defensive line or get away from a congested area. Below, he comes inside to provide a passing lane and attempts a switch of play.

He is also good in tight spaces (GIF below) and rarely misses a control (you can see it in various videos and GIFs of this thread) when he receives the ball from a switch. He uses his body pretty well to get out of pressure too.

However, he often does clumsy things with the ball, which is weird as he is clean technically. For instance, he forgets the ball when he accelerates with it, as seen below. He also keeps hold of the ball a bit too much sometimes, slowing down his team’s attacks.

Another weakness of his game would be his dribbling. While he can get away from pressure higher up the pitch thanks to his speed, he struggles when he is closer to his goal as he had to dribble from a standing position. Where Mendy and Davies thrive, Reguilón struggles.

Finally, I will highlight something I find rate in a left-back. Reguilón uses his right-foot pretty well. Around 10% of his passes from open play are taken with his right. He can also shoot with his right foot.

The system he plays in favors him in many regards. Indeed, he is often tasked to stay high to receive the ball. However, he has performed multiple roles this season (from a ball progressor to an offensive LB) and he has done all of them well.

Defensively, I have been surprised by what Reguilón can do. In my opinion, 1v1 defending and ability to track runners are essential to a full-back. And Reguilón is good at both.

Regarding tracking runners, Reguilón is aware and focused to follow his man when he comes deeper. This is highlighted below.

The Spanish defender also doesn’t run away from a defensive duel, which makes up for his lightweight body.

However, he struggled to read the game when the ball comes deeper. He either overcommits or doesn’t commit enough on his closest man when the ball comes to his side after a switch. This is something he has to improve.

His reading of the game on crosses could also be improved upon. Against Inter, Sevilla could’ve conceded because of him.

Finally, we will talk about his 1v1 defending. I will take 2 examples for that matter. In the first place, it’s a 1v1 against Mason Greenwood. Dealing with a two-footed player is hard and Reguilón handled him well. He closes a shot lane inside and immediately closes space outside

Against Adama Traoré, the same happened. He closes space inside to let Traoré come outside. When Traoré is outside, he doesn’t overcommit and puts his foot where a dangerous could’ve come. Adama puts too much weight in his cross.

I would say Reguilón is in the tier below Ferland Mendy, Davies and Robertson. He isn’t special but he is pretty well rounded. He has also massively improved between the start and the end of the 2019/20 season. Now, we will look at whether he would fit at United.

Since the restart, we have witnessed United performing left-side rotations. Shaw and Rashford rotate and if one comes wide, the other takes the underlap. If one comes inside, the other takes the overlap. Reguilón is capable of replacing Shaw in that setup, as seen below.

If you want to have a better idea of how Reguilon fares compared to Williams and Shaw, here are some stats. Reguilon is better than Williams in all metrics while being beaten only twice by Shaw. Both by a very thin margin.

I guess you want to know if he is better than Shaw. My answer would be yes. While Shaw’s impact has been underrated this season, Rashford would benefit from playing with Reguilón. Against Ukraine, Ansu Fati deservedly got praised for his game but Reguilón’s impact was underrated.

His under/overlaps definitely helped Fati’s game to have more space to operate into. This is something Rashford would love to have at United.

For all the above reasons, Reguilón should be a priority at left-back for United. He has improved throughout the season, becoming more complete. He can perform multiple roles while being a massive upgrade on both Williams and Shaw offensively.