The mistake Man Utd could make with Manu Kone as their missing midfield piece | OneFootball

Manchester United still have a missing piece of the puzzle in their midfield rebuild but if they think Manu Kone can fill it, they’re mistaken.

With Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans now on board, United have swiftly and significantly bolstered their midfield ranks in the wake of Casemiro’s departure as a free agent and the serious injury suffered by Manuel Ugarte.

But while the balance has been restored numerically – and sufficiently with Premier League experience – United cannot afford to sit still. There is still one type of midfielder they need.

A specialist to sit in front of the defence has to be a priority for Michael Carrick, who desperately needs a Michael Carrick of his own.

While Carrick was more of a deep-lying conductor than an enforcer who would break up play, his primary position was to sit in front of the defence.

Which neatly illustrates that here are different types of defensive midfielders, and that’s where Manchester United run the risk of not profiling Kone correctly.

Kone has stood out for France at the World Cup, which can be a risky stage to judge a player, but in his case is an accurate representation of his talent.

Now 25, Kone is approaching his prime years, having spent the past half a decade playing in Europe’s top five leagues (three seasons in the Bundesliga with Borussia Monchengladbach and two in Serie A with Roma).

Roma regard Kone as one of their prize assets; he was a breath of fresh air for their midfield when he joined on deadline day in the summer of 2024.

But he wasn’t blowing anybody away with his defensive duties. What really made Kone stand out in his debut season in Serie A was his ball-carrying ability.

Often, Kone would charge up the pitch, muscling off opponents as he helped his side gain territory. His function was more akin to a #8 than a #6.

Granted, that changed slightly in his second season, by which time he found himself playing for a new coach, Gian Piero Gasperini.

The expectation was that Kone would be a natural fit for Gasperini’s high-intensity, man-to-man approach refined over nine years with Atalanta. But the reality was different.

Gasperini had an alternative role in mind for Kone, which gave him rather less freedom to push forward. Instead, he was often tasked with tucking into Roma’s defensive line while they were building possession.

Kone still had a good season, but not being able to rampage forward as frequently meant his impact was more subtle than the season before.

So United need to be mindful that they can only really get the best out of him if they allow him to operate in more of a box-to-box role, and not as a sitting specialist.

They have been guilty of using talented midfielders in the wrong roles before. It’s impossible to ignore the ill-fated partnership between Fred and Scott McTominay, both of whom were being asked to perform roles that they did not entirely suit and thus creating a dysfunctional double pivot.

United have been scrambling to recover since. Casemiro certainly had his moments and could bow out with his head held high, but the impossible, best-case scenario would have been having a version of him five years younger than when they actually signed him at 30 in 2022.

Next, they assumed Ugarte’s leading metrics for tackling in Ligue 1 with PSG would translate well into their own system, but that has not been the case.

Now, neither Tielemans nor Santos have been brought in to play as the deepest midfielder in United’s formation, but that’s clearly where they think Kone could be of use.

And he can do a job there, for sure. It would just come with the big drawback of limiting his freedom to make those impactful forward runs where he really escels.

The evidence proves it, too. Kone ranked in the 78th percentile of Serie A midfielders last season for the average distance of his progressive carries. And remember, that’s when he wasn’t going forward as often.

There are certainly elements of his game that he needs to improve if he is to take the next step in his career.

Crucially, if he is to convince as a box-to-box midfielder, his shooting is a significant weakness. He has only scored four goals from 82 games for Roma and tends to lack conviction in the final third.

“It’s true that if he scored more goals, he’d likely not be playing for Roma – he’d be on another level already,” Gasperini admitted after one game in December, when Kone had just scored his first goal of the 2025-26 campaign. “But I think that’s definitely an area of his game where he can improve.”

The fact Kone has played 22 times since then for club and country and only scored once solidifies the case. It also probably doesn’t help combat the impression that Kone is a defensive midfielder.

But at his best, he isn’t. He’s a central midfielder who can do some defensive duties well.

The question is, would he be overpriced given his lack of goals and assists? It’s a tough one to judge in the current midfielder market. Elliot Anderson made fewer than 10 goal contributions last season and has just become a £116m player by joining Manchester City. It’s a similar story for £85m Spurs newbie Mateus Fernandes, another player United were prepared to move for but backed away from.

Roma’s asking price for Kone is likely to be in the region of £50m or more. The World Cup will have helped to swell his value, but they already turned down approximately £38m from Inter for Kone’s services last year.

As the price escalates, any bidders need to know exactly what they’d be getting with Kone.

He also needs to improve his movement off the ball when his team are in possession. He was often guilty last season of not drifting into the right space to become a passing option for his teammates, or inadvertently blocking off a different passing lane.

As a defensive midfielder, he would need to be be finely tuned with his positional awareness.

In fairness, United’s 4-2-3-1 formation might alleviate some of the concerns. Kone could be deployed in tandem with Tielemans or Santos, in which case he could build up a partnership whereby one goes and one sits. But the responsibilities would have to be shared for him to be at his most effective.

Kone’s midfield partners in a similar shape for France at the World Cup have been Adrien Rabiot against Iraq, Paraguay and Morocco, and Aurelien Tchouameni against Norway and Spain.

Both are comfortable hanging back when needed so that Kone can switch up his game, as is his usual Roma colleague Bryan Cristante, even if it was the Italian who tended to push on a bit more during the Serie A season.

The blueprint for United if they were to sign Kone would be to ensure that when Tielemans roams, he sits, and when he roams, Tielemans sits. Basic enough, right, but it would have to be done in equal measure, and not with one having too much more of a holding role than the other.

Kone could have other options on the table. Atletico Madrid were briefly linked earlier this summer, as were Arsenal, and there have been whispers about a revival of interest from Liverpool.

Could he actually be a better fit for any of those destinations? At Arsenal, for example, the presence of Martin Zubimendi as a midfield anchor could benefit Kone, much as it has – at least initially last season – for Declan Rice, another perceived holding midfielder who actually has more to give when pushing up.

But Arsenal’s attention seems to have shifted to Bruno Guimaraes, so Liverpool might be the ones to watch for Kone, having originally marked him on their radar when he was playing in Germany.

Again, Liverpool are looking for a number six, but if Andoni Iraola uses a 4-2-3-1 shape, Kone could slot in well alongside someone like Ryan Gravenberch if they were to operate in tandem.

Make no mistake, Kone is a quality player. He has some limitations, but also time on his side to eradicate them. If this is the summer he ends up in the Premier League, someone will be getting themselves a solid signing.

But to make it worthwhile, they will need to make sure they play to his strengths.