It is time for us to begin with our traditional season ending player reviews, where we take a closer look at every individual player that has played his part in the previous campaign. Unlike previous seasons when we would have usually started with a goalkeeper, this time the honour of being the first in the series is Victor Lindelof. Considering United’s ‘number one’ Altay Bayindir has made a single appearance in his first campaign at the club, and did so in the FA Cup, there will not be a season review for the Turkish goalkeeper. Therefore, we move on to the next player on the shirt list and that is the Swedish centre-back.
This was not exactly the season he hoped for. Lindelöf made a total of 28 appearances this season in all competitions, but he spent only 1,960 minutes on the pitch. This meant he ultimately played 21.77 full 90-minute matches, in a season which had seen him in a stop-start rhythm throughout the campaign.
Lindelöf made 19 appearances in the Premier League, missing out on exactly half of the campaign. He did score once, the winning goal in a 1-0 win against Luton, and made the assist in a 2-1 win against Sheffield United. He is not expected to be the player who will help out much offensively, but it turned out both of his goal contributions helped United win points against newly promoted sides.
In the Champions League he made four apperances, three in the FA Cup and two in the League Cup. He was part of the team which defeated Liverpool after extra-time in the FA Cup, but only got one minute on the pitch in the big final against Manchester City.
Lindelöf’s season was far from ideal. He suffered from a groin injury in December and January, which kept him out of a handful of matches, returning only at the start of February. When he was just getting in the rhythm and United started winning some more matches in the league, the Swede sustained a hamstring injury which kept him out from early April all the way to that cameo against Man City in the cup final.
Another problem for Lindelöf was the fact he made one third of his appearances playing at left-back, as United struggled in that position. He did a decent job of trying to fill in the void, mostly focusing on his defensive duties, but this was a season where Lindelöf struggled being part of a whole unstructured unit. His game in possession was good, his passing quite reliable and his ability to play the ball further forwards was a positive for the Devils. But his lack of defensive sturdiness was obvious. Lindelöf was among the worst centre-backs in the top five European leagues when looked through the lens of tackles, interceptions, clearances and even the percentage of aerial duels won. When we know how many shots United allowed throughout the campaign, it is clear he had to do better, as the rest of the team had to do too.
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