Lewis Hall is off the table - Man Utd have three left-back alternatives

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Robin Bairner | Chief Editor

Lewis Hall is no longer an option for Manchester United, but his new Newcastle contract has not left the Red Devils without alternatives. Their recent transfer strategy points towards a very specific type of left-back - and three Premier League players fit the bill.

United spent much of the summer pursuing a deal for Hall, but they were unable to tempt Newcastle into a sale. The Magpies offloaded Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes, and they were not willing to see a third key player depart.

In the meantime, the Red Devils have been happy to settle for Diogo Dalot and Patrick Dorgu to be their primary support for Luke Shaw, despite neither being a natural left-back.

Current ETV

Lewis Hall

D (L)

Newcastle

Lewis Hall

D (L)

Newcastle

€30.5M

ETV Range

€27.4M - €33.5M

View full profile

An overhaul of Man Utd’s rearguard is expected next summer, so with Hall off the table, who could they target instead?

FootballTransfers has pinpointed three players Michael Carrick’s side are likely to be interested in based on their recent signing trends and the attributes they appear to be searching for.

Man Utd have three left-back alternatives to Hall

Manchester United have three clear transfer alternatives. Interestingly, each of these three players are currently rated more highly by data analytics firm SciSports than Hall, though the Newcastle man does have a higher potential than all of them.

This is measured on SciSports’ SciSkill index, which is compiled using hundreds of in-game data points.

Here are the three players:

Ferdi Kadioglu

Club: Brighton

Estimated Transfer Value (ETV): €27.3m

Brighton have a habit of producing high-quality players, and the latest of these is Turkey international Kadioglu, who is in his third season with the Premier League side following a 2024 move from Fenerbahce.

His dribbling and ball retention were two quality aspects to his play last season, though he was not particularly impactful offensively, providing just one goal and failing to register an assist.

Data analytics firm SciSports rates him as the best player on this list currently, but he also has the lowest potential ceiling.

Adrien Truffert

Club: Bournemouth

Estimated Transfer Value (ETV): €24.5m

Truffert is a player who is being linked with a move to a number of big clubs, with Manchester United among them, and our analysis suggests he is a player they will likely seriously pursue in the months ahead.

The 23-year-old Frenchman was one of the breakout stars in the Premier League last season and produced above-average numbers almost across the board in his debut campaign in England’s top-flight.

He was an ever-present for Bournemouth and supplied one goal and four assists for the Cherries.

SciSports reports that he has the potential to become a key player at Man Utd.

Neco Williams

Club: Nottingham Forest

Estimated Transfer Value (ETV): €19.8m

The cheapest option on this list and also the player with the lowest current skill level, the 25-year-old Wales star is still more highly rated than Hall by SciSports.

Having come through the academy at Liverpool, Williams has developed into an established Premier League left-back at Forest, where he played all but one top-flight game last season, scoring two goals and creating three.

Williams rated among the top third of Premier League full-backs by SciSports last season.

How were these players selected?

Manchester United have followed a clear transfer strategy over the past couple of years, giving us a good idea of the type of player they are likely to target.

The Red Devils have targeted players with Premier League experience primarily in the last two years, with six of their seven signings falling between the ages of 22 and 26.

On top of this, they will want a player similar to Hall while also being an improvement on Shaw. It’s also likely that they will want a player who is on an upward trajectory.

With this in mind, we searched for these attributes:

Position: Left-back

Style: 80%+ similarity with Lewis Hall

Age: 22-26

League: Premier League

Current SciSkill: 96.0+

SciSkill development: 0.0+

Five options emerged, but Arsenal’s Riccardo Calafiori and Manchester City’s Nico O’Reilly were both discarded as being unrealistic transfers.

This left Kadioglu, Truffert and Williams as likely targets for Man Utd next summer.