I know he only played 30 minutes against Arsenal. I know that he only played his first minutes this season. But one cannot help but be encouraged by what they saw in such a short space of time. He was one of the positives to takeaway from the disappointment of defeat.
I feel like the biggest compliment I can pay to Yoro is that despite being out for 4 months and making his debut, he didn't look out of place. If anything, he looked like he has been playing for United for years!
It was a seamless transition. This is when you know that a player is good regardless of age.
I mean, if you're old enough...
Yoro had been injured for 4 months with a metatarsal fracture he picked in pre-season against coincidentally, Arsenal. This resulted in us having to (im)patiently wait to see this highly-rated young centre-back in action.
Having seen him return to training around the time Ruben Amorim took over a few weeks ago, I think we all thought that we would've seen him a lot sooner than we did. Not seeing him on the field until last night was a bit of a pain. Even though we'd waited for so long, these past couple of weeks with him still sidelined couldn't pass by quick enough.
And he showed us exactly why this impatience from us was warranted, why Real Madrid were frothing at the mouth for his signature and that we have a player in our ranks.
Yoro came on for Maguire in the final third of the match. Maguire, who is returning from injury himself, was playing really well until his substitution which was brought upon the manager because he, along with other players like Yoro, can only play for a certain amount of time.
As it was the Frenchman's debut, in a big match, in a tough situation and having to replace a player who was playing well, there was a lot of pressure on him and admittedly, I was a little concerned to see him thrown into such a situation.
But I was worried for nothing as he came in and played brilliantly.
These were his stats from his cameo:
We know that the boy has a lot of attributes but it was so good to finally seem them in action. He appears to have this almost Wan-Bissaka-like ability in terms of that outstretched, long legged, slide tackle in which he will always win the ball. And that's something as well: he looks like he will always win the ball.
The youngster is also really tall which makes him good in the air but more importantly, appears to be relatively comfortable on the ball and has all the makings of a modern centre-back, which is exactly what Amorim said.
The fact that the manager also called him a "special Talent" tells me that he is one top defender. The boss won't speak so highly of you if he doesn't believe in you. The way Amorim speaks about Yoro in general tells me that we have some player and one that he will know exactly how to get the best out of.
We now know that when we have a problem at centre-back, we can all upon him to slot in and allow us to keep playing the way the manager wants. Hell, he keeps playing like this, I don't see why he won't be a starter.
But as Amorim likes to rotate, this gives him another option to change in the back line whilst like I said, allowing the play style to remain the same.
Yoro is only 19 and if he's showing this level of quality and maturity so early on, then we have a centre-back for many years to come.
Ruben Amorim on Leny Yoro after the Arsenal game: “You can feel it, the talent, the speed, the way. he handled one against ones in a difficult stadium after a lot of time without playing.”
Superb from him and now it's about getting more minutes.
Background Image: Leny Yoro plays his first official minutes for Man Utd | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)