EPL Transfer Spotlight: Manchester United’s Tyrell Malacia

We now have Erik ten Hag’s first signing at Manchester United, and to no great surprise, it’s a Dutchman! Although to be fair, it’s not a player from Ajax. Tyrell Malacia joins United in the region of £13 million from Feyenoord. He offers bags of potential, aligned with ten Hag’s vision. Introduced at the break, he featured for the Red Devils in Tuesday’s 4-0 pre-season win over an experimenting Liverpool side.

Background

Malacia is a 22-year old Dutch left-back who has represented the senior Netherlands national team on five occasions already (since 2021) and has also represented his country throughout youth levels. He played for Dutch Eredivisie side Feyenoord since 2017, making 137 appearances for the club in all competitions. He has been at the club since joining as a youth in 2008.

Malacia is a technically gifted player with strong pace who can play out from the back comfortably to help transitional play, fitting ten Hag’s style of football. At 22 years of age, there is still plenty of development in front of Malacia, the step to the Premier League a huge moment in his career.

Fantasy Prospects

Affordable in FPL at a budget price of £4.5mil, Malacia is cheaper than his position rivals Shaw and Telles (£5.0mil) and the same price as fellow fullbacks Wan-Bissaka and Dalot. The big question is if he’ll be a regular starter, which is yet to be seen.

It’ll be interesting to watch him when he gets his opportunity and how he takes it as he has Shaw and Telles to compete with (Shaw currently injured). Man United will compete in the Europa League, so Malacia may be eased in there. We did see that Telles featured at center-back briefly in pre-season, so he could be a cover player who allows Malacia to feature. In the right-back position, Wan-Bissaka is looking likely to leave this summer after falling out of favour. There is uncertainty with Dalot long-term also.

Malacia is earmarked for future development and has relatively low-numbers in terms of attacking returns in his time at Feyenoord, with four goals and eight assists across four seasons (98 appearances) but to be taken with a pinch of salt as he was and still is learning his trade.

What are your thoughts on United’s new boy? How quickly will he settle? Would you consider him in your Fantasy teams if he’s a likely starter?

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