Who is Alex Telles? Strengths and weaknesses of Man Utd's new left-back
Alex Telles was getting ready to leave for international duty with Brazil when Manchester United finally made a breakthrough in talks with FC Porto. Rather than fly straight to South America, Telles has made a slight detour on Sunday evening. After days spent haggling over Telles' price, United have signed the 27-year-old in a deal worth around £15.6m.
Telles is United's first deadline day signing with ex-Paris Saint-Germain striker Edinson Cavani set to follow on a free transfer. After emerging on the European scene with Turkish giants Galatasaray, Telles has spent the last four years developing into an outstanding attacking left-back with FC Porto. The threat he offers going forward is a major reason why United have signed him.
United have made strides as an attacking outfit, largely due to the impact made by January recruit Bruno Fernandes, but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is demanding further improvements. One clear area where everyone knows United can do better is from full-back. Liverpool have shown how devastating you can be with players like Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson bombing forward from full-back and United currently have nothing like that. While Aaron Wan-Bissaka is strong defensively he is anything but going forward, while Luke Shaw offers little with or without the ball.
In fact, Shaw couldn't have picked a worse time to demonstrate all of his flaws than in United's 6-1 defeat at home to Tottenham on Sunday. The 25-year-old had already called for United to sign more players earlier this season and now he could even find himself on the bench following such an appalling defensive showing on Sunday. Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho would have taken particularly joy from Shaw's performance having lambasted him for exactly that during his time at Old Trafford.
Unfortunately, Telles won't fix United's defensive woes. Why they have spent all summer pursuing Jadon Sancho when they clearly need to work on defence is startling, but Telles will at least offer a greater attacking threat than Shaw, though that isn't difficult. Against Tottenham, Shaw brought up his 99th Premier League appearance for United and in that time he has remarkably managed just one goal. Ben Chilwell made his league debut for Chelsea on Saturday and has already equalled that.
Telles, meanwhile, has an extraordinary record. Since the beginning of last season alone the Brazilian has played a direct hand in 23 goals in 34 league matches (13 goals, 10 assists). At Shaw's current rate he would need a further 226 league matches to just equal that - another six full seasons. Taking into account Telles' full stint at Porto, the left-back has scored or assisted 60 goals in 129 league matches. In that time, only six players in Liga NOS have managed more.
United supporters may want to lessen their expectations, however. While Telles clearly has a nose for goal, he is most effective from set-pieces. Of his 60 goals and assists, 43 have come directly from deadball situations. It's safe to say Telles won't be on spot-kick duty at United. Bruno Fernandes has successfully converted his last 21 in a row after all. The ex-Sporting star is also in charge of corners and free-kicks, with Marcus Rashford also sniffing around from deadball positions. Unless that changes or responsibilities are shared, Telles will be limited to creating chances from open play and in four years at FC Porto he averages just 0.8 key passes pg from open play.
