Will Man Utd's opening weekend defence be the same as 2022?

Lisandro Martinez, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Diogo Dalot were the starting back four on the opening weekend of the 2022/23 season; Michael Carrick used the same combination six times last year; however, the quartet have only played together 10 times in four years

Since the summer of 2022, Manchester United have signed eight defenders for a combined £219.7m - and yet, the starting back four could be the same that lined up on the opening day of the season four years ago.

On 7 August 2022, Erik ten Hag started Lisandro Martinez - an arrival that summer for £56.7m - Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw and Diogo Dalot, but suffered a 2-1 loss to Brighton.

And in six of his 17 Premier League matches in 2026, Michael Carrick opted for the same back line and it could be again for this weekend's opening game against Hull City on Saturday.

While much has and continues to change at Man Utd, these four players have remained - although there has not always been consistency.

They have played just 10 times together in four years - although 60 per cent of those games have come under Carrick - with a variety of factors playing their part.

Martinez, Maguire, Shaw and Dalot lost their first two games together. A 4-0 defeat to Brentford struck particularly hard.

After that, the quartet did not play together again until October 30, 2022 - a 1-0 win against West Ham.

Tyrell Malacia - who had joined the club in the summer of 2022 - Rapahel Varane and Victor Lindelof were some of the players rotated into the defence, with a combination of the other four.

Maguire - especially in the early part of the 2022/23 season - found himself benched, while also spending a month out with a hamstring injury.

The same campaign saw both Martinez and Dalot missing out with various injuries. Since then though, Dalot's injury record has not been too bad.

However, the same cannot be said for Martinez and Shaw. The Argentine spent most of the first half of the 2023/24 season out with a foot injury, before rupturing his ACL in February 2025. He made his return in November after nine months of recovery.

Shaw has also found himself regularly in and out of the squad with an array of ailments. In the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons combined, he made just 27 appearances in all competitions.

The summer of 2024 saw the likes of Varane and Aaron Wan-Bissaka leave and three defenders - Leny Yoro, Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt - arrive with a further two in the January 2025 - Ayden Heaven and Patrick Dorgu.