The £17m tireless tackler who could finally fix Man Utd’s midfield – if Spurs don’t sign him first
Manchester United have been linked with a combative midfielder who could solve some of their problems - but they aren’t alone...
Manchester United get linked with a hundred players every year, ranging from the biggest names to the most thrilling young talents in the game. Few of the players they are connected with in the world’s transfer columns, however, are quite as unglamourous as that of Morten Frendrup – but while the Dane may be among the less recognisable names connected with a move to Old Trafford in recent months, there’s a chance he could be among the most important.
The 23-year-old midfielder has been steadily building his reputation in Italy with Genoa, having moved there from Brøndby back in 2022, but it would be a stretch to call him a big name – he still only has one cap for his country, for starters. But he has become a player that connoisseurs and scouts have started to respect, and now a player linked with a big move.
GiveMeSport are among the outlets reporting extensive Premier League interest. Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are the headline teams, but there are plenty more allegedly keeping an eye out. No transfer fee is mentioned, but while it would probably not break any records, it would presumably be rather more than the €3.5m (£2.9m) that Genoa paid for him in the first place. Reports from Italy suggest he could be sold for around £17m, amid his club’s ongoing financial struggles.
So why is a team like United interested in a relatively obscure midfielder when they have names like Kobbie Mainoo, Casemiro and Manuel Ugarte on the books? Probably because he is one of few midfielders operating at the top level who has the energy to cover all of the ground that Erik ten Hag needs his players to.
The comparison made in the GiveMeSport report is with former Chelsea and Leicester City legend N’golo Kanté, and while he may not yet have reached such peaks in his career, it’s not entirely fatuous. Frendrup has energy to burn and crops up all over the midfielder forcing turnovers, making tackles and picking up interceptions. That’s something that United sorely need.
With his current set-up, Ten Hag often has a deep defensive line and three or four attacking players well up the field at the same time, leaving huge tracts of land through the middle for the midfield to cover. Mainoo, in particular, is game enough to give it a go, but canny opponents can find plenty of space to exploit and attack. A player in the Kanté mould, a player who can put fires out all over the pitch at source, may be just what’s required to make it work.
Frendrup isn’t Kanté yet, of course, although he’s young enough to have room to develop and is doing so – his passing range, in particular, has expanded considerably and he picked up five assists for Genoa last season having not set up a single Serie A goal before.
Nor is he a complete midfielder by any stretch, but he still does what he’s good at very well indeed. He lacks Mainoo’s dynamism or quality with the ball at his feet, but makes 1.4 more successful tackles per game. He doesn’t have Casemiro’s experience, but he makes more than 50% as many interceptions every match. United need somebody who can stamp problems out over a wide area, and Frendrup has that in his locker.
Of course, his slowly-growing reputation means that other admirers exist. Spurs, who play a high tempo with lots of pressing and need midfielders who can keep up with that style, make a lot of sense for Frendrup as well, while Liverpool and Crystal Palace have been name-checked too. Manchester United won’t have a free run at it.
But they need depth and quality in midfield and they need urgency and defensive skill in there too. Frendrup could well be the answer, and perhaps an answer that wouldn’t break the bank. We’ll probably have to wait until next summer to see if they do make a move, but if Ten Hag is still there then it may well be a very sensible move indeed.