Manchester United know all too well about the threats that reported transfer targets Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo pose ahead of facing Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley.
After United won seven straight matches in three years between 2019 and 2022 against the Seagulls, that all changed across three months on either side of summer last year. One difference? Caicedo.
The Ecuador international had not previously played against United before Ralf Rangnick and company travelled to the South Coast for their penultimate away game of last season. If those in the away end were not already aware of the midfielder, they were by the time the full-time whistle blew and certainly are well-acquainted now.
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It took just ten minutes for Caicedo to announce himself with a right-footed strike, his first goal of any kind for Brighton, that set the tone for an evening to forget as the hosts ran out 4-0 winners. Positioned directly ahead of the Ecuadorian in midfield that day was Mac Allister.
Three months later, on the opening weekend of this season, the Argentina international was instead sitting beside his fellow South American. Yes, Mac Allister scored an unfortunate own goal when goalkeeper Robert Sanchez clawed the ball away from the goal line onto his teammates' shin, which gave United a lifeline back into the game from 2-0 down. But there was more to the performance than that.
Ultimately Brighton held on, and the two deepest midfielders were there to see it out; only they and two-goal hero Pascal Gross played the full 90 minutes of the front seven players selected by Graham Potter. For Mac Allister, it also marked the start of a shift into a more defensive midfield role that continued throughout the first half of the season and continued into the World Cup with Argentina.
While Roberto De Zerbi has more recently returned the 24-year-old to a more accustomed advanced role in midfield, the versatility displayed through this season to play throughout the middle third will only add to the interest generated during the off-season.
Before that, under the Wembley arch, the midfield battle will go a long way to deciding who returns to the capital at the start of June and who is instead jetting off on their holidays. Erik ten Hag has his first-choice midfielders all available again as Bruno Fernandes is back from the suspension that saw him miss the midweek trip to Sevilla.
Casemiro will join Fernandes in the middle, alongside one of Christian Eriksen or Marcel Sabitzer. Whether Caicedo or Mac Allister could become the third in that triumvirate next season remains to be seen, but impressing again against a full-strength United midfield would hardly hurt their chances.
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