With Luke Shaw's recovery from surgery likely ruling the player out for the remaining matches of the season, Manchester United have had to rely on Alex Telles to be their main left-back. However, the Brazilian's performances have not endeared him to the fan base.
When Telles was signed from FC Porto many expected him to challenge and even usurp Shaw for the number one left-back spot, but the Englishman then went on the best run of form in his career without major injury. This gave Telles no chance to prove himself.
This season, on the other hand, Shaw has suffered a number of injuries and so there has been an increased reliance on Telles and so far United fans feel short-changed by what was on paper a cheap transfer. Going forward the left-back has not shown any of the ability that he did in Portugal and his defensive work has been questionable.
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United faced Chelsea in the Premier League on Thursday night and this pitted Telles against Reece James, who was playing wing-back for the opposition. This, unfortunately, showed the difference in quality between the two full-backs.
James won man of the match for his performance as he completely dominated that side of the pitch and Telles was unable to deal with the movement of the right wing-back who was consistently able to find space to deliver dangerous crosses into the box. It did not help that Marcus Rashford seemed unwilling to track back and help out of possession.
When Rashford swapped sides with Anthony Elanga, the young Swedish winger did give Telles more support but Telles' weakness in defence began to show. James was still able to trick him and allow himself to find space and when Telles move out to either challenge the Englishman or to stop the cross, Mason Mount was able to run in behind him and Chelsea could attack that way.
And it seems that many United fans have had enough of Telles and made their thoughts known on social media. These were some of the replies from Twitter:
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