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Maddison waxes lyrical about ‘best in the world’ Man Utd defender during stellar FA Cup showing
Leicester City midfielder James Maddison believes Manchester United right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka is “probably the best in the world” at defending one-on-one.
Wan-Bissaka started for the Red Devils in their FA Cup semi-final against Brighton on Sunday.
He had a solid game, dealing very well with Seagulls winger Kaoru Mitoma, who is renowned for being one of the best dribblers in the Premier League.
The former Crystal Palace youngster was brought off in the 101st minute before the game was decided on penalties.
United won the shootout 7-6 after Solly March skied his spot-kick with the 13th attempt from 12 yards.
During the match, England international Maddison had some huge praise for Wan-Bissaka.
Maddison says the 25-year-old is “probably the best in the world” at defending when wingers try to run “directly” at him.
“AWB is ridiculously good at 1 v 1 defending,” the Leicester playmaker wrote on Twitter. “Probably the best in the world bar none.
“So many wingers run out of ideas when playing directly against him.”
Wan-Bissaka’s long-term future at Old Trafford has been cast in doubt for quite some time now.
Having joined from Palace for a whopping £50million in 2019, Wan-Bissaka has struggled to live up to his price tag.
His time with United looked to be coming to an end, however, he has been excellent under Erik ten Hag when given the chance to play.
Diogo Dalot had established himself as the club’s first-choice right-back under Ralf Rangnick last season and he kept his place when Ten Hag took over in the summer.
Minutes were very hard to come by at the start of 2022-23 before Dalot picked up an injury.
After playing four minutes in United’s opening 14 Premier League fixtures, Wan-Bissaka was given his first top-flight start of the campaign against Nottingham Forest last December.
Dalot has returned to the team and featured frequently, though injuries to Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw have helped Wan-Bissaka pick up consistent minutes.
He actually played an important part in United’s Carabao Cup final win over Newcastle, coming on at half-time for Dalot.
And as mentioned prior, Wan-Bissaka did well against Brighton, especially considering that he was defending against Mitoma.
A glaring weakness in the right-back’s game has been his ability on the ball. This is clearly an aspect of his game he has improved.
Wan-Bissaka could yet leave United at the end of the season in order to be a regular starter, and a return to Palace makes perfect sense for the player and both clubs.
The Eagles are one of the clubs reportedly interested in signing the 26-year-old, with West Ham also believed to be keen.