Manchester United will likely give Erik ten Hag the opportunity to continue his transformation of the team in the summer transfer window, with reports emerging that the manager is already eyeing up his first move.
What's the latest on Man United's interest in Kim Min-jae?
According to Italian news outlet Gazzetta Dello Sport via Sport Witness, Ten Hag is ready to make an 'immediate' move for Napoli centre-back Kim Min-jae by triggering his €50m (£43m) release clause this summer.
As per the report, the Man United boss has made it his 'goal' to secure the defender's services as soon as the transfer window opens but will have to wait until the first two weeks of July before the release clause comes into effect.
Would Kim Min-jae be a good signing for Man United?
There is no doubt that defensively there is room for improvement at Old Trafford, especially with so many of the centre-backs constantly battling with fitness issues.
Both Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane are currently unavailable for selection through injury, with the latter already picking up eight separate issues since his arrival in the summer of 2021 – missing out on 32 match days so far.
As a result, the signing of a strong, consistent and reliable centre-back to comfortably rotate into the team will be essential for the Red Devils and Kim could not only be the answer but also an upgrade on the club captain, Harry Maguire.
When comparing the positional peers' output over the season so far for their respective clubs, the Napoli leader has comfortably outperformed Maguire in several defensive attributes per 90 minutes, including blocks (0.47 v 0.27), tackles and interceptions completed (2.86 v 2.3) and percentage of aerial duels won (62.6% v 52.6%), as per FBref.
Not only that, the 26-year-old Korean – hailed as "extraordinary" by former Man United star Park Ji-Sung – is a huge contributor in progressive and attacking play with two goals, two assists and a 91% pass completion rate over 33 Serie A appearances so far, as well as averaging 91.3 touches and 73.1 accurate passes per game.
Despite having the leading number of Premier League clean sheets this season (15), Man United have conceded more goals (41) than any other team inside the top four, so if they want to progress and comfortably compete for the league title once again, it will be important for them to reduce the number of goals they are leaking at present.
With that being said, there is no doubt that the Napoli machine would be a huge upgrade on Maguire this summer and could be the perfect profile to improve defensive consistency at Old Trafford next season.