ERIK TEN HAG MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MAN UTD'S INJURY CRISIS - DUTCHMAN HAS BEEN RELUCTANT TO ROTATE HIS SQUAD SINCE AJAX DAYS AND NEEDS TO ADAPT

Never-ending list

Injuries have haunted United from before the campaign began when Amad Diallo and Kobbie Mainoo damaged their knee and ankle, respectively, during the pre-season tour, while Tyrell Malacia underwent knee surgery in July. New signing Rasmus Hojlund, United's most expensive summer acquisition, also arrived with a back injury which prevented him from making his debut until the fourth game of the campaign, against Arsenal.

Then in the second game of the season at Tottenham, Luke Shaw injured his hamstring, ruling him out for three months. Mason Mount also injured a muscle in that game, missing the next five weeks. Shortly after United returned from the first international break, Lisandro Martinez was diagnosed with an injured metatarsal and forced to undergo a second operation, on the same foot, in five months.

Then Casemiro missed almost three months, between October and January. Mount was set to return in November and just before he did, he was ruled out for almost four months with a calf injury. Harry Maguire, too, was out for six weeks between December and January with a groin strain.

Martinez returned in late January but in just his fourth game back, he injured his knee against West Ham. Two weeks later, United suffered a double injury whammy as Shaw injured a muscle at Luton and then Hojlund also strained a muscle, missing three weeks.

Desperate defensive problems

Just days after returning from his knee injury in late March, Martinez injured a muscle, as did Victor Lindelof. Raphael Varane was taken off injured against Chelsea, meanwhile, and replaced by Jonny Evans, who then had to come straight back off 20 minutes later.

Anthony Martial has not been seen since early December, first being out with a mystery illness and then undergoing surgery on his groin, meaning has likely played his last game for the club. Just before the Coventry game, there was a triple whammy of setbacks as Sofyan Amrabat, Willy Kambwala and Mount were diagnosed with fresh problems.

It is an exhausting list of injuries just to read and the litany of setbacks have left the rest of the squad exhausted. The only players to not have had any notable absences are Diogo Dalot, Alejandro Garnacho, Bruno Fernandes and Andre Onana.

Shaw's injury problems  and the year-long absence of Malacia has meant United have had no natural left-back in 24 out of 45 games this season. They have also had to field 12 different centre-back partnerships. And in eight matches they have had no natural centre-forward, forcing either Marcus Rashford to lead the line or Fernandes to play as a false nine.

'Too much travelling'

Given how many injury problems United had at the start of the season, their pre-season campaign naturally came under scrutiny. United are far from alone in planning globe-trotting tours, but theirs was particularly long. They played seven friendlies in a period of 25 days, visiting Oslo, Edinburgh, New Jersey, San Diego, Houston, Las Vegas and Dublin.

The frequent plane trips and changing of scenery does not seem like ideal preparation for new campaign, and Christian Eriksen got his complaints in early when he said in late July: "There's been a lot of games and too much travelling, to be honest. We expected a tough pre-season, but for me, there's probably been too much travelling around."

Ten Hag did not organise the tour and if anyone should be to blame for the gruelling nature of the pre-season, it is the club's commercial department. Indeed, Ten Hag cancelled a commercial day during the tour to focus on training. But he is responsible for the nature of the sessions, another area which has come under plenty of scrutiny.

'Toughest pre-seasons'

Rashford spoke of how punishing the Dutchman's summer camps are back in August. "Erik’s pre-season is one of the toughest, running wise, but we also do a lot of passing drills and it's a lot of mental concentration, and when you're already physically tired, it's difficult to concentrate for long periods of time," he told Gary Neville on The Overlap.

"It's not actually a tough session, but when you do it in the heat of the places that we’re training in, it’s challenging. But I’ve enjoyed it, I turned up to pre-season in good shape.”

There have been unsourced reports over the course of the season of players complaining that have been worked too hard by the manager. Given how badly United have done this season, it could be argued that the players should not be protesting that they are working too hard.

Ten Hag has also dismissed suggestions he runs his players into the ground, saying earlier this month: "We need to be fit [but] we don’t train too hard. We don’t train [that often] because we recover then you go to the next game."

Fewer games but more injuries

Ten Hag’s usual answer when pressed on the injuries comes back to the huge number of games his side have played since he took charge. Last season, United reached the final of both the Carabao and FA Cups, and made it to the Europa League quarter-finals, clocking up 62 games.

“The huge amount of games we have had in the last 18 months… still has an impact on our squad,” he said earlier this month. “The players get overloaded and can’t bring the performances anymore. We are already over the point where we demand what we want from our top players. The levels for teams will keep dripping if you keep going in this process by overloading the international competitions.”

But the load on United’s players should have reduced this season after being knocked out of Europe in December and exiting the Carabao Cup in the fourth round. They are due to play 52 games by the end of the campaign, 10 fewer than last year.

That has meant they have more time to recover from games, and this season there has been an average rest period of 136 hours and 48 minutes between games. That’s the eighth-lowest in the Premier League and the highest of all the teams that have competed in European competition this season. Liverpool have had an average of 116 hours to rest before games, the lowest in the Premier League.

Yet rather than ease up, the number of injuries United are suffering has increased, suggesting there must be a problem either with their training methods or the demands placed on them during matches.

The latter was a theory put forward by Jamie Carragher during his detailed breakdown of United's style of play in February. "How many times have you seen Manchester United players having to run 40 yards back to their own goal this season? They're sprinting 30, 40, 50 yards five or six times in a game - hence why they get so many injuries in a game."

Reluctant to rotate

Another factor that could be affecting the high number of injuries is Ten Hag's reluctance to rotate players. This was evident last season, when Fernandes started 57 of the 62 games and Casemiro was only rested when he was suspended. It was also the case at Ajax, where he also had a reputation for never rotating.

Opta found that in Ten Hag's breakthrough season with Ajax, when they won the double and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League, 11 players accounted for 82 percent of the total minutes played across the campaign. The following season, Ten Hag was forced to rotate more due to an increase in injuries, but his first-choice XI still accounted for 77% of minutes, higher than every leader in Europe's top five leagues at the time.

In the 2020-21 campaign, Ajax were again beset by injuries, which Ten Hag put down to the fact that his players were "overloaded" by the congested calendar. "All injuries are isolated," he said at the time, refusing to draw a link between his intense training methods and the number of players being sidelined.

As he did at Ajax, Ten Hag is closely monitoring the injuries United have had. The club ordered an internal review of its injury problems in October after new head of medicine Gary O'Driscoll arrived from Arsenal. The Dutchman did not disclose the findings of the review, vowing to deal with it internally.

And as he did while at Ajax, he has continued to blame the schedule and called on FIFA and UEFA to reduce the burden on players. He can count upon allies in Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta and Jurgen Klopp in that fight, but his counterparts have managed the load better than he has, partly due to rotating.

Fernandes the exception

Ten Hag has made no secret of the fact that he admires players who can avoid injury and play regularly and has repeatedly praised Fernandes for his resilience. But United's club captain symbolises the problem in some ways. He injured his foot against Brighton in last year's FA Cup semi-final and was photographed wearing a protective boot while at home, but four days later he started, and starred against Tottenham.

Two months ago, Ten Hag claimed Fernandes had suffered "a serious injury" against Fulham, who had accused him of play-acting on social media. The captain was back in the line-up for the FA Cup fifth-round tie at Nottingham Forest four days later and completed 90 minutes.

Fernandes might be able to cope with the demands Ten Hag places on him, but few other players can. The amount of injuries suffered by players who have featured little this campaign also prompts questions about training.

Mount has picked up three injuries despite playing just 650 minutes all season. Kambwala has played little more than 300 minutes but got injured before the Coventry game, as did Amrabat, who had played less than 30 minutes in the previous seven weeks. Even reserve goalkeepers Altay Bayindir and Tom Heaton have picked up injuries.

Only getting worse

Ten Hag can rail against the unforgiving calendar and the pressure it puts on players all he wants, but it is only going to get worse next season. Assuming they qualify for the Europa League, United will play a minimum of eight games in the first phase and could potentially play a further nine if they reach the final.

The vast majority of his players will be involved in the Copa America or European Championship over the summer, and United have planned another busy pre-season tour, visiting both coasts of the United States as well as stopping in Norway and Scotland once more.

The only accommodation made by the authorities in the face of the expanded European calendar has been to scrap FA Cup replays, which United have not played in within the last two seasons. If he is fortunate enough to stay in charge of United for a third season, Ten Hag will have to either revamp his squad in a bid to find more robust players like Fernandes, embrace squad rotation or adapt his training sessions.

For much of the campaign he has pointed to the injury crisis, to the point that is has began to sound like an excuse. And the new regime INEOS are building will no longer accept excuses without consequence.