Injury Crisis 2023/24 | Martínez and Casemiro back in training

Our situation is as bad as it’s been since Ferguson had to play Carrick and Fletcher at centre half.

A ridiculous situation that just compounds the off field nonsense surrounding Greenwood, Sancho and Antony, which leaves us with no right winger at the club.

And still some folk think we should be competing for titles.
 
Unam333 said:
Martinez has become a bit of a sicknote. And then he's got a salary bump as well. Maybe it's a psychological thing after his big injury where he is just cautious, but it's worrying.
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I wouldn't be that worried. He's had a bad injury towards the end of last season and he feels pain in the same area when he plays a full game, just need to ease him in slowly until he's used to it or the pain stops. Don't want to overuse him and he get's a big injury in the same area and he's out for a while.
 
Yet I think none of our results so far this season have been injury related.
We would have lost and won the same games with our starting 11.
 
Kag said:
Our situation is as bad as it’s been since Ferguson had to play Carrick and Fletcher at centre half.

A ridiculous situation that just compounds the off field nonsense surrounding Greenwood, Sancho and Antony, which leaves us with no right winger at the club.

And still some folk think we should be competing for titles.
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I remember that, think one of the games was against Fulham.

Pep whining about a few injury’s makes me laugh.

And I see now some are trying to make out it just be something ETH is doing. Is there anything that some people won’t blame on the manager? Maybe it’s his fault for not living with Anthony and Greenwood and knowing what sort of relationship they have with their partners. He probably should be rushing around to Sanchos house, asking if he can interrupt his fifa career mode and beg for forgiveness.

This injury situation is probably mostly an unfortunate coincidence, coupled with sh*t preseason (glazers marketers force that on managers) and possibly a few less then committed players not taking a chance.

Martinez going to Argentina to watch his country play is very frustrating. It’s frankly unprofessional but players seem to be able to do what they want and it’s always everybody else’s job to make whatever they are doing ok cause they are people to or some stupid sh*t like that.
 
Nicolarra90 said:
Yet I think none of our results so far this season have been injury related.
We would have lost and won the same games with our starting 11.
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I agree to a degree. The teams we have had out look, on paper, strong enough to beat the opponents.

But most sides challanging for top honors have consistent starting Lineups and make minor changes between games. Not just that when you have the massive expectations of United, there is far more pressure for things to work. Brighton making a bunch of changes, nobody necessarily expects them to beat United, the pressure is off. If the reverse happens, “United have spent one hundred billion dollars on the squad” so they should win.

Couple that with a poor pre season and other off field issues and it would be more a surprise if everything was looking good on field. Sometimes you have to accept that there are only so many things a manager can control.

Some people keep saying “there are people saying the managers doing nothing wrong”, while themselves blaming the manager for everything. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

It’s no coincidence we are seeing the team show glimpses of quality and then it drops off. When you are chopping and changing so much you get punished at thus level. Then your confidence drops. United were in the arsenal game until we had to take off our starting central defence. We were doing well against Bayern until the Onana clanger. We struggled to beat Burnley but we’re missing a ridiculous amount of players for multiple reasons including our entire starting defensive line.

Do you really think it’s fair to expect us to be dominating any game and playing good football?
 
Sandikan said:
You mean when they had to try about 25 combos of centre back, at one point having to combine a teenager who'd been on loan in non league the season before and a mid 29s journeyman who was probably L1 standard?

We've had a couple of silly defensive Injury sets in the past, remember playing Fletcher and Carrick there away at Fulham. But the current is the silliest yet.
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No, I mean when they had just two CBs missing. Being understaffed at CB doesn’t make it more of a crisis, it makes them unprepared
 
Appears Utd have the biggest squad in the PL. Thirty six players including 14 defenders.

Start using them otherwise what’s the point?
 
Other clubs genuinely have two or three players out and it's labelled a crisis.

Remember the season van Dijk was injured for Liverpool? It was all we ever heard about, despite really being the only significant senior injury they had - it's their fault for having a paper thin squad at the time.

We routinely have three or more players injured in the same position, and its never even recognised as having an impact. Literally every club in the league, bar maybe City, would probably lose every game they played if they had their best four CBs + their RB and both LBs injured at that same time.

Make me a Liverpool or Arsenal back four under those same conditions and imagine how bad they would be
 
Posted this in the general but this is us as of yesterday:

I do think it’s frustrating that people don’t look at the theoretical best XI to see what we’re supposed to be and instead bemoan that with our 3rd and 5th choice CB, 3rd choice LB we’re not dominant.

The squad has been decimated by injury and probably needs another 2 windows (including Jan) to be a proper ETH squad. But look at our best XI and then 2nd and reserves.

Red = Unavailable
Orange = not fully fit
Green = fit

Onana
AWB Varane Martinez Shaw
Casemiro
Bruno Mount
Antony Højlund Rashford
5 out and 1 not fully fit

Bayinder
Dalot Lindelöf Maguire Malacia
Amrabat
Eriksen McTominay
Sancho Martial Garnacho
3 out and 2 not fully fit

Heaton
X Evans X Reguilón
Mainoo
Hannibal DVB
Amad X Pellistri
3 out and 1 not fully fit (yet started)
​
 
Lentwood said:
Other clubs genuinely have two or three players out and it's labelled a crisis.

Remember the season van Dijk was injured for Liverpool? It was all we ever heard about, despite really being the only significant senior injury they had - it's their fault for having a paper thin squad at the time.

We routinely have three or more players injured in the same position, and its never even recognised as having an impact. Literally every club in the league, bar maybe City, would probably lose every game they played if they had their best four CBs + their RB and both LBs injured at that same time.

Make me a Liverpool or Arsenal back four under those same conditions and imagine how bad they would be
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100 per cent this.

It’s like because we suffer injuries every season regularly for the last ten years or so that it’s just normal and not factored into the equation.

Our main centre half is injury prone, so too was our starting 9 in previous seasons. Our lynchpin last season was injured or banned.

Equate that as u say to any team other than City and they struggle, as did Liverpool and Arsenal last season.
 
BenitoSTARR said:
Posted this in the general but this is us as of yesterday:

I do think it’s frustrating that people don’t look at the theoretical best XI to see what we’re supposed to be and instead bemoan that with our 3rd and 5th choice CB, 3rd choice LB we’re not dominant.

The squad has been decimated by injury and probably needs another 2 windows (including Jan) to be a proper ETH squad. But look at our best XI and then 2nd and reserves.

Red = Unavailable
Orange = not fully fit
Green = fit

Onana
AWB Varane Martinez Shaw
Casemiro
Bruno Mount
Antony Højlund Rashford
5 out and 1 not fully fit

Bayinder
Dalot Lindelöf Maguire Malacia
Amrabat
Eriksen McTominay
Sancho Martial Garnacho
3 out and 2 not fully fit

Heaton
X Evans X Reguilón
Mainoo
Hannibal DVB
Amad X Pellistri
3 out and 1 not fully fit (yet started)
​
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Hannibal should be first choice over McTominay at this point. Far more effective with real potential.
 
It's a fitness issue. Poor pre-season or math preparation.Most of or injuries are not leg-breakers. Are they rushed back after injuries? Meanwhile Rashford had a car accident. He was not mentaly ok...
 
Need Varane and Martinez back on the pitch asap. And Licha to return to his old form. I assume Sancho will never play for Man United again and Antony's fate could be similar - it's unknown at the moment. We'll have to manage somehow playing without starting fullbacks for 2 more months and without a proper right winger for God knows how long. I don't know when Amad is returning from his knee injury and if he's good enough to play in the PL, let alone Manchester United.
 
This is why you have a big squad.

Having players who can cover multiple positions is also an advantage. Dalot, Shaw, Martinez can play two defensive positions. Possibly Amrabat and McTominay could fill in in midfield if really pushed. Bruno is flexible. Hannibal potentially although we've not seen it yet. Mount possibly.

I really think Garnacho needs to be hammering on the coaches' door as asking for training and game time on the RW. Rashford appears undroppable at LW, so Garnacho being able to play RW would open up more opportunities for him to play. It would also help him become more well rounded as player.
 
philippexyz said:
Need Varane and Martinez back on the pitch asap. And Licha to return to his old form. I assume Sancho will never play for Man United again and Antony's fate could be similar - it's unknown at the moment. We'll have to manage somehow playing without starting fullbacks for 2 more months and without a proper right winger for God knows how long. I don't know when Amad is returning from his knee injury and if he's good enough to play in the PL, let alone Manchester United.
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If ETH does not reconciliate with Sancho and the situation with Antony remains unclear we are in big trouble, we lack the fire power to score enough goals, especially with our defensive woes. We will need to bring a RW in January which is laughable really considering how much we have spent on the above 2.
 
fergiewherearethou said:
If ETH does not reconciliate with Sancho and the situation with Antony remains unclear we are in big trouble, we lack the fire power to score enough goals, especially with our defensive woes. We will need to bring a RW in January which is laughable really considering how much we have spent on the above 2.
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Think we have made a rod for our own back with Sancho. Should have just put him in and say, well you say you should be playing, go out and prove it. It is up to Sancho to prove ETH wrong. If he doesn't he will just look a fool. We have tried to help him, now he needs to repay that help.
 
Borninthe80ts said:
100 per cent this.

It’s like because we suffer injuries every season regularly for the last ten years or so that it’s just normal and not factored into the equation.

Our main centre half is injury prone, so too was our starting 9 in previous seasons. Our lynchpin last season was injured or banned.

Equate that as u say to any team other than City and they struggle, as did Liverpool and Arsenal last season.
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The wheels fell off Arsenal's title challenge as soon as Saliba got injured...some of these teams would be bottom half with the injuries we regularly have to tolerate.

Saying that though, we're not blameless because we tolerate consistently injured players for too long. The likes of Varane need to be moved on. Good players are no good if they're injured half the time.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Think we have made a rod for our own back with Sancho. Should have just put him in and say, well you say you should be playing, go out and prove it. It is up to Sancho to prove ETH wrong. If he doesn't he will just look a fool. We have tried to help him, now he needs to repay that help.
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I agree ETH would have proved to be right by putting Sancho into the squad and if he didn't perform he would have benched himself.
By the looks of it I really think we are shooting ourselves in the foot with all the decisions the club and manager are making. I mean injuries are there, they are keeping us back, but suspending players for different reasons is beyond suicidal. Especially in our situation.
 
fergiewherearethou said:
I agree ETH would have proved to be right by putting Sancho into the squad and if he didn't perform he would have benched himself.
By the looks of it I really think we are shooting ourselves in the foot with all the decisions the club and manager are making. I mean injuries are there, they are keeping us back, but suspending players for different reasons is beyond suicidal. Especially in our situation.
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It wasnt his performances that has him excluded, it was criticising his manager on social media then refusing to apologise.
 
fergiewherearethou said:
I agree ETH would have proved to be right by putting Sancho into the squad and if he didn't perform he would have benched himself.
By the looks of it I really think we are shooting ourselves in the foot with all the decisions the club and manager are making. I mean injuries are there, they are keeping us back, but suspending players for different reasons is beyond suicidal. Especially in our situation.
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ETH cant win with some of you.

He gets grief if fans think he’s playing players who don’t deserve it , now he’s getting grief for a player who most definitely doesn’t deserve to start or be in the squad with the deplorable toxic egotistical attitude he’s shown.

We want higher standards at the club. Why would we lower the standards now for a short term injury problem ?

I swear some fans can only see as far as a few days/weeks in a season.
 
Chumpsbechumps said:
ETH cant win with some of you.

He gets grief if fans think he’s playing players who don’t deserve it , now he’s getting grief for a player who most definitely doesn’t deserve to start or be in the squad with the deplorable toxic egotistical attitude he’s shown.

We want higher standards at the club. Why would we lower the standards now for a short term injury problem ?

I swear some fans can only see as far as a few days/weeks in a season.
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I am more agreeing with ETH in a way. Sancho has done nothing to prove he should play, So is now playing the victim in some peoples eyes, so I just think he should have been allowed to play to prove ETH's point even more, so the social media criticism from Sancho is completely unfounded.
 
It is not a f... crisis. It is a lack of proper transfers by the club and management by ETH. Regulion was bought to repalce Shaw so that is sorted. Varane is injury prone and we have Lindelof and Maguire who are fit to play but Lindelof is horrible and Maguire is very bad and Eth doesnt have any trust in him so he is not playing him. Evans was brought in about this issue. In the wing department we have two wingers that cannont play currently because of their private scandals (aldo one is playing for Getafe) and another that has been axed by the manager. In reality the only two important injured players are Shaw and Varane both of who have been kind of sorted by Regulion and Evans.

There is no injury crisis we just dont have the squad to deal with any setback
 
I know ETH said Reguilon was ill but did he confirm it's not his hammy? Looked like he pulled up and held it.
 
norm87cro said:
It is not a f... crisis. It is a lack of proper transfers by the club and management by ETH. Regulion was bought to repalce Shaw so that is sorted. Varane is injury prone and we have Lindelof and Maguire who are fit to play but Lindelof is horrible and Maguire is very bad and Eth doesnt have any trust in him so he is not playing him. Evans was brought in about this issue. In the wing department we have two wingers that cannont play currently because of their private scandals (aldo one is playing for Getafe) and another that has been axed by the manager. In reality the only two important injured players are Shaw and Varane both of who have been kind of sorted by Regulion and Evans.

There is no injury crisis we just dont have the squad to deal with any setback
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This is absolute nonsense - how many players do you think we can feasibly have on the books?

United have AWB, Dalot, Martinez, Varane, Lindelof, Maguire, Evans, Shaw, Malacia, Reguilon (loan).

Arsenal have White, Tomayasu, Cedric, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Zinchenko, Kiwior.

Liverpool have TAA, van Dijk, Konate, Matip, Robertson, Gomez, Tsimikas

Now let's substitute injuries like-for-like based on the Burnley game and see how those teams look....

United injuries - AWB, Martinez, Varane, Maguire, Shaw, Malacia...and we know Reguilon was ill...but for arguments sake we'll leave him in

I make that, swapping like for like, that they would be left with...

Liverpool....nobody...not one single fit senior defender

Arsenal - Tomayasu & Kiwior

Now lets see how those teams get on...I'd be shocked if they could win ANY away game in the Premier League
 
Solius said:
I know ETH said Reguilon was ill but did he confirm it's not his hammy? Looked like he pulled up and held it.
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Not sure but he might have just been doing that to get the game stopped while they sort out a sub?

More likely to get the refs attention than holding your arse as if you're about to shit yourself.
 
norm87cro said:
It is not a f... crisis. It is a lack of proper transfers by the club and management by ETH. Regulion was bought to repalce Shaw so that is sorted. Varane is injury prone and we have Lindelof and Maguire who are fit to play but Lindelof is horrible and Maguire is very bad and Eth doesnt have any trust in him so he is not playing him. Evans was brought in about this issue. In the wing department we have two wingers that cannont play currently because of their private scandals (aldo one is playing for Getafe) and another that has been axed by the manager. In reality the only two important injured players are Shaw and Varane both of who have been kind of sorted by Regulion and Evans.

There is no injury crisis we just dont have the squad to deal with any setback
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Forums are great fun when people are this emphatically wrong.
 
Crimson King said:
Not sure but he might have just been doing that to get the game stopped while they sort out a sub?

More likely to get the refs attention than holding your arse as if you're about to shit yourself.
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He did it in the area before that though. When Evans got hit in the head by Rodriguez elbow, you see Reguilon pull up in the replay.
 
Lentwood said:
This is absolute nonsense - how many players do you think we can feasibly have on the books?

United have AWB, Dalot, Martinez, Varane, Lindelof, Maguire, Evans, Shaw, Malacia, Reguilon (loan).

Arsenal have White, Tomayasu, Cedric, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Zinchenko, Kiwior.

Liverpool have TAA, van Dijk, Konate, Matip, Robertson, Gomez, Tsimikas

Now let's substitute injuries like-for-like based on the Burnley game and see how those teams look....

United injuries - AWB, Martinez, Varane, Maguire, Shaw, Malacia...and we know Reguilon was ill...but for arguments sake we'll leave him in

I make that, swapping like for like, that they would be left with...

Liverpool....nobody...not one single fit senior defender

Arsenal - Tomayasu & Kiwior

Now lets see how those teams get on...I'd be shocked if they could win ANY away game in the Premier League
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You’re also forgetting the fact that the players brought in to start implementing a new style of play are also missing in midfield and attack (Amrabat, Mount, Mainoo to an extent, Antony, and now Sancho with disciplinary issues)
 
Zed is not dead said:
You’re also forgetting the fact that the players brought in to start implementing a new style of play are also missing in midfield and attack (Amrabat, Mount, Mainoo to an extent, Antony, and now Sancho with disciplinary issues)
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Well yeah but I'm on my phone and couldn't be bothered to type out the full list so just focused on the defence.

But yes, this is another massive thing that's overlooked. ETH has bought in players specifically to play a new system/style and we've barely been able to field the same team twice.

This is why people need to rethink the definition of 'giving a manager time' in football. Nevermind what the Sun says, or Gabby Agbonlahor on TalkSh**e, 'time' isn't one season, or even two.

A proper rebuilding, like we need/are in the middle of, takes 3/4/5 years+
 
The lazy fan and pundit analysis of our injury crisis is “everyone gets injuries so get on with it.” But when you break it down to see so many of our key players injured/unfit (on top of the non injury right wing debacle), we have been extremely unlucky with the pool of players we’ve been able to start and rotate so far this season. It must be having a detrimental effect on the team as a functional unit.
 
Lentwood said:
Well yeah but I'm on my phone and couldn't be bothered to type out the full list so just focused on the defence.

But yes, this is another massive thing that's overlooked. ETH has bought in players specifically to play a new system/style and we've barely been able to field the same team twice.

This is why people need to rethink the definition of 'giving a manager time' in football. Nevermind what the Sun says, or Gabby Agbonlahor on TalkSh**e, 'time' isn't one season, or even two.

A proper rebuilding, like we need/are in the middle of, takes 3/4/5 years+
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There are unique challenges at United compared to managing other clubs, especially a Brighton or even Spurs. But the team have regressed, its not clear how we play or whether some of our key players are suited to that. 'Time' is also not infinite, look at how Spurs are playing. Yes they will hit rough patches but at least you can see what the manager wants the team to do. United have gone all in with ETH and signed the players he wanted. Lets hope it works, if not we will be in an even worse state.
 
Gordon Godot said:
There are unique challenges at United compared to managing other clubs, especially a Brighton or even Spurs. But the team have regressed, its not clear how we play or whether some of our key players are suited to that. 'Time' is also not infinite, look at how Spurs are playing. Yes they will hit rough patches but at least you can see what the manager wants the team to do. United have gone all in with ETH and signed the players he wanted. Lets hope it works, if not we will be in an even worse state.
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I knew someone would bring up Spurs, or whatever flavour of the month team happen to have won two or three of their last games....

Where did Brighton finish last season? 8th?

Spurs have beaten Sheffield Utd, Bournemouth, Burnley and a struggling United this season. Yeah they look organised and 'together' but the standards United are held against are infinitely higher than Spurs or Brighton.

Lest we forget, last season we qualified for the Champions League and won a trophy, off the back of a 7th-placed finish and a dressing room seemingly divided down the middle.

If Spurs or Brighton win something, or qualify for the Champions League two or three seasons running, then I'll be impressed.

So far this season we've been on the wrong end of terrible variance. From the moment we got fortunate in the Wolves game, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. I mean, three of our last four goals have been disallowed by VAR, we've had clear penalties not given, soft penalties given against us, scandals and a ridiculous injury list.

As ETH said, if we talk about this, people say its 'excuses'...its not 'excuses', its simple variance. Sometimes when it rains it pours, sometimes you get an extended spell of good luck. But again, this is why 'time' is important. We might get to May and Spurs could be 6th and United could be 3rd/4th and have a trophy in the bag...its just far too early to be making judgements about anything
 
Solius said:
He did it in the area before that though. When Evans got hit in the head by Rodriguez elbow, you see Reguilon pull up in the replay.
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Ah ok, hopefully just cramp from not being 100%... otherwise it'll probably be Dalot back to LB and Lindelof/Amrabat at RB in the next match :nervous:
 
Lentwood said:
I knew someone would bring up Spurs, or whatever flavour of the month team happen to have won two or three of their last games....

Where did Brighton finish last season? 8th?

Spurs have beaten Sheffield Utd, Bournemouth, Burnley and a struggling United this season. Yeah they look organised and 'together' but the standards United are held against are infinitely higher than Spurs or Brighton.

Lest we forget, last season we qualified for the Champions League and won a trophy, off the back of a 7th-placed finish and a dressing room seemingly divided down the middle.

If Spurs or Brighton win something, or qualify for the Champions League two or three seasons running, then I'll be impressed.

So far this season we've been on the wrong end of terrible variance. From the moment we got fortunate in the Wolves game, everything that could go wrong has gone wrong. I mean, three of our last four goals have been disallowed by VAR, we've had clear penalties not given, soft penalties given against us, scandals and a ridiculous injury list.

As ETH said, if we talk about this, people say its 'excuses'...its not 'excuses', its simple variance. Sometimes when it rains it pours, sometimes you get an extended spell of good luck. But again, this is why 'time' is important. We might get to May and Spurs could be 6th and United could be 3rd/4th and have a trophy in the bag...its just far too early to be making judgements about anything
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Agree with all of the above!
 
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