We literally had an 18 year old Mason Greenwood as our only fit striker. In what world is that not an injury crisis? Rashford has clearly been playing injured too. Pogba, Cavani, and Martial also being out is one third of our outfield X being out, and players like Mata and VdB would have come in for Pogba and Martial, but were also out. We even had to dip as far down as Shola Shoretire to have the numbers on the bench. So again, I ask, in what world is that not an injury crisis?
Since Pogba got injured, we've won 5 and drawn 5. Not great certainly, but when you factor in we've had to play subpar players in crucial positions other than Pogba's during this run, we've done about as well as we could, all in all - the only disappointing games were WBA and Palace during this run, but we made up for Palace with the City win, and incompetent refereeing screwed us out of a win in the former. The Everton game was a killer in terms of momentum too, but we seem to have clawed it back in the past week through the solid defensive performances.
Having squad players fill in during this time and them coming through the games we've had is a testament to their character which goes way beyond the metrics. Look at Liverpool if you want to see what not having the players off the bench can do.
Also, I think everyone needs to chill on the performances this season. We've had literally one free midweek all season and have played 2, sometimes 3 games per week almost every week. Meaning any time in between games have been focused on rest and preparation for the next game, rather than building synergies and systems. And it's not just us, but the vast majority of the other teams in Europe who have had this issue, and the accumulative fatigue is now taking hold - the goals per game rate in the PL has been markedly trending downwards ever since November. In addition to that, we also hit a wall in the last month, but crucially, we never allowed it to overcome us, and with the injuries now easing up, we should hopefully see out the rest of the season reasonably well.
We can argue about what constitutes a "crisis" all day. I know it isn't a crisis for me. And even if I am generous trying to meet you halfway it doesn't change the fact, that the performances are mostly the same during the season. A serious dip in the beginning, a run of very good form around Christmas, followed by a rather dull phase after and back to slightly above average now.
I find it a bit odd, that a few people react to only one part of my post - why don't you detail your stance on the point I made: "United is not good at creating high value chances when the opposition team does not have go at us". That's an observation - not an opinion. My opinion is, there are a few factors going into that: the squad, the form, injuries, instances of luck and bad luck.
AND the manager and his abilities or inabilities to influence the way we play.
But this thread mostly revolves around the not-good-enough-players, now the injuries, you brought up the referees in your post. Are you aware of the fact that these apply to all other teams as well? If Liverpool would have had more luck with injuries, potentially United wouldn't be where it is. If Leicester or Chelsea would have had more plain luck, they would be positioned somewhere else. Brighton would have way better results with having just one better player in attack to finish their chances? Which manager is not keen on better players than the ones at his disposal?
It feels like there is some sort of smokescreen in here. Some are ready to burn the players, burn the board. Attack referees, complain about injuries but the one factor... do not dare talk about it. It feels like some posters have invested so much time to either complain or to defend the manager, that now there is almost no discussion possible. Sunken Loss fallacy.
A year into Ole's reign people rightfully jumped in to defend him against mostly idiotic and definitely premature attacks. But the stance "Ole isn't a shit coach, binning him doesn't solve any of the current issues" became/evolved/perverted into "Ole is a great coach, don't even dare to suggest, that the team would benefit from having somebody else in there" for some posters. And some evolved evolved further to the thing they fought in the beginning: people who seem to have problems with other peoples arguments, ready to question their intelligence as a person, integrity as fan and to suggest to switch the team if you're not behind the manager. Look at the kindergarten in some threads. Good result - one gang beats the drum, bad result - the other gang beats the drum. We've come a long way, didn't we...
For me, our supposedly injury crisis is one lazy argument of one particular group. Sure, the injuries certainly did not help the performances. But it couldn't cause it because it started earlier. And to make sure I don't get misunderstood here: the results are great and Ole and the team should be credited for them big time.
The performances though are so and so, a few peaks to the better, a few more to the worse. The manager and the team are responsible for that as well and it should be possible to talk about "where we would be with a different manager" without an outcry.
