I think this is the primary differentiator between us and most of the sides above us.
I believe the technical level of the team is generally strong. I wouldn't want to give an exact ranking but I'm fairly confident in saying that on a technical level our squad is comfortably within the top half of the Premier League. As yourself and others have said, though, the baseline physical level of the team is so far from good enough and I think there's probably a case to be made that in this respect we have one of the worst squads in the Premier League.
Of all the outfield players in our squad right now, I'd say the only ones who stand out as being either average or above in the league for their position on a purely physical level are Dalot, De Ligt, Ugarte, Hojlund and Fernandes. I think there are others where you'd say their physical attributes are good enough because they have a very strong technical level on top of that (Amad and Mazraoui are the obvious examples), but there are so many others who have clear physical weaknesses that even weaker opponents can exploit relatively easily and that's not conducive to sustained success in the Premier League.
I think Ten Hag and Murtough collectively bear a lot of responsibility for this. Here's a list of all the outfield players we signed with Ten Hag as a manager, with those with clear physical weaknesses to the extent that it causes issues highlighted in bold with explanations in brackets and loan players marked with an asterisk:
- Malacia (Injury set-back but also pretty tiny even for a wide player)
- Eriksen (Obvious - lacks the speed, strength and stamina of the average central midfielder in the Premier League)
- Martinez (Obviously short for a centre back but is also not very quick or agile)
- Casemiro (Lacks pace and agility and is not the physical force he once was)
- Antony (Lacks the pace to beat the average full-back in the Premier League and isn't capable of compromising for it with his technical level)
- Weghorst* (Lacks pace)
- Sabitzer*
- Mount (Barely ever fit)
- Evans (Obvious - lacks pace and agility at this point in his career)
- Hojlund
- Amrabat*
- Reguilon*
- Zirkzee
- Yoro
- Mazraoui
- De Ligt
- Ugarte
That's pretty staggering really. Up until this summer, I think it's fair to say that eight of the twelve outfield players we brought in had clear physical weaknesses that either leave the player open to being exploited in the defensive phase or much easier to nullify when we're attacking. What's even worse is that three of the four players I identified as not having these issues were loans! I really don't think I'm being overly harsh here either - if anything, I imagine some users might also want to put Zirkzee in bold due to his lack of pace. I haven't myself since I'm not entirely convinced that Zirkzee's issues so far have come from a lack of physicality but I at least think there's an argument to be made there.
Unfortunately, the story doesn't improve too much when you consider the rest of the current squad either.
Shaw, like Mount, is always injured.
Lindelof is really weak for a Premier League centre back.
Maguire's lack of agility and pace leave him vulnerable against certain opponents, although I do think this is a lesser issue in the current system. And for as good as he is technically,
Mainoo just isn't there yet on the physical level.
It's a huge problem. Any new signings we make either in January or next summer need to be made with this in mind, because the baseline physical level of the squad needs to be considerably better if we want to win games consistently.
