UNITED What a difference a year makes...
MOURINHO’S METHODS ARE PAYING DIVIDENDS AFTER LVG STRUGGLES
SCHNEIDERLIN, Poole, Pereira, Weir, Keane and Riley.
Exactly a year ago, Louis van Gaal turned heads by naming that very bench in a Europa League game against FC Midtjylland.
It was a tie that will ultimately be remembered for Marcus Rashford exploding onto the scene in the second-leg back at Old Trafford a week later.
But who could forget that awful night in Herning?
Midtjylland may have been Danish champions, but the Wolves had not played a competitive game for two months when a depleted United rolled into town for the first leg.
Van Gaal had spent £250m assembling a bloated squad but his side was ravaged by injuries, with the Dutchman without 11 first team players for the trip to Denmark.
As a result, Morgan Schnederlin aside, the Dutchman was forced to pack his bench with academy products: Regan Poole, Andreas Pereira, James Weir, Will Keane and Joe Riley.
Van Gaal will rightly go down as a manager who never shied from giving youth a chance.
But it is easy to forget that one of the main reasons why Rashford, Cameron Borthwick-Jackson and Timothy Fosu-Mensah got their opportunity was because of an injury crisis.
For all the criticism he has received for not trusting young players, Jose Mourinho would argue that his impressive record with injuries means that youngsters can be carefully integrated rather than being parachuted in.
The Portuguese’s ‘less is more’ approach to training, with extensive ball-work sessions, has been one of the reasons why United have not been ravaged by a similar injury crisis.
The Reds currently have two players absent, Phil Jones and Wayne Rooney, and have suffered 37 injuries this season, according to Physioroom.com.
At this stage last season, United had eight more injuries and particularly struggled with musclerelated ailments. It may not seem a huge difference, but it is not a coincidence that Mourinho has rarely had to deal with a injury crisis in his managerial career.
Fitness guru Raymond Verheijen, who has worked with City, Barcelona and the Netherlands in his nomadic career, predicted the Reds would be in safe hands back in July.
“If you look with Chelsea winning the title two years ago, they played with the same XI in almost every game,” he previously told M.E.N. Sport. “I think the same will happen this year with United. He will have significantly less injuries than van Gaal and Moyes and he will play with the same XI much more often.”
The result? Having the luxury to name £192m worth of talent on the bench for an FA Cup fifthround tie at Ewood Park.
It may have backfired somewhat – only Ashley Young impressed out of those fringe players who started the game – but it was a real statement. Not only had Mourinho brought three of the substitutes to the club, he trusted his squad enough to name these stars on the bench. Between them, Eric Bailly, Paul Pogba, Juan Mata, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Luke Shaw and Bastian Schweinsteiger have lifted 81 trophies and earned 349 senior caps.
It was hardly a surprise, then, that Pogba and Ibrahimovic changed the game when they came on in the second half.