Bigger bench means survival of the fittest
WHILE every Premier League player will be searching for some match fitness when the season gets back underway next week, two of United’s most important men will be even further behind the curve.
No Reds player has been involved in a competitive game since the 5-0 destruction of LASK Linz on March 12, so they all have three months’ worth of inaction to shake off through training and a friendly or two that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is hoping to organise before taking to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next Friday.
But those players who were still involved then will have less rust to shake off than Paul Pogba or Marcus Rashford, who have both only returned to training from long spells on the sidelines during the absence from Carrington as the UK went into lockdown.
They’ve been taking part in training since United returned to their base, but it’s understandable that they may be a little bit further behind some of their team-mates and that Solskjaer would want to be cautious with both, given their recent injuries.
For Pogba it’s been a season decimated by injury so far, while Rashford tried to play on through his own back problem and looked to have been struggling for a little while before being diagnosed with a double stress fracture at the start of the year.
Pogba hasn’t been seen since the 4-1 win over Newcastle on Boxing Day, while Rashford was last in action in the FA Cup replay against Wolves on January 15, so it’s going to be at least five months since either played by the time the Tottenham game comes around.
Normally that would mean both players being eased back into action, but they’re two of the club’s best players and United are clearly a stronger side with both available.
They could be crucial in a ninegame sprint to the line with Champions League qualification still a possibility for Solskjaer’s side.
Under previous rules Solskjaer would have found it difficult to start both in the early weeks of Project Restart, knowing that both are going
I don’t expect those who have missed a lot of football to last the full game
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
to struggle to last 90 minutes and would need replacing. It would allow little room for manoeuvre with substitutions with only three available.
But now the Premier League has given the green light to five substitutions in a game, it allows Solskjaer more freedom with two of his best players. He can unleash both Pogba and Rashford from the start against Spurs, knowing he could take them both off after an hour if required and still have three replacements to affect the game with. Indeed, Solskjaer has already given an indication that might be his strategy with both players.
“We’ve had time out so I don’t think we can expect that those lads who’ve missed lots of the football can last the full game,” he said. “But now the rules have changed, we can use five subs and have nine on the bench. I think that’s helpful because footballers, after being out for so long, going into competitive games will be a challenge for them
and we have to look after them injury-wise and fitness-wise,” he added.
“We can’t just flog one player and say to them, ‘you play every game and every minute’ because it might be a period when we have to rotate quite often.”
The Premier League’s rule change will give every club more options off the bench but in United’s case it has given them more freedom with their starting XI as well. There’s no doubt that Pogba and Rashford would both be in Solskjaer’s best XI and now he can include them from the start and plan changes around them – rather than having to either take a risk with their fitness or with his substitutes.