Bad calls leaving United depleted for crucial games
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer still has plenty of lessons to learn as a manager but one of the simplest is to not rush players back from injury.
It’s so simple that it’s baffling that it still happens so much and the United boss is nowhere nearly the only culprit: Harry Kane’s rapid decline this season is of no surprise with the number of times he has played with his ankle hanging by a thread.
Whether it’s because a manager is desperate to have his best players available or the players insist they are able to play even when they’re not 100 per cent fit, returning from injury when not ready is damaging for both club and player. As United have learned recently.
First it was Harry Maguire. United were without him for two-and-a-bit games after he suffered a calf strain and then, after the October international break, he was hurried straight back into the side when he clearly wasn’t up to match speed.
With Raphael Varane out after picking up a groin injury in the break, desperate for at least one of his preferred partnership in the back-line, Solskjaer threw Maguire straight in from the start against Leicester City.
His mobility was clearly impacted and he was at direct fault for at least three of the Foxes’ four goals in the 4-2 defeat.
Maguire was also abject the following weekend in the 5-0 defeat to Liverpool. His form hasn’t been good all season after a brilliant Euros, but his performances have tanked since coming back from injury too quickly and it just shows what a pointless exercise it is.
He has at least not suffered another injury as a result of his low fitness just yet, which is more than what can be said about Varane.
The Frenchman missed the defeats to Leicester and Liverpool but then came back, and had a big impact for the 3-0 thumping of Spurs.
It’s clear how much his calm demeanour and excellent reading of
the game helps the team, but that means nothing if in the very next game he only lasts 38 minutes.
This time it’s a hamstring injury but he is now set for a month on the sidelines, missing Saturday’s match with City and likely games against Watford, Villarreal, Chelsea and Arsenal as well.
That’s a big and crucial chunk of the season to be missing such an important player.
Perhaps Varane is more injury prone than thought and this would have happened regardless, but it can’t be helped but be thought that a lack of match sharpness after a few weeks out and then coming straight back helped lead to the latest ailment.
Solskjaer is blessed with a big enough squad that he doesn’t need to do this. Eric Bailly proved with an excellent display against Atalanta that he can be trusted to play. Even if he does have the occasional howler in his game, there’s no chance he could have been worse than Maguire in the Leicester and Liverpool games.
If Bailly is then in a good run of form there’s no need to rush Varane back either and then his squad is in a much healthier position to cope when someone else picks up an injury.
Now, with Victor Lindelof also nursing a knock, United have just two fit centre-backs ahead of the Manchester derby – when they’ll ideally want to play with three – and they only have their own injury management to blame.