FIT AND PROPER
Ten Hag denies overworking stars
ERIK TEN HAG has told his Manchester United players they must be tough enough to withstand the rigours of the Premier League – and denied he trains them too hard.
United’s push for a Champions League place has been sabotaged by the enforced loss of players, with more than 50 separate injuries sustained throughout the campaign.
One reason put forward for United’s chronic injury list, which includes Luke Shaw, Lisandro Martinez, Victor Lindelof, Tyrell Malacia, Anthony Martial and Altay Bayindir for tonight’s visit to Chelsea, is the intensity of training under Ten Hag.
But the manager said: “No, we don’t train too hard.
“With the standards in this league, you need to be fit, otherwise you can’t match the standards required of you in a game.
“We have good departments, we have good people around with a lot of knowledge. Based on data we make our decisions.
“You need very robust players. That is the requirement, when you go into Christmas with many injuries and then you have to bring them back. But when they are free from injury, they are not match-fit. They’re not straight back into the form that also needs a couple of games before you get back into the rhythm.”
United skipper Bruno Fernandes has not missed a game through injury this season, playing through the pain barrier and always making himself available.
Ten Hag hailed his captain as the example for players to follow, but said there are others within his squad who are just as tough, both physically and mentally.
“We have more players who are very robust like Bruno is,” said Ten Hag. “But that is the type of player you need.”
Ten Hag suggested fixture overload was to blame for some injuries this season, although United have played 13 games in 2024, compared to 23 at this stage last season.
“I know that it still has an effect, the huge amount of games we had in the last 18 months,” said the Dutchman. “That still has an impact on our squad, the accumulation on the players. The players get overloaded and can’t bring the performances anymore. We’re already over the point where we demand what we want from our top players.
“You saw last weekend, Manchester City were playing without Kyle Walker, without John Stones. The levels were dropping without them.
“There was a different team to what we faced.The levels for teams will keep dropping if you keep going in this process where we are overloading in the international competition.
“With some national teams we have a very good connection and we manage the programmes, but there are also others that do what they want.You don’t have anything in hand on what they are doing there.” CHELSEA (probable):