Man United now has a 25-man team, which is a risk based on recent history, especially given the mood in this game and the February fixtures.
United will play Spurs away from home.
United will play Spurs away from home.
In January, Manchester United loaned away four players who had a total of nine starts this season, with only one of them appearing in the Premier League. Since his debut on August 5, 2020, Teden Mengi, who is on loan at Birmingham, has played 30 minutes for the club.
Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek, and Amad had all but faded into obscurity. Van van Beek hasn't started a meaningful Premier League match since December 5, 2020, Amad's only start of the season came in a dead-rubber against Young Boys, and Martial has appeared in the Premier League twice.
Nonetheless, their absence has a significant impact on the United team's image. United's core roster has been reduced to 25 players, including third-choice goalkeeper Tom Heaton and 18-year-old Hannibal Mejbri, who has not trained with the first team since November after being exposed to 15 minutes of Premier League football.
Let's not forget that United started the season as a title contender. Their roster is currently at best fourth-best, with a slew of dissatisfied wantabes (two of whom were denied loans on deadline day), and nearly a fifth of their players will be out of contract in June. Nobody anticipates any of them extending.
The dangers of limiting a squad to 25 players have been documented in the past. Under separate managers, United experienced injury crises in the spring of 2015-16 and 2016-17, the latter as a result of mid-season departures.
Dillon Hoogewerf, a Dutch adolescent, has permanently joined Borussia Mönchengladbach from #mufc. Due to striking depth at the academy level, United were pleased to arrange the trade for Hoogewerf's benefit.
— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) is a Twitter user.
It's a group made up of players signed by five different managers since Phil Jones joined United in the summer of 2011. Donny van de Beek was 14 years old at the time. Jones' situation has been constant since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's first summer in charge (fifth-choice centre-back). Van de Beek was in the role for 17 months.
Ralf Rangnick could conceivably pick the same offensive trio that Louis van Gaal did six years ago (Lingard, Mata, and Rashford), and there's a reason why club insiders don't criticize Jose Mourinho's rational hiring - roughly a quarter of the club's players are Portuguese.
He has a habit of badmouthing his classmates when they gain nice attention.
Another player was told to be'more selfish' after blaming his poor performance on a teammate's troubles. This is the result of United's preference for individualistic glamour signings over team players with a selfless desire to help teammates.
Manchester City's players are interchangeable, which makes them so special. With the £100 million Jack Grealish, they passed the £70 million barrier for a signing, but they ran into a maverick who was better suited to United but had yet to get up to speed. Grealish and Jadon Sancho, according to industry observers, would prosper if they switched teams.
Sancho and Grealish may be better suited to playing for opposing teams.
Sancho and Grealish may be better suited to playing for opposing teams.
This month, United has seven games in 22 days, and they cannot afford to lose focus in any of the three competitions. Marcus Rashford is poised to reclaim his place after Bruno Fernandes reclaimed his. Both were run into the ground last season, and with the exception of Middlesbrough's FA Cup visit, there is no obvious rest date: Burnley away, Southampton at home, Brighton at home, Leeds at home, Atletico Madrid atletico Madrid atletico Madrid atletico Madrid
United moved up to fourth place after Rashford's winner against West Ham, and they stayed there after Tottenham suffered their typical collapse at Stamford Bridge and Arsenal were held by Burnley. United are in no position to rotate in the Elland Road bearpit or against 19th-placed Watford, whose last win was a 4-1 thrashing of United. Tottenham have two games in hand on United and Arsenal have one (at Spurs), so United are in no position to do so.
In the Premier League, March features Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, and Liverpool. All three were defeated by Martial.
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