Our recent run shows how important fitness/staying injury free is

United58

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We missed Pogba, Martial, Rashford, Matic, Bailly, Tuanzebe and Lindelof (among others I'm forgetting) for large swathes of this season pre-COVID. We've started an awful lot of games with Lingard, Pereira and Mata (one game with any of those is too many).

These injuries cost us, with draws/losses against Palace, Southampton, West Ham, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Sheffield, Villa, Everton, Burnley etc. costing us massive amounts of points - our post-COVID almost-fully fit squad (plus an increasingly brilliant Greenwood and new signing Bruno) with almost no injuries have swatted the likes of these teams aside with breathtaking ease.

With our decade-long awful injury history, can we finish this season strongly and go into the next one with a better injury record? Why do we fall behind the likes of Liverpool in this regard? They'd struggle for top 4 with the issues we have.

Do we have to get rid of the likes of Bailly, Jones, Tuanzebe et al who are always injured? Is Ole's focus on fitness slowly helping our team become healthier and more injury-resistant after five years of plodding around the pitch under old school dinosaurs?
 

TheNewEra

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I think it's a given that sporting success is attributed to not being injured.

As for why players are injured that's down to the club to know
 

ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg

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We haven’t missed Bailly. It’s actually beneficial when he’s injured as he can’t give away stupid goals or get sent off.

Bailly and Jones need to go as a minimum. Neither can be relied on, and neither are good enough to be plugged back in when fit, like a Lesley King for example. They need shifting.

Tuanzebe is 50/50. This was his season when he would have got games if fit. He’s just not played enough first team games. I’d keep him for another season, but doubt he’s going to break through now and I bet he’s gone in 12 months time (or whenever 21/22 season starts).
 

United58

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ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg said:
We haven’t missed Bailly. It’s actually beneficial when he’s injured as he can’t give away stupid goals or get sent off.

Bailly and Jones need to go as a minimum. Neither can be relied on, and neither are good enough to be plugged back in when fit, like a Lesley King for example. They need shifting.

Tuanzebe is 50/50. This was his season when he would have got games if fit. He’s just not played enough first team games. I’d keep him for another season, but doubt he’s going to break through now and I bet he’s gone in 12 months time (or whenever 21/22 season starts).
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I agree none of them are vital players - but they take up about £250,000 p/w on the wage bill. Selling them (assuming we don't see consistent game time and improvement from Tuanzebe) would improve our situation considerably. Move on Pereira, Mata and Lingard as well, while promoting from with/signing better replacements would go a long way to improving our squad
 

roonster09

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Yeah, staying fit and always available for selection is one of the most important attribute for a footballer.
 

hmchan

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Playing Lingard, Pereira or Mata isn't the result of injuries, but because of the failure to bring in Bruno in the summer.
 

tenpoless

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Some injuries were results of unfortunate accidents as well. So better make sure we go into the next season with a sufficient number of good players.
 

Deery

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I’d say having 3 months off to rest has probably helped with injuries more that Ole’s fitness regime..
 

UpWithRivers

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We brought some of it onto ourselves. Part of it is recruitment. We bought Dalot injured, Bailly the same - probably others. Sanchez was not the same player at Arsenal for 2 seasons before we bought him. Pogba got injured this season after excessively playing him after he was back from injury. We stick by injured players for life and will never sell them. We got rid of Smalling and Rojo and kept Jones and Bailly says a lot even though it was partly because Smalling wanted to leave. Still the end result is we kept 2 crocks and there is no plan to get rid of them.
I dont think its all luck with Liverpool. I think they recruit players with good injury records - they pulled out of signing Fekir for example.
 

SinNombre

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Our recent run shows how important having top players in your attacking 5 is, and why we need a couple more additions there (Sancho AND Havertz)
 

mewnew11

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UpWithRivers said:
We brought some of it onto ourselves. Part of it is recruitment. We bought Dalot injured, Bailly the same - probably others. Sanchez was not the same player at Arsenal for 2 seasons before we bought him. Pogba got injured this season after excessively playing him after he was back from injury. We stick by injured players for life and will never sell them. We got rid of Smalling and Rojo and kept Jones and Bailly says a lot even though it was partly because Smalling wanted to leave. Still the end result is we kept 2 crocks and there is no plan to get rid of them.
I dont think its all luck with Liverpool. I think they recruit players with good injury records - they pulled out of signing Fekir for example.
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Things are changing though

Ole gets a lot of credit for this. The moment he came in he was talking about building fitness and Robustness.

He also hit the nail on the head when he said United should have the higest workrate on regards to running and miles covered.

Being fit is key and looks like United spent a lot of time during lockdown building fitness. There are still players like Jones and sanchez who just have no luck with injuries. They will be shown the door.

Our transfer policy has also changed with respect to the criteria we now have in place for a player to qualify as a united level player. Fitness and character must be very very high on that list.
 

RaddyRed

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This is why it maybe makes sense to play a weakened team in the Europa league if we finish top 4. With the unique nature of starting the season again so quickly, it may be an idea to rest players with an eye on challenging next season.
 

norm87cro

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Aldo our run of form is great it comes from a very specific circumstance that is probably not going to be repeated in our life time. Players like Rashford and Pogba came back and we also signed Bruno. All of a sudden Matic doesn't look bad either. Whatever the first 11 is we should be using our squad during the Christmas period (and winning most of our games) if we want to be Champions again. Plain and simple.
 

Lentwood

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It should be obvious but it’s amazing how often injuries are overlooked by football fans and the media. It’s almost as if you’re not allowed to suggest it makes a difference but of course it does!

We have been without Pogba, Rashford and Martial for signifiant chunks of this season. Of course that will have an impact.

Take Henderson, Salah and Mane out of Liverpool for 3-6mnths - they don’t win it. Simple as that.

Likewise, take Sterling, Aguero and Laporte out of City. They would probably be 3rd right now.

That all being said, this is again something that Michael Edwards identified as being important at Liverpool. Injuries are not just “bad luck” and there’s not always anything even the best team of conditioning, fitness and medical staff can do. Some players just have inherent issues with their body that just make them injury prone.

Unfortunately, in the modern game you have to be able to identify and avoid these players. The game is played at such a pace and the games come thick and fast. You can have the most talented XI in the world but they won’t score goals or keep them out from the treatment table!
 

Web of Bissaka

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Not sure if we should make a thread about this.

Sorry OP :nervous: but isn't it obvious?

1. We should only keep injury-prone players if he is Robson level at most, or at least the older Carrick level.

Keeping Jones for this long with his amazing records and the audacity to generously give him that beautiful contract is just ridiculous. As does keeping the other injury-prone players, although some players eg. the youth are more reasonable.

2. That and we should also know by now that even players with good injury record can suddenly be out injured eg. Pogba and Rashford, therefore prepare contingency plan or back-ups early before that happen.
 
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