The Injuries and What They Will Mean for Manchester United
In the first half of the massively hyped, and rightly so, game between Manchester United and Liverpool, Manchester United was left crippled after forty-five minutes. Already missing Nemanja Matic and Anthony Martial due to injuries, Ander Herrera was forced to substitution and was replaced by Andreas Pereira. Juan Mata, who had replaced the semi-injured Jesse Lingard on the right-hand side, was also forced to substitution, with Jesse Lingard coming on.
Jesse Lingard created Manchester United's best chance together with Romelu Lukaku, and subsequently injured himself in the process of attempting to round Liverpool goalkeeper Allison Becker, and was later replaced by Alexis Sanchez. Manchester United had been forced to make three substitutions in forty-five minutes, and as it did look gloomy for the second half, it looked, even more, worrying for the fixtures coming up.
Ahead of todays game versus Crystal Palace, Manchester United travel with a severely weakened squad. Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard, Juan Mata, Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic, Phil Jones, Antonio Valencia, Matteo Darmian are all ruled out whilst Marcus Rashford remains doubtful.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be left with a bit of a headache with regards to who he will be looking to start, but he can at least be contempt with midfielders Scott McTominay´s and Andreas Pereira´s performances against Liverpool, as both look likely to start versus Crystal Palace.
The injuries are obviously a massive blow for Manchester United, who are chasing top four, but it will, however, open up the opportunity for youngsters Tahith Chong and Angel Gomes to be included in the action in the next few weeks, which can only be seen as a positive.
The most worrying part of the injuries is undoubtedly the absence of Nemanja Matic and Ander Herrera in midfield, who have both been immense during the last few months. With the PSG game coming up, and with Paul Pogba suspended in the away tie, it looks more and more likely that Manchester United will have to focus on getting top four rather than an extended run in the Champions League.
The injuries also make it evidently clear that the Glazers will be required to make signings in the summer to decrease the massive lack of squad depth that we are seeing at the moment. Whether they will or not remains to be seen, but it is clear to see that Manchester United will not be challenging for the Premier League any time soon if the money is not spent.
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