Harry Maguire and Erik Ten Hag can’t catch a break
It is likely that United will go into the weekend’s clash against rivals Liverpool without 10 of the players that were involved in the first game of the season. As poor as one may feel that Ten Hag’s management has been this season, he has been desperately unlucky with injuries. His side suffered two more big injury setbacks on Tuesday night with muscle injuries to Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire - arguably the best players in a red shirt over the last few games.
Equally unlucky as Ten Hag is Harry Maguire. Unwanted, stripped of the captaincy and on the verge of being sold to West Ham United, he has shown tremendous character to work his way back into the first team. His solid performances for United saw him win the Premier League Player of the Month award for November. After all this work, he was forced to limp off with a groin injury after 40 minutes to be replaced by Jonny Evans. All these injuries have left The Red Devils short on options.
The most dangerous thing Bayern Munich faced at Old Trafford on Tuesday was the steep drop off all around the pitch. Coman, Mazraoui both went crashing into the hoardings. Offensively the performance was tepid at best but with no proven senior attacking players available to change things up, Erik ten Hag was left will few toys to play with. United need their big players to come back from injury. They especially need their forward players to return from injury and offer something effective in the final third.