| Harry Maguire | Aaron Wan-Bissaka | Bruno Fernandes | Marcus Rashford | |
| Apps (sub on) – 19/20 | 55 (0) | 46 (0) | 22 – January signing | 44 (2) |
| Mins Played – 19/20 | 4,962 | 4,047 | 1,832 | 3,473 |
| Apps (sub on) – 20/21 | 52 (1) | 54 (0) | 58 (7) | 57 (11) |
| Mins Played – 20/21 | 4,653 | 4,709 | 4,584 | 4,146 |
These four players have played almost all of the games Manchester United have played for the past two seasons. In each of the last two seasons United have played 61 games and these players have barely had a game’s rest. In a lot of these instances they are playing near enough the full 90 minutes.
If we combine the lack of pre-season we had, the strange ending to the 19/20 season and now the Euros, it is not surprising that this squad has looked dead at the end of the 20/21 season. We will probably see that at the start of next season we won’t look much better.
Substitutions in the Premier League:
| Harry Maguire | Aaron Wan-Bissaka | Bruno Fernandes | Marcus Rashford | |
| 2019/20 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 12 |
| 2020/21 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 11 |
It seems like Maguire and Wan-Bissaka are getting substituted a lot less than Fernandes and Rashford. Clearly, they are, but there is good reason behind it and for attacking players these kinds of numbers are not that high. The way that both Rashford and Bruno play with such fast-paced relentless pressing and covering ground, it makes sense that they would both be substituted off more than their defensive counterparts.
Add to all of this, the fact that Marcus has been playing through the pain barrier a lot towards the end of this season and we begin to see a clearer picture. It has come out that he hasn’t been fully fit for the past two years and we now know that he needs some surgery to be fully fit. This could have a major impact on the start of Manchester United’s upcoming 21/22 season. Hopefully, with the signing of Sancho, Rashford can be afforded that time off to fully recover from any outstanding injuries.
I think that all of this is showing us exactly where this squad is at and it is a reminder that competing on multiple fronts essentially comes down to squad management. Ultimately, Ole does not fully trust his fringe players and how can we manage a squad and rotate with players that are not up to the standard that will keep him in his job.
The fact that we are so reliant on Maguire is not good. We saw how shoddy and uncomfortable United’s defending was in the last few games of the season for instance. Clearly this is one area that we need reinforcing.
Attacking Output
We are too overly dependent on Rashford and Bruno for attacking output, the fact they have been our two top goal contributors for the season is enough evidence of this. With Rashford, this was most evident in the final of the Europa League. To put it frankly, he was not having a good game and it was one of the poorer performances we’ve seen from him. Yet, there was no one on the bench who you could bring on and actually trust to win us that final.
With Bruno, near enough everything we produce comes through him. We saw that most prominently in the FA Cup Quarter-Final against Leicester, in which we rotated very heavily, and Bruno was on the bench for most of the game. By the time he was brought on the pitch it was too late and it just came to nothing. We have seen those few games where Bruno was rested and someone like Donny van de Beek was brought in and how we just have not looked anywhere near as good.
That is not meant to be a dig at Donny, I think it is fairly clear to see that the two players are not of the same calibre. This is more to show how the team is too overly reliant on Bruno. We need more attacking options and a more balanced team. Jadon Sancho coming in has slightly addressed this issue. This should hopefully mean that we can rest players like Marcus at points and not suffer because of it.
Squad Depth
And then with Wan-Bissaka, he has played near enough every game since he arrived at United in 2019. This season, in particular, he has played almost all of our games. And when he does, he tends to play the full 90 minutes. Even in the 19/20 season he played almost completely unchallenged on the right-hand side. The fact that he was not substituted off at all in the league this season shows how we just don’t really have options at right-back. We saw in the second half against Roma when Solskjaer brought on Telles and Williams for Shaw and Wan-Bissaka how we did not look good at all down in those wide areas.
Transfers Needed
At the end of the day, this can all be brought back to poor funding and investment. If we were to seriously challenge for titles, we need better squad depth. We cannot go through yet another season with the mentality of ‘Okay, we have a good XI but if we get one or two injuries then we are done’. We were needing reinforcements up top and the signing of Sancho addresses that lack of balance. The midfield needs boosting, the amount of games that we have to start both Fred and McTominay is a joke. This is not good enough we don’t need to be playing both of these two, week in week out. We also need more defenders who are genuine starters, Maguire was injured for the end of the season and we fell apart, Wan-Bissaka has played practically every game at right-back.
On that point, Wan-Bissaka plays games that probably don’t suit him. When playing against those teams that are going to sit back and let United have the majority of possession, we need a genuine attacking outlet down the right-hand side as well as the left. Obviously, having Sancho in the side next season helps this. But more than that, we could sign a right-back who is better going forward than Wan-Bissaka. Someone who could come in for those few games against the lower half of the table and provide more of an attacking threat. The links with Kieran Trippier would be a good option here. Or bringing back Diogo Dalot or promoting Ethan Laird who has seriously impressed at MK Dons this season.
Ole’s unfair criticism
Ultimately, when Solskjaer gets criticised for his in-game management or team selection, I think sometimes there is more to it than that. There are some occasions when he does deserve some criticism. Sometimes he has made a wrong call in either a substitution or team selection. You could probably make a case for this in the Europa League final. But I think sometimes he doesn’t have much of a choice. We saw a similar trend before we signed Bruno. Up until then Ole had been playing Andreas Pereira a lot and getting criticised for it. However, as soon as we signed Bruno, Pereira was rarely heard from and the following summer went out on loan.
I think similar things are happening now, he plays Fred and McTominay in midfield because he doesn’t trust anyone on their own in holding midfield. He doesn’t play anyone else in the front three because there isn’t anyone. If there were genuine options, I think we would see Solskjaer make the kinds of changes that we want from him. Currently he is relying on these players too often and that is not good for the team, for the players or for Ole.