3 reasons why Manchester United have struggled so far this season

#1 Injuries

Solskjaer has been ridiculously unlucky with injuries of late. Even before the start of the season, United lost Eric Bailly to a knee injury that required surgery and the Ivorian is not expected to return this year. Timothy Fosu-Mensah is also recovering from a cruciate ligament surgery and his return day is also unknown. Diogo Dalot, who was expected to hit a higher gear this year, missed 5 games due to a hip injury at the start of the season. He made a brief return in September but picked up a groin injury and has been out of action since mid-October. Axel Tuanzebe looked the real deal at the back before he too picked up a back injury before the Liverpool game.

Anthony Martial missed 9 games this season due to a hamstring injury before returning recently and he was perhaps the player United missed the most. Luke Shaw picked up a hamstring injury at the end of August and his return was jeopardized with a muscle injury picked up in mid-October. As of now, the Englishman has already missed 14 games.

But perhaps the biggest miss has been Paul Pogba in the middle of the park. The Frenchman is the creative heart of this United team and Solskjaer's tactics have taken a beating due to his absence. Pogba missed almost the entire month of September due to an ankle injury. He returned to action against Rochdale in the Carabao Cup and also started against Arsenal in the Premier League. However, the Frenchman was subsequently ruled out due to ankle problems and has not featured since. Incidentally, he has missed 10 games so far already.

If Solskjaer had all of his players fit since the start of the season, it might have been an entirely different story.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over seven years at Sportskeeda. He has written more than 9000 articles for the website, and has garnered over 20 million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

Know More

Edited by S Chowdhury