Not unlike a postman, when a player pulls on the Manchester United shirt, he is expected to deliver. Unfortunately, just like their mail-delivering counterparts, the current generation of young stars at United are just not delivering as often as we spectators would wish. That is something that frustrates me about this team; their future prospects are just too injury prone.
Any Arsenal fan will appreciate how frustrating it is to have so many talented players in the treatment room all at once, but for me Manchester United have a bigger problem. Danny Welbeck, Jonny Evans, Tom Cleverley,Phil Jones, Darren Fletcher, Paul Pogba, Fabio and Rafael. All of these players have been at United since their teenage years and none of them seem to be able to string more than a few games together before going back to the treatment room. That fact that virtually all of these players are defensive players is another big issue but that is a post for another day.
With Fletcher I appreciate that his current absence is not down to a sports-related injury but he had a shady injury record before that as well. Pogba has left now so I won’t bother going into detail with him but with all these players struggling to fulfil their potential at a club like Man Utd, it really does make you wonder ‘what if?’.
Out of all of them, it is Cleverley and Welbeck that are of the most annoyance to me. Not only do they bring something different to the team, but they are both English and anything that helps our national side is something I will give my undivided support to.
Not only that, but they have been playing with each other since they were twelve! Imagine the understanding they have! We saw glimpses of it at the start of last season, particularly against Man City in the Community Shield, the 3-0 win over Spurs and the utter 8-2 decimation of Arsenal. I think if those two remain fit then they will be deadly for both club and country.
Speaking of partnerships, the da Silva twins were meant to be our first choice full backs for the next decade when they came through in 2008. ‘Finally somebody to replace Gary Neville and Patrice Evra’ I thought. That didn’t turn out how I wanted to either, Rafael missed more games last season than he was fit for and Fabio is so out of the loop that he’s been sent out on loan (to QPR!). Again, two brilliant players; we saw that in the FA Cup against Arsenal two years ago but until they manage to get a few months injury-free, they won’t make it at Man Utd.
But is it their faults? Man Utd are one of the richest clubs in the world after all and I would have thought that no expense would be spared when it came to the maintenance of their players. Maybe this current generation of youngsters are just unlucky, maybe they are just careless. Maybe, it is the club doctors’ fault. Whatever the case, I hope the problem solves it out soon, not just for Man Utd’s sake, but England’s.
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