He's had loads of injuries. They're all little injuries as well that keep him out for a ridiculous amount of time. Then he plays and maybe has a decent game here or there but then is mostly underwhelming and Klopp doesn't pick him. Then he's injured again.
If VVD gets injured again, they definitely could do worse. Squad is aging and before/during next season all starters except for TAA/Jota will be between 28-31:
All past their peak after years of performing at extremely high intensity.
Also add a year or two to those ages for when they could be back in the CL again.
He’s only now having to learn how to deal with injuries it seems
If you look throughout the Premier League era, you'll rarely if ever see the eventual league winners lose a couple of key players for the season and still come out on top. It's not a dig at those teams but an observation that typically, the best sides have their best players available for most of the season. We wouldn't have won the league last year or the Champions League the year before if Van Dijk had missed half or most of the season as well as Gomez/Matip. I understand that teams have to deal with injuries but you won't see many league winners who've lost key players for most of the season.
Also add a year or two to those ages for when they could be back in the CL again.
32/33: Henderson, Thiago, Wijnaldum
31/32: Van Dijk, Matip, Firmino, Mane
30/31: Salah, Alisson
29/30: Robertson, Fabinho
Oh don't get me wrong. Mistakes have been made of course. I'm just saying that every successful side since I've been watching football has managed to keep their best players fit and available. That's been one of the foundations of success and is for any side.
Again I do agree that the losing 6 home games in a row is terrible (might be 7 tomorrow. The performances were as poor as the results. We should be on more points than we are currently. The lack of goals is concerning as well. Never seen anything like it.
How long did that actually last though? How many games were you playing those players out of position? How did United perform in terms of trophies? I know you had that hilarious Arsenal game in the FA Cup but how much of a season are we talking here?
Pique had a stormer of a loan in Spain and went on to have an outstanding season for Barca a year later, he would have got his chance in 08. A injury might have helped us keep him long term. Evans was there about somewhere as well.
I don't doubt you had injuries and I remember Hargreaves being a sicknote as well, but it's the extent of injuries I'm talking about. It's not just United but all successful teams. The sides that succeed generally keep their key players fit and playing for most of a season. Like you say we've had our own luck before this season. Not excuse-worthy but part of the wider picture of why we've regressed, as well as some other issues as well to do with style of play, energy etc.
I agree. I think Ferguson always maintained a high standard and would never have allowed United to fall to where we have this season. That's why he's the greatest of them all.
Would've been interesting to see what path Pique's career took if that had happened. Seems like he would've been a big step down from Ferdinand and Vidic at that time though.
I don't think we had any single season that was quite as bad as what you've had this season, but what was notable with us is it was something we had to regularly deal with. We had an injury crisis in our defence every single season from at least 06/07 (it probably cost us the CL that season) all the way until 15/16. Every season we'd end up having a period where we'd have our entire defence made up of squad players or midfielders.
Both Matip and Gomez have been injury prone at Liverpool. Incredibly optimistic to start the season with just those three centre backs.
