United players denied day off as injuries, losses pile up

Select Manchester United players reportedly asked for a day off following their matchup with Fulham on Saturday. The Red Devils thought they managed to grab a point in the game when Harry Maguire scored a leveling goal in the 89th minute of the match. Nevertheless, Fulham fought back and snatched a rare victory at Old Trafford through a strike by Alex Iwobi deep into added time.

According to The Guardian, several players wanted to have Sunday off to rest after the demoralizing loss. The request, however, was denied by manager Erik ten Hag’s staff. The report even claims that the assistants were surprised by the plea from the players. Under ten Hag, the club typically gets together for postgame analysis and a warm-down on the day following a match.

Players, manager previously blamed poor start on being overworked

It was previously revealed back in November that United players believed their slow start of the season was due to being overworked in preseason. Club officials scheduled eight summer friendlies in five different countries across the globe ahead of the current campaign.

At the time of the report, United sat sixth in the Premier League table. However, they previously found themselves down in 13th after a poor string of games at the beginning of the campaign.

Ten Hag even hinted at the notion of his players being overworked earlier in the season. The manager claimed that the winter World Cup in 2022 started a domino effect on fixture congestion.

“We had a World Cup in the middle of the season. We had to play a longer season as well, with FA Cup, then Nations League games. A shorter break,” ten Hag stated in September.

“Every time the schedule is expanding, the load on the players is too much. It’s such a great overload. Many colleagues of mine have pointed to that and I have pointed to that as well. But it keeps going. We keep expanding the schedule.

“Players can’t deal anymore with this overload and that’s…

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Author : Chris Moore

Publish date : 2024-02-27 16:19:33

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