(covering the possible reasons behind the respectable clubs' crises and possible solutions)
Last season in the Premier League we got to watch a great season of football. Two teams that impressed PL fans last year were Manchester United who finished with an honorable 3rd place and a surprising Newcastle side who surprised many football fans and finished in 4th place. Finishing that high in the league for the first time since 2002. There are many reasons for why they finished so high in the league (both sides) but it’s fair to say that both teams excelled with their defensive game ( I will get back to this point later ).
Despite deceiving so many PL fans' expectations last season. This season the two sides have struggled to produce the same form. Of course, many factors come into play to the drop in form of the respectable sides, there is one issue both clubs are dealing with that seems to be the main reason for their struggles. That is the two clubs' injury problems.
Let's first take a look at the Magpies. Their injury crises have caused the side many problems this season, most prominently coming into play during Newcastle's surprise defeat to Bournemouth on the road. Towards the end of the match, Newcastle captain Kieran Tripier confronted a fan who called out the players for not putting in enough effort. The captain responded and I quote “ How many injuries do we get “. Making the case that they’re struggling to perform due to their injury issues. And that couldn’t be truer with injuries to Jacob Murphy, Dan Burn, Elliot Anderson, Sven Botman, Harvey Barnes, Callum Wilson, Lewis Hall, Miguel Almiron, Alexander Isak, and the list goes on. But what’s the reason behind this crisis? In the case of Newcastle, I think it’s obvious. As we’ve seen many times before, when PL sides qualify for European competitions after many years of not playing in these competitions these sides have similar issues. That’s because these sides and many of their players aren't used to playing this many games. We've seen this with West Ham when they were in the Europa League two seasons ago and with Leicester City when they qualified for the Champions League. To solve this crisis, there is only one thing I think Newcastle should do, and that is to grow their squad. Invest in more players. That will allow them to rotate their squad. With the rotation, players will be playing fewer minutes which will allow them to perform at the top level.
Now on to Manchester United, their crises has much in common with Newcsastle’s. But the root cause is rather different and questionable. With many key first-teamers out this season
like, Rasmus Hojlund, Luke Shaw, Christian Eriksen, Lisandro Martinez, Casemiro with Mount, Wan Bissaka, and Raphael Varane just returning from injury. In fact, I heard a shocking statistic that shows that Alejandro Garnacho and Bruno Fernandes are the only two first-teamers to be available this whole season. Despite this massive list, there are still players I haven’t named. The Red Devils crisis has hit the Reds hard this season. Despite doing extensive research on the topic, I couldn’t find the root of this problem. It seems to me that the only possible reason behind this crisis is the poor medical and coaching staff. I believe so because the players weren’t properly prepared for this season, and the medical staff aren’t fixing the problem as it seems to get worse by the week. The only two solutions I see for this problem are firstly hire a new medical staff, which Erik Ten Hag wants. On the other hand both the medical and coaching staff must take a different approach towards their players' fitness.
Back to an additional point on the two sides. Both Newcastle and Manchester United impressed when it came to defense, holding the top two defensive numbers in the league. So it comes as no surprise that when both sides lost key defenders to injury they’re both struggling for form.
I believe that the problem both Newcastle and Manchester United have this season is quite an upsetting one, however, both can be solved with the sides' stars' quick recoveries.
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