Weighing up the prospect of a campaign without European competition.
For argument’s sake, we will put aside the reward winning the FA Cup brings – which is – of course – qualification for the Europa League group stages. Should United fans be overly concerned if we did not make it into European competition for the upcoming season?
As things stand, the top six in the Premier League are guaranteed European football of some kind – with the FA Cup being the decider on a possible seventh spot.
This season has seen United accumulate over 65 cases of injury – including long-term injuries to Luke Shaw, Lisandro Martínez, Tyrell Malacia, Victor Lindelöf and Raphaël Varane. This volume of injuries has come in a season where the club bowed out of European football in December.
United have been out of the Carabao Cup since November, meaning the only competitions we were in from the new year were the Premier League and the FA Cup.
“In 10 years managing, I’ve never had an injury crisis like the one at Manchester United”
As reported by the Irish Independent, Erik ten Hag spoke about the volume of injuries accumulated: “So huge, so many injury issues, so I trust all my experience, it can happen once in 10 years”.
The question that will be on United supporter’s minds as we go into the last three games of the Premier League will be if we are better off without Europe.
This summer will be INEOS’ first transfer window, and it may help them and Ten Hag if the club are to go weekend to weekend playing games as opposed to running on a Thursday-Sunday schedule, which will occur if United are to qualify for either the Europa or Conference League.
If Ten Hag were to rotate his side for these games on a Thursday night, I would be fully behind qualifying for Europe. That would be the perfect opportunity for game time for players like Altay Bayindir and those coming from the academy, such as Harry Amass, Habeeb Ogunneye, Omari Forson, Toby Collyer, Louis Jackson, Ethan Wheatley and more.
It would be hard to see how it would fare too well on the injury situation if we were to make minimal changes for these games, given the amount we have had this season. Having played 20 games since the New Year, Real Madrid – who are still in the Champions League – have played 25 games since 2024 has begun.
The INEOS factor
INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe may view things differently, as they are 25% owners and may deem it unacceptable for the club to be without European competition. On the fan side of it, there will be split opinions in that fans who follow United home and away enjoy going to clubs that you will not see unless you’re in the lower-ranked competitions.
It will come as no surprise that Ten Hag will go into the final three fixtures aiming to acquire nine out of a possible nine points, which will see United finish at least seventh. Newcastle sits above us, and we welcome them to Old Trafford next week.
One season without European football would not be the worst for a club struggling with a severe injury crisis and a club that is striving for form in a not-so-busy schedule. In the twelve games played in the Europa League last season, we had eight Premier League fixtures directly after them – returning four wins, two draws and two losses (the losses being away to City and Villa).
The other three fixtures that followed were two FA Cup games where we beat Fulham 3-1 and beat Brighton on penalties in the FA Cup Semi-Final – while winning the Carabao Cup against Newcastle three days after knocking Barcelona out.
United have played 14 midweek games this season and have one remaining midweek fixture when we host Newcastle United next Wednesday in an 8 pm kick-off.
The club, I feel, needs fewer games next season – not more. This season, we will have played 52 times. The Europa League has two additional games – similar to the Champions League, whereby clubs play eight games in the initial phase – as opposed to six previous.
Should United qualify for the Europa League, we will have a minimum of 48 games, and that is without considering we make it past the group Phase, as well as getting past the first round of the Carabao and FA Cup – which, if the first two seasons of Ten Hag’s era is to go by, is very unlikely.
Whatever happens at the end of the season, we all want United to beat our blue counterparts on May 25th in the FA Cup Final. If so, it means regardless of where we finish in the Premier League, we will be participating in the Europa League in the 2024/25 season.
Can Manchester United endure a season with participation in European competition? Have your say in the comments below.
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