Erik ten Hag is still still clamoring for more squad strength in depth this summer, and has assumed the role of the drama queen as he issues the warning – “This season will be survival of the fittest.”
United’s squad was decimated by injuries last season with almost 70 separate cases depriving Ten Hag of key players, which had served as a most convenient excuse for Ten Hag all season in defending his team’s performance demerits each time they failed to deliver the goods.
The club have already forked out £59million on Lille center-back Leny Yoro, as well as another £36.6m on Bologna striker Joshua Zirkzee this summer, but Ten Hag is insisting on adding more new signings before the end of the transfer window.
When asked how many new players he wants, Ten Hag said: “Just the squad as strong as possible. We already had two very good buys, so when everyone is fit we have a team that can beat everyone.
“But the squad depth we have to catch up because we had injuries. We are vulnerable and we have to avoid this first by getting less injuries and second our squad has to be that good in the depth.
“The quality we have in [terms of] depth we have to catch up but even more because this season will be the survival of the fittest.”
United are eager to strengthen their full-back areas and sign a new defensive midfielder in the event that Casemiro or Scott McTominay should leave, while also scouting for another central defender, having been linked with Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite and Matthijs de Ligt of Bayern Munich.
“We are occupied but we work continually and the good thing is we already signed two players,” added Ten Hag. “It belongs to a club like Man United that you are looking for opportunities that are better, and we still have time until August 30.
“We are looking in all of the positions to reinforce, but we need a plan in our squad to reassure ourselves that we are always occupied in the positions.”
Club doctor Gary O’Driscoll and head physio Jordan Reece from Arsenal were subsequently recruited last year, together with a number of other changes across the medical department also having been made to try and avoid a repeat of last season’s injury crisis.
Ten Hag said: “There were so many reasons: the amount of games, the fixture list, the load on the players. The pressure on the players is so high and we are not the only team with so many injuries. We were not even the worst, but we had them at the end of the season in the back-four and it cost us a lot of points.
“The load and pressure on players is immense with the new model in Europe. I just mentioned it, it’s survival of the fittest. The players have to work in the right way because the standards are so high and you have to fulfil them, the highest standards. It’s not only on game day but every day.
“We already made our decisions. We appointed a new club doctor last season and he started late in the season, but now he can start fresh and be in the lead.
“We appointed a new head physio, so we made changes. We also changed strategies in medical and performance to improve, but that is normal. Now in football, the developments are so fast that every time you have to innovate, and if you want to be the best you also need the best in those departments.”
Well, it looks like the gaffer would have to look elsewhere for excuses in the new campaign should his team fail to deliver as he has so exuberantly promised.