Erik ten Hag is confident Manchester United’s fortunes will improve when his injured players start to return – with the Dutchman ruling out a January spending spree.
United forked out around £162million on permanent deals for Rasmus Hojlund, Mason Mount and Andre Onana in the summer, also signing Sofyan Amrabat and Sergio Reguilon on loan. That has meant there is little room for any major acquisitions when the window re-opens in 10 days’ time.
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In any case, Ten Hag believes his squad will be significantly strengthened when his walking wounded return to full fitness.
“The current squad, I am happy,” he said ahead of Saturday’s trip to West Ham.
“As we get our players back, we have a good squad. I am sure when all players are on board it looks different, Casemiro, [Lisandro] Martinez, Mount, we will be much stronger after the window.”
Victor Lindelof is the latest player to be struck down, the Sweden defender requiring surgery on an undisclosed injury that will rule him out until mid-January.
Ten Hag said: “We have some doubts, we have some illnesses during the week, so we have to see who is available for tomorrow. Hopefully, they are recovered but we have to see.
“Martinez and Casemiro are not available before Christmas. Mid-January, we expect them back.
“Mason Mount is similar, into January. Harry Maguire, I expect him early on [in the new year]. Victor Lindelof is not available. He has done surgery so he will be out for a couple of weeks.”
Erik ten Hag says he is happy with his Man Utd squad and that they will be “much stronger” when everyone is fully fit 📈 pic.twitter.com/gSwJvfDKrC
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) December 22, 2023
Diego Dalot is suspended for the trip to the London Stadium following his red card in the goalless draw at Liverpool last weekend but there is some good news with Bruno Fernandes back from a ban and Christian Eriksen available again.
Having two creative midfielders back in the squad should boost United’s attacking options having gone three games without a goal.
“First of all we have played strong teams in Bayern Munich and Liverpool, but then we had a poor game [against Bournemouth] as we have seen,” added Ten Hag.
“There are always issues and we know we have to improve. We played good against Bayern and Liverpool, but we should have had more chances and been more clinical in those moments.
“We can definitely improve the total group. As you know my philosophy is we have to attack with 11, it is not about one player, it is about everyone.
“We have to be better with our movement and our decision making…it has to be better and sometimes we have to be more clinical.”
Hojlund has yet to score in the Premier League but Ten Hag is not concerned and praised the young Dane’s mentality.
“Of course we are open and Rasmus Hojlund is open. I think his mentality is great, he is a very good performer under stress,” he said.
“It is not just about Rasmus Hojlund. It is also about Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho, Bruno Fernandes, Scott McTominay and Antony – don’t forget our full-backs too.
“We work on that fact as a group. Offensive players should contribute. When we have a better balance with players back we should create more chances.”
