MANCHESTER UNITED IN RISKY BUSSINESS AS A RESULT OF THE RECENT INTERNATIONAL BREAK
The problems never end as far as Manchester United football club is concerned.
One day the talking point around Manchester United appears to be that the current club manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer does not have the right level of tactics expected from a manager in charge at a high-level club such as Manchester United. The next day, the new topic of discussion taking place at Old Trafford appears to be that certain players should not be allowed to travel back and play for their country on international duties for fear of players being injured or for fear of players being exposed to the Covid-19 virus.
From a health perspective, the idea of players breaking away from a presumably safe team bubble and throwing themselves in the midst of other players from different countries increases the risk of exposure for all Manchester United involved in International duties for the next two weeks.
The fact of the matter is that more than half the Manchester United squad have traveled back to their various home countries to participate in various international matches over the course of March and April 2021. With the season still yet to be completed, Manchester United is left with the reality that more than half of Ole Gunner Solskjaer's squad will be exposed to the risk of potential long-term injuries and on an equally important note, the reality of players traveling back and forth to participate in the upcoming international games will be exposed to the Covid-19 virus is an issue majority of current club managers might have trouble understanding.
With most leagues across Europe poised to remain active until the end of May, possibly extended until early June 2021 depending on how well Manchester United perform in this seasons UEFA Europa League competition, manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer might be looking at a situation where Manchester United are left with a very depleted team to complete the season as a result of fatigued players and absent players who are required to abide by current Covid-19 protocols.
So, in reality, Manchester United is looking at a situation where Ole Gunner Solskjaer is left to compete in matches without some of the big players in the Manchester United squad.
Are international friendly even necessary in the current reality?
From the standpoint of the current reality impacted by the COVID-19 virus, we are left with the pure fact that the international break will not generate any substantial liquidation from ticket sales. The same notion of stunted financial growth generated from any merchandise sales, which is understood to be the current financial situation still taking place at Manchester United simply because of the continued absence of football fans on the grounds of Old Trafford stadium, will also be the same situation present in any international friendly games hosted this year.
In other words, the idea that hosting any international friendlies this year while the regular season is still ongoing will not only put players health in jeopardy with players traveling back and forth for international friendly matches, club managers are also forced to play a handful of matches with key players absent as a result of players forced to quarantine after international duties which creates problems for club managers in regards to team matchday selection.
Let's not forget that the continued absence of large fans present in stadiums during international friendlies continues to negate any substantial rise in profit margins being made during any recent international friendly matches hosted this year.
Nevertheless, there can be no justification to suggest that players should not travel and make themselves available for international duty, the question raised here is just how much safety will be provided by the European Union and the African Union to make sure that qualifiers are conducted safely and to make sure that each player within each countries bubble is safe and each player remains safe until each player returns to his club side?
The fact of the matter is that at the moment, international matches such as Euro 2022 qualifiers, African Cup of Nations qualifiers, and international friendly matches have already have been played all thought the last two weeks of March 2021, the issue of fatigue levels and the issues of health safety protocols in regards to the Covid-19 virus now comes into play in the form of the question – Just how healthy and ready will these players be to jump straight back into playing club football with international matches just coming to a conclusion this past week leaving the players little o opportunity to rest with league matches now continued this past weekend.
What that means is that Manchester United is afforded just two days to get a team together and jump back into the regular season action despite an adequate portion of players within the Manchester United now potentially rendered unavailable to participate due to the two weeks quarantine protocol instilled in Europe.
Manchester United manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer will most likely be faced with the difficult task of selecting a strong team from the list of players available to face off in tomorrow's Europa League game against Sevilla. Also, manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer will certainly have an extra dilemma in the form of health and fatigue to face when Manchester United travel to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium to face Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham side this weekend.
In fairness, the Federation of International Football Association really has little blame to take in regards to the scheduling of international matches in the middle of a tightly condensed season and a season faced with a serious pandemic yet to be eradicated.
With all these factors threatening the health status of not just Manchester United players but also threaten the health status of all football players in general leaves the question of why the possibility of rescheduling these recent qualifiers two weeks after the season is over in the early periods of summer 2021 was not better to be taken by the Federation of International Football Association.
Manchester United have returned and already resumed the regular season with matches against Brighton in the Premier League and Granada in the Europa League semi-finals upcoming, the performance level shown from Ole Gunner Solskjaer squad should be interesting to see for the rest of the season.
With Manchester United manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer still under scrutiny from various sources, achieving a second-place finish in the Premier League Table and leading Manchester United to secure the Europa League trophy this season might be a big way for manager Ole Gunner Solskjaer to silence the critics at the end of the 2020/21 season.
