Manchester United have relied heavily on the youth this season as is tradition for the club, but Erik ten Hag has been told to change.
The Manchester United academy has long been among the world’s best and has produced some of the club’s greatest players.
The likes of Paul Scholes, David Beckham and George Best all graced the academy doors for United through the past.
This trend has continued in the present day with some of the best in recent years also coming out of Carrington with Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, Scott McTominay, Alejandro Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo all being graduates.
This past season, the latter two were arguably Erik ten Hag‘s main men, but going forward he’s been told this must change.
Erik ten Hag warned not to burn out Mainoo and Garnacho
For United this season, Mainoo and Garnacho along with Rasmus Hojlund ended up in the top eight for minutes played in United’s squad.
| Player | Games | Minutes played |
| Alejandro Garnacho | 50 | 3,574 |
| Kobbie Mainoo | 35 | 2,629 |
| Rasmus Hojlund | 43 | 3,088 |
This is quite a substantial minutes tally as only Bruno Fernandes and Diogo Dalot had more minutes played than Garnacho and Hojlund.
While Ten Hag deserves credit for trusting the youth, a report from The Athletic has suggested that new technical director Jason Wilcox has talked with Ten Hag about this and these discussions have led to the manager seeking to ease their playing time.
This season, it’s been almost a necessity that they’ve played this much through injuries. Although going forward it’ll be up to Ineos to strengthen the squad enough that there isn’t an over-reliance on the youngsters.
Manchester United will see the warning signs
It’s all well and good for the youth to be playing and we all love to see academy players playing a starring role at the club.
However, at such a young age, for example, Garnacho’s game total is simply going to drive him into the ground as we saw recently with Gavi, who broke through at Barcelona and was used relentlessly.
The tricky thing is that Mainoo and Garnacho have become bonafide stars for United and there’s no way that they won’t start next season as starters.
But what needs to happen is that players are brought in to cover for them in cup competitions and to rest every few weeks in the league as well to avoid burnout.