Football moves quickly in general and at a club like Manchester United, the pace is even more rapid, which is what Ruben Amorim is getting another example of.
The Manchester derby victory is well and truly in the background, with the Marcus Rashford situation dominating the headlines, to the detriment of the club and the player.
Ruben Amorim has moved to calm the Rashford situation down with his words and in the process, another big question has flown under the radar.
United’s traveling squad for the Spurs game had just three absentees- a potentially sick Rashford plus injury-enforced absences of Luke Shaw and Mason Mount.
After declaring Mount unfit for the Spurs game, there’s renewed scrutiny on his fitness state as he had barely begun his comeback in the first place.
However, Amorim has made a Shaw and Mount prediction which, if it comes true, will be quite a feat, arguably among the biggest by the Man Utd manager.
Ruben Amorim’s Luke Shaw and Mason Mount prediction
So far, Amorim’s insistence on rotating continuously and paying close attention to the players’ workload has ensured that injuries have been kept to a minimum.
That is quite a feat considering he has the players running more high-intensity sprints than they used to, or tried to, under Erik ten Hag.
Everyone has been a beneficiary of this system because not only are they working harder, but everyone in the Man Utd squad is getting minutes due to the intensity.
Everyone except Luke Shaw and Mason Mount. Amorim was as cautious with the pair as the rest, slowly ramping up their minutes but neither has seemed able to shake off the injury curse.
Shaw’s injury came after a sub appearance while Mount’s injury came within 15 minutes of starting against City, and a non-contact one at that.
At this point, both players are looking like bonus squad players at best, whose availability is a boost but can’t be relied upon. However, Amorim doesn’t believe that.
He predicted that the current schedule hasn’t allowed his coaching staff to get the best out of players returning from injury in the ideal way they would have liked.
Had that happened, and it will next pre-season, he’s confident the pair “will be ready to cope with a lot of games”.
Amorim said: “When a player is in this moment with a lot of injuries, then training and then this kind of schedule, without many training [sessions] with all the squad, to make the load that he really needs, we try to do it with a lot of exercises, but it’s not the same.
It’s hard and then you have to maintain the load. Then we have to travel. With the travel, you cannot train, so it’s really hard for them. We’ll try to manage, to find a better way to recover these kinds of guys like Mount and Shaw, because after a few weeks and a few months, they will be ready to cope with a lot of games.”
Getting Mount and Shaw fit will be among Amorim’s biggest wins at Man Utd
This seems an exaggeration because if Amorim can win big titles at the club, he would cement his legacy that no other manager since Sir Alex Ferguson has done.
However, In Mount and Shaw, he’s got two players in which United have an investment of nearly £80 million and millions more tied up in wages.
That investment is effectively a dead asset on the books as it stands, and the opportunity cost is even more because the team would be so much better in their presence.
It’s not something like the case with Anthony Martial last season, where his injury was unfortunate but United weren’t really missing that much on the pitch because he wasn’t impressive when he played.
Mount is loved by Amorim while Shaw has been backed by the Man Utd manager as well for the unique qualities he brings to the side.
It can be strongly argued that both make United’s best XI under Amorim, so if the manager can make his own prediction come true and get them fit and firing consistently, it would be among his biggest wins at the club.
It just so happens that their presence will enable him to win the biggest things with the club!
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