Manchester United are facing up to a defensive injury crisis after picking up further casualties in tonight’s 2-1 Champions League triumph over Marseille.
The win, inspired by a brace from the blossoming Javier Hernandez, was marred by hamstring injuries suffered by both John O’Shea and his replacement Rafael.
These setbacks arrive on top of concerns surrounding Nemanja Vidic who missed tonight’s game with a calf injury, while Rio Ferdinand remains sidelined with his own calf problem.
O’Shea began the evening at right-back with Wes Brown partnering Chris Smalling in the centre and Patrice Evra skippering the side at left-back. O’Shea failed to complete the first-half however, pulling up, clutching his hamstring on 36 minutes. Substitute Rafael then appeared to suffer a similar injury and was stretchered off after 69 minutes to be replaced by brother Fabio.
It’s early days, but it seems pretty safe to assume that the pair will face a spell on the sidelines. Alex Ferguson now faces up to a potentially testing Old Trafford meeting with Bolton this weekend with a makeshift back four.
Reports earlier tonight stated that United had confirmed that Vidic would be sidelined for around three weeks, missing Saturday’s game and the West Ham fixture to follow. Ferguson however, failed to shed any light on the Vidic situation post-match, providing a rather coy response when asked if the inspirational Serb would be back in his defence against the Trotters…
”We’ll have to wait and see…Jonny Evans started training this week so hopefully he will be back.”
The availability of Jonny Evans will at least hand Ferguson a new option in the backline, even if it will fail to inspire any confidence in United fans and Fantasy Managers alike.
The United rearguard is clearly hard to predict at this stage, but a quartet of Brown, Smalling, Evans and Evra could well be the lineup that takes to the field to tackle the threat of Kevin Davies, Daniel Sturridge and Johan Elmander come Saturday.
There are defensive mid-price options to explore there but, given that United have kept just a single clean sheet in their last seven league matches, investment seems a long shot. Looking at the situation from a different perspective, Ferguson’s side will likely need at least a couple of goals to see off the Bolton threat. With attack United’s most effective form of defence in this scenario, we could well see the likes of Nani, Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez fetch sizable returns should Owen Coyle’s side stretch the patched-up United defence.
