Ralf Rangnick has called for an injury review at Manchester United while citing the fact that Liverpool have no players missing for their clash at Anfield despite their ongoing pursuit of an unprecedented quadruple.
United will travel to Anfield for a crucial Premier League clash on Tuesday night, where they will be looking to avenge a 5-0 loss to Liverpool at Old Trafford last October.
Edinson Cavani, Luke Shaw, Raphael Varane, Scott McTominay and Fred are all unavailable for the game but their rivals are at full strength, and Rangnick has expressed his frustration over a consistent lack of options across key positions.
What has Rangnick said about Man Utd injuries?
Academy prospects Hannibal Mejbri and Alejandro Garnacho were named on the bench for United's 3-2 win over Norwich last time out, with Rangnick left baffled as to why he is struggling to put together a squad.
"We lost a few players that we should not have lost," Rangnick said at a press conference. "I spoke about that last week, bearing in mind what kind of offensive players we had available against West Ham [in January], which substitutions I could make in the last 15 minutes, three of them are no longer here (Anthony Martial, Donny van de Beek and Mason Greenwood) or injured or continuously injured.
"We lost a few other players and right now we have a few injury problems with important players who should normally be in the starting XI. It is no excuse or alibi, [these are] things that happen. This is also an issue that worries me a bit - the number of injuries that we currently have. I compare that with Liverpool, although they are still competing in four competitions, they have no injury problems at all.
"We play only in the Premier League and we have five or six players injured. This is also an issue that needs to be taken care of in the future. To analyse why is that the case? Why does it happen?
"But again for us, it is about travelling to Liverpool tomorrow and show our very, very best performance that we can show on the pitch. This is what I expect from everybody involved tomorrow to show that we are good enough and we want to win the game."
Rangnick on Rashford
(C)Getty ImagesMarcus Rashford was also among the substitutes against Norwich on Saturday, with Rangnick currently favouring Anthony Elanga ahead of the out-of-form England international.
United's interim manager thinks Rashford's levels have dipped as a result of the team's inconsistency, but still believes in the striker's "potential" and says he is showing the necessary desire to win his place back.
"I think with Marcus the biggest problem is... in most cases in training sessions he’s really training well, he’s playing and performing in training with confidence, with good moments," said Rangnick.
"So he’s always a player after training, when we speak internally with the coaching staff, where we say, 'well that was a good training session by Marcus'.
"But then on game day, it’s about showing exactly that kind of performance on the pitch and he was struggling to do that in the past couple of weeks and months.
"We all know his potential, we all know what kind of player he could be, but if a football team is not performing continuously on a high level it’s difficult for individual players to develop in a positive way. This is the special thing about a team sport.
"Players individually can only benefit and develop if the whole team develops and this is what it’s about."