The former Red Devils winger believes that the long-term absence of Luke Shaw and problems with the likes of Wayne Rooney and Antonio Valencia have held the side back
Ryan Giggs admitted his frustration with Manchester United’s inconsistencies, though the assistant manager highlighted the club’s unfortunate injury record this season.
United are in the midst of a three-match winless streak in all competitions as their topsy-turvy season continues ahead of Liverpool’s visit to Old Trafford in the Europa League last 16 on Thursday.
Pressure has been mounting on manager Louis van Gaal following a difficult campaign, which has seen United fall four points adrift of rivals Manchester City in the race for the fourth and final Champions League qualifying spot.
Injuries have not made things easy for Van Gaal, who has been without full-back Luke Shaw for most of the season, while captain Wayne Rooney, Matteo Darmian, Antonio Valencia, Marcos Rojo, Ashley Young and Bastian Schweinsteiger have all spent time on the sidelines.
And while United’s season has not gone according to plan, Giggs insisted there is still plenty to play for, with the Manchester side vying for a spot in the Europa League quarter-finals, albeit needing to overturn a two-goal deficit against Liverpool, and the FA Cup semi-finals.
“The consistency has been frustrating,” Giggs told the Telegraph. “We would go on a good run and then have a disappointing result.
“Obviously there have been a lot of injuries. A lot of them have been freak injuries – shoulders and Luke Shaw’s leg. A lot of knocks, the kind of things you can’t do anything about.
“And then when the squad gets small you are asking a lot of players to play games when maybe they could be rested or rotated.
“So it seems to have a domino effect when you do get a few injuries and we have just never got out of that. We are nine, 10 weeks left of the season and we are still in the FA Cup, still in the Europa League and still trying to get that top-four spot. We are still fighting and we still have something to play for.
“There are clubs in worse positions. The FA Cup is a competition we have a massive history in and we haven’t won it for 12 years so that’s huge for us. Liverpool, then [Manchester] City: two big games in three days, if I was a player I would be looking forward to it.”
