Apparently, MUFC's players are back at it complaining about a manager's decisions. It is all agreed at this point that Erik ten Hag - who at the moment of writing this, is still Man Utd boss - isn't in everyone's good books considering the poor start to the season and overall disappointing style of football.
United are 14th in the league with just 8 points after seven games (the club's lowest-ever at this point of a league campaign), have only scored 5 in the PL and have drawn four of the last five in all competitions, the other being that 3-0 humiliation at the hands of Spurs at home.
Despite all of this negativity, I don't think it gives the player's a right to speak about the manager's rotation and whether they are puzzled about it or not.
All of this confusion from the players regarding this rotation comes from the Daily Mail.
The article talks about how the players are "puzzled" due to ten Hag's regular shake up to the starting lineup. Some of the players are perplexed as the reason behind this rotation is due to some being looking "tired".
The squad feel that they need to play regularly to get some rhythm and would also want to play as soon as possible after some poor performances to try and rectify their wrongs.
As they are taken out of the team frequently though, this rhythm and rectification cannot be done.
The ex-players have also found this rotation from the manager puzzling themselves as Rio Ferdinand wrote on X "Rotation" at ten Hag's decision to replace Martinez and De Ligt in the starting XI for Evans and Maguire. This is obviously the former Red taking a dig at ten Hag.
Jamie Carragher said that "you don't rotate centre-backs. They've been dropped."
These type of complaints about a manager from the players isn't something new as we've heard it before with the likes of Ralf Rangnick and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Let the manager manage I say. If his rotation is questionable, if his selections are odd and his tactics useless, he'll get found out. As a player, just do whatever he tells you whether you agree with it or not. It's not up to you to make the decisions regarding the team.
Over the course of the past couple of years, the amount of games in football has increased quite a lot. It's normal now for a player of a top club to be playing around 70-80 games for club and country.
The work load is brutal and is something that many footballers across the world have been complaining about although it seems to be falling on deaf ears.
This increased number of games has seen a rise in injuries and injuries that keep players out for long periods of time.
Last season, MUFC were hit with 70+ different injuries and illnesses over the year with a decent amount causing players to miss months on end. Lisandro Martinez, Mason Mount, Casemiro, Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia - whose last game for the club came in United's 2-1 victory over Fulham at the end of the 22/23 season - who hasn't played in over a year, indicate just how plagued we were with such issues.
This is not counting the endless knocks, pulls, and any other type of deficiency that resulted in players missing up to a couple of games at a time.
Perhaps this is a reason as to why we're seeing this rotation from ten Hag.
I complained a lot throughout his time at the club about his lack of switching things up as more often than not, the Dutchman would stick with the same XI regularly barring one or two changes. I couldn't comprehend why he didn't make more alterations to his team as he would play a strong side in games where the second team could do the job.
We also wouldn't be able to see whether the rest of the squad were the standard required given their limited game time.
This season though, ten Hag has been better at his rotation. Given the issues he had with injuries last year, this rotation was obviously a lot more difficult although I'm not entirely sure he would've made many changes to the team as I would've liked in his second season.
But in the 10 games this season, we have seen him change his team quite regularly. He has a lot more players available, there are fewer injuries and with the five new additions to the squad (Zirkzee, Yoro, Mazraoui, De Ligt and Ugarte) that squad is now even bigger.
We've seen him give game time to backup 'keeper Altay Bayindir, Harry Maguire has been in the team a lot, Jonny Evans showed his class whenever called upon. The midfield is switched up between Eriksen, Casemiro, Mainoo, Bruno, Mount and Ugarte somewhat regularly. We see him rotate all of Amad, Garnacho, Antony and even Rashford has been taken out of the team on occasion.
This can help keep players injury free, keep them fresh and produce healthy competition which are all things we'd like to see at United.
Whether you agree with who he is rotating, the fact that ten Hag is now doing it should be a positive. However, what I will also say is that he still does have his favorites and is contradictory.
He talks about rotating the likes of Martinez, De Ligt and Rashford, yet will start Eriksen in two of the last two and six of the last seven despite all of us thinking he cannot play this amount of games on the trot, and Bruno Fernandes is ever-present despite being consistently shite.
This is where I would say that there is confusion.
But again, these decisions aren't on the players. The manager makes the calls and you get on with it.
Above all and what I would think is the reason for rotation, is that there have been a fair few underperformers in the side.
Martinez and De Ligt were average to poor for a couple of games which is why we saw Evans and Maguire come in for them at Villa. Many were surprised at specifically Evans' inclusion yet it turned out to be the correct decision considering his man of the match performance.
Amad, Garnacho and Rashford have all been closer to average this season in terms of their performances rather than anything great. I can't really argue with changing them up.
He's been taking off Zirkzee for Hojlund and vice versa now that the Dane is back. Hojlund has had his injury problems over the past year so needs to be taken care of even more so when he's just come back from another long layoff.
None of our players are consistently performing well enough to warrant a starting place all the time. At the moment, the only player who is playing relatively well on the regular is Eriksen, which is quite surprising. It looked like his time at the club was up after an injury-hit season last year and his drop in quality.
However, the midfielder seems to have quieten down those doubts that he cannot do it at the top level on a consistent basis. Fair play to him.
So I don't really understand what all the moaning is about.
In saying this though, the problem is not necessarily the rotation but when and to whom ten Hag does it to.
While it may make sense to take out an underperforming Lisandro Martinez and bring in Harry Maguire, to do so to Rashford when he's just scored 3 goals in two games is where this puzzlement comes in.
ten Hag would know better than most that for Rashford specifically, he is a confidence player. Taking him off at halftime in the draw at Porto when he's just scored and assisted and is our biggest threat going forward is perhaps not the best time to substitute him.
And like I said, he is ok with starting and leaving Bruno on even though he's been our worst player this season.
I'm not saying that the players shouldn't voice their opinion but when they've played poorly for so long and us not knowing whether they will actually show up in games, I believe they should keep their mouths shut and just do what the manager says.
Erik ten Hag needs to find that balance with his rotation, a balance with when and to whom he's going to rotate. This is of course, if he still remains in charge of United.
His future is still unclear but I'm sure that the board would be puzzled at some of his decision-making as well.
Background Image: Erik ten Hag | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal