The Red Devils have made an inauspicious start to the new campaign and are already facing an uphill battle to make the top four and are in danger of being eliminated from the group stages of the Champions League.
While Ten Hag has encountered understandable criticism, the Dutchman is currently without eight senior first team players due to injury.
Defensive linchpins Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez have both succumbed to fitness issues, while Luke Shaw has been restricted to just two appearances so far.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka has also been unavailable which has prevented Ten Hag from being able to field his first choice since August, a factor behind a sequence of shambolic defeats.
United are now working to ascertain whether or not there are any patterns to the injuries encountered by their players and Gary O’Driscoll, who recently joined from Arsenal to take up the position of head of sports medicine, will play a lead role in analysing where improvements can be made.
‘We’re also looking at why we’ve had so many injuries to see if there’s any patterns to improve prevention in future,’ John Murtough, United’s football director, told the club’s latest fans’ forum on Tuesday.
‘Some of them have been impact injuries such as Kobbie [Mainoo] and Amad [Diallo], which are unpredictable. Others have been muscular and could reflect the sheer volume of games played over the past year, including last year’s World Cup.
‘That’s certainly an issue we are aware of and will continue engaging through our governing bodies and the ECA [European Club Association] to ensure that player welfare is considered as part of discussions around the football calendar.
‘We are engaged with governing bodies regarding the number of games across the year to ensure the schedule remains sustainable.’
