No more excuses for Erik ten Hag! Return of injured Man Utd stars must lead to rapid improvement

The Wolves game is United's first away game in the league since their demoralising 2-1 loss at Nottingham Forest on December 30, their fifth defeat of that month. After that game, Ten Hag rolled out his stock excuse to explain the team's problems.

"The injuries. Also some other issues but mainly the injuries hold us back in the process," the Dutchman said. "We haven't played with the same team in a row. We had to change again, so every time we have to swap our team. We had nine different partnerships at the back. That doesn't help or support the routines of the team and it explains why you are so inconsistent."

He did offer one positive note in an otherwise despondent discourse at the City Ground when he pointed out: "In January we have a lot of players returning, so then our levels can be higher."

The coach was getting a little bit ahead of himself, but one month on, United's long-running injury problems appear to be slowly drawing to an end. Lisandro Martinez made his first start in over four months against Newport County on Sunday, while Casemiro was back in the line-up for the first time in almost three months.

Luke Shaw was also looking back to full fitness after missing the defeat at Forest and Harry Maguire made his comeback from the bench after six weeks out. Marcus Rashford was absent in south Wales after his irresponsible nights out on the town in Belfast, but the player has admitted his mistake and after talks with Ten Hag, there is a desire to draw a line under the incident. Rashford will therefore be available for the trip to Molineux, where he scored the winning goal last season after being dropped from the starting line-up for missing a team meeting

There are still more players to come back, such as Mason Mount and Victor Lindelof, but United's squad is perhaps stronger than it has been all season, which means Ten Hag can now have no excuse if his team do not start firing.

Despite the positive injury news, the inconvenient truth for Ten Hag and United fans is that even before the fitness problems began, his team hardly looked convincing. The manager had a near-full strength squad when the season began, with only new signing Rasmus Hojlund and the eternally injured Anthony Martial being out.

But the Red Devils got off to a wholly unconvincing start by scraping a 1-0 win at home to Wolves, benefitting from the visitors missing a slew of clear chances to score and not having a penalty awarded against them when Andre Onana clattered into Sasa Kalajdzic at the end of the game.

United were then beaten 2-0 at Tottenham, with Martinez being caught out for Pape Matar Sarr's opener and then scoring an own goal. Casemiro was also unconvincing in north London, and as the season developed he looked increasingly off-the pace, his 31 years and 60-plus matches per season played at the highest level with Real Madrid finally catching up with him.

Ten Hag described Casemiro and Martinez as "two class players who will bring the team forward", but they have both looked worlds apart from the inspirational operators they were last season. And there must be concern about Martinez after the Argentine underwent two foot operations in the space of five months to treat a fractured metatarsal.

What has become increasingly clear throughout this injury-ravaged season is that Untied were remarkably fortunate to have most of their top players fit for the majority of last season, when they finished third in the Premier League and reached the finals of the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, winning the latter.

Indeed, the wheels started to come off in that campaign after Martinez and Raphael Varane got injured in the Europa League quarter-final first leg against Sevilla. And Ten Hag has since acknowledged that his side were fortunate to do as well as they did.

"Last season, we were overperforming," he surprisingly admitted last week. "Now we have a downfall and we have to stop this, but I think it belongs to the project. When you're involved in top-level football, I think you know that you have to prove yourself every day – and that counts for everyone at this club too."

By admitting that last season's achievements were built on shaky foundations, Ten Hag risked putting an even bigger spotlight on himself one month after the arrival of new minority shareholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his team of INEOS experts, such as Sir Dave Brailsford.

Ratcliffe and Brailsford have made it clear to staff that they will not accept anything below 'world-class' standards now they are running the club's football operation. They are unlikely to be convinced by any excuses about United's injury problems, especially now they are clearing up, and will be looking out for a recognisable style of play.

Ratcliffe and Brailsford watched first-hand at Old Trafford earlier this month as a Tottenham side who were even more ravaged by absentees than United played the Red Devils off the park in a 2-2 draw. The fact that Tottenham were able to play their buccaneering, expansive football even when missing so many key players was a damning indictment on Ten Hag, who has had an extra year to implement his ideas on his United side compared to Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou.

“We need to see a style of play develop in the next few months or else I think the coach will be vulnerable,” said Gary Neville earlier this month. “They really struggle to be able to know where each other are and put combinations and patterns together. Where is the default style of play in this team? I don’t see it and that is a real concern.”

Ten Hag has used the injury crisis to bat away questions about his side's style, but now his most senior players are back, United do not just need to start winning, they need to start convincing. The Dutchman may have been handicapped by an ever-growing injury list, but he has also spent close to £400 million ($507m) on new players, many of whom he hand-picked himself and who have not performed, above all Antony.

The special circumstances of this season and the long-running takeover saga rumbling in the background have bought Ten Hag more time than his predecessors were afforded, keeping him in charge until the end of this season at least. But the strategic review is over now, INEOS are in charge and a new top-level CEO in Omar Berrada will soon be in place.

The good news for Ten Hag is that the injuries that he claims to have plagued him so much are also coming to an end. It's time for the real Manchester United and the real Ten Hag to stand up.