Erik ten Hag told main reason why he ‘cannot rely’ on Raphaël Varane

Erik ten Hag has been told he cannot rely on Raphaël Varane due to his recurring injury problems that the Frenchman is suffering.

Raphaël Varane signed for Manchester United for a fee of around £35 million from Real Madrid in 2021, signing alongside Jadon Sancho and Cristiano Ronaldo in what, at the time, was considered one of the best transfer windows the club had seen in years.

Varane has been an integral part of good bouts of form at Old Trafford under Erik ten Hag, however, has also suffered from several injury problems – with 10 separate injuries keeping him out for a total of 39 fixtures for club and country since he signed for the club.

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Varane recently missed United’s last-gasp victory over Brentford last weekend, with the player out with an unspecified minor problem, which has triggered former United defender Paul Parker to tell Erik ten Hag that the player cannot be relied upon.

“You definitely can’t rely on Raphael Varane and especially him not being injured,” he said to MyBettingSites. “That’s impossible. He doesn’t look like he has the strongest legs in the world and nothing about him shows power.

“He was the first player to moan about the amount of extra minutes, but so far he hasn’t been affected by the extra minutes, so that can’t be an excuse.”

Further to this, Parker has explained he feels Varane was “carried” by Sergio Ramos during his time at Real Madrid, further explaining that Varane needs a good partner in order to succeed.

“He was carried for a lot of years by Sergio Ramos at Real Madrid. We can see that he is a player that can defend well but he needs to be told what to do by the man next to him.

“Lisandro Martinez can be that guy but he is also injured now. Martinez can get the best out of Varane because of his personality but I don’t believe that the club can ever expect him to play a lot of games.”