Full breakdown of player minutes at Manchester United this season

Manchester United are the only team in Europe’s top five leagues left in four competitions this season, with Erik ten Hag’s men fighting on Premier League, FA Cup, Europa League, and Carabao Cup fronts.

The Carabao Cup is set to take place this coming weekend, with Manchester United facing off against Newcastle United at Wembley Stadium on Sunday afternoon – with the fixture potentially becoming Erik ten Hag‘s first silverware at the club.

With many games comes many minutes; and no player has played more minutes for Manchester United this season than on-field captain Bruno Fernandes.

Thanks to football analyst UtdArena, we are able to break down the exact number of minutes every player has played at Manchester United this season, and discover that Erik ten Hag has utilised 30 players across the season so far, either as a starting player or a substitute.

Note that these numbers do include extra-time minutes during the ends of the first and second half’s.

Fernandes has played a total of 3358 minutes this season, which is the equivalent of 37.3 90-minute matches. Amazingly, Fernandes has only missed one United fixture (apart from suspension) in his entire career, which was United’s 3-2 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in March 2022.

David de Gea comes in second, with 3285 minutes. Rounding off the top five are Marcus Rashford (2868), Lisandro Martinez (2611), and Christian Eriksen (2381).

Eriksen being so high up despite having being injured for almost a number of weeks – and set to be out until April – is a real testament to how hard he worked and just how important he is to Ten Hag. It’s no surprise that everyone in this top five list are integral to the Dutchman’s squad.

Casemiro comes in sixth with 2348 minutes, although two reasons he is not high are because he has missed four fixtures due to suspension, and only started two of United’s first 10 games of the season.

There is a clear split between who Erik ten Hag views as first team quality and those who he views as bench players, with the list after the expelled Cristiano Ronaldo clearly indicating players who have a lesser role to play within the squad in terms of minutes on the field.

There are a few obvious exceptions to this, though, with Alejandro Garnacho, Wout Weghorst, and Marcel Sabitzer appearing on the second half of this list.

One reason for Garnacho’s lack of minutes in comparison to others is simply that he was brought into the fold later in the season – with his real impact starting to take a grip as the season ventured into November.

Weghorst and Sabitzer only recently signed for the club in January – although it is interesting to note that Weghorst (813) has already played more minutes this season than Anthony Martial (749).

The full list can be viewed here:

With Ten Hag’s squad set to get into the ‘business end’ of this season, there is no doubt that almost all of the players on this list will continue to see their minutes boosted as the campaign climaxes. With fixtures across all four competitions, Ten Hag will want to utilise his squad to maximum effect.