Manchester United legend Gary Neville confessed he was "worried" about introducing some key players into the fold against Sevilla given the games the Red Devils have on the horizon.
United crashed to a humiliating three-goal defeat at Sevilla on Thursday night with multiple key players absent. Bruno Fernandes, Raphael Varane, Alejandro Garnacho and Lisandro Martinez were all missing, with Marcus Rashford and Luke Shaw not fit enough to start.
Early on, Harry Maguire demanded the ball from goalkeeper David de Gea and got his wish, only for Maguire to then mis-hit his pass intended for Aaron Wan-Bissaka. It was intercepted by Erik Lamela and eventually found its way to the feet of El-Nesyri, who made no mistake to hand Sevilla the advantage.
It only got worse for United after the break as a Loic Bade header and En-Nesyri's second of the game - both of which De Gea was culpable for, especially for the third goal - to cap off the humiliation.
Many United fans took to social media to mull over what Ten Hag should change to try and turn the tie on its head and one user replied to Neville's tweet that read: "ETH subs usually excellent. Feels like Fred needs to come on in MDF! [midfield] Need more legs in there."
The fan simply wrote back: "Shaw, Rashford, Fred," which got a reply from the former United right-back who conceded he harboured fears over making such a sub.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Who was to blame for Sevilla's opening goal? Comment below
"Don’t disagree but I’d be worried they aren’t quite ready and injured for FA CUP!" he responded.
United's next game upon their return from Seville is the not-so-small matter of an FA Cup semi-final against an in-form Brighton side who have already toppled the Red Devils once this season in the form of an opening day 2-1 win at Old Trafford.
While Neville was concerned about making the aforementioned substitutions, Ten Hag was less apprehensive and pulled the trigger with two of them.
Both Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford were introduced at half-time in place of Wan-Bissaka and Jadon Sancho respectively.
Sancho in particular endured yet another frustrating evening as he failed to make any sort of meaningful impact on the game during the 45 minutes he was given before his withdrawal.
It must be said that the subs failed to have the kind of instant impact Ten Hag would have been hoping for, as just two minutes into the second-half Sevilla doubled their lead.
Loic Bade's header deflected off of his own shoulder and looped over the despairing dive of De Gea to leave United with a mountain to climb.
