No Anthony Martial, No Wayne Rooney and no Marouane Fellaini either to lob those balls up to – Manchester United must find the goals from somewhere when they play Watford at Vicarage Road in the English Premier League on Saturday.
With goals already difficult to come by this season, Louis Van Gaal needs to fashion a team capable of staying compact in defence – Manchester United's USP this season – while carrying enough threat going forward to break down the Watford defence, a defence which has been fairly impressive this season.
"It's a big problem, like when I had a lot of defenders injured at the beginning of the season," Van Gaal told MUTV, when asked about how he will cope with the absences of Martial, Rooney and Fellaini, who has been used as an auxiliary striker by the Dutchman in the past.
"I have always organised a shadow player for every position, but when all the injuries happen in the same position, you have a problem as a trainer-coach and you have to play a little bit differently.
"You can solve that problem because we have multi-functional players and they can play in many positions. I have rotated this season more than ever, because of the amount of matches we have had. Every player is used to playing, even the younger ones have played a lot of minutes.
"And I have noticed that every Manchester United player wants to perform what we have agreed in the training sessions. The spirit of the squad is fantastic."
Apart from Rooney, Martial and Fellaini, Michael Carrick, Antonio Valencia and Luke Shaw are also out of this match against Watford, who are decently placed in the table at the moment, in 11th after picking up 16 points from the first eleven matches.
Quique Sanchez Flores has them working as a well-drilled unit, and even if Manchester United have been criticised for their playing style this season, this game will be a big test for Watford.
When Arsenal visited Vicarage Road, Watford played quite well for 60 minutes, before the floodgates opened once the visitors scored the first goal. Flores needs to ensure his team begin the game in a similar manner to the one against Arsenal, while not succumbing to the pressure as the match wears on.
"We have to reference the matches we have played against big teams," Flores told Hornets Player. "Against Manchester City we were really competitive for 45 minutes, against Arsenal we were for one hour, so our target for this match is to be competitive for one-and-a-half hours.
"Manchester United are one of the biggest clubs and of course we have followed how they are playing. They are an amazing team with a very good coach in van Gaal, but we have the opportunity to show again that we are ready to play against a big team.
"We have to be ready, because they have very good players and normally they use the opportunities they have to shoot very well."
Where to Watch Live
Manchester United vs West Brom is scheduled for a 12.45 pm local time (5.15 pm IST, 7.45 am ET) start. Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1 will broadcast the match live in India, while the online live streaming options are on Starsports.com and Hotstar.
Live TV coverage for viewers in the UK will be on BT Sport 1, while the match can also be live streamed on Watch BT Sport. Australia viewers can watch the EPL game live on Fox Sports, while the online live streaming options are on Fox Sports On Demand and Foxtel Play.
Watch Manchester United vs Watford live in the US on NBC Sports Network, with the live stream option on NBC Sports Live Extra. Audience in Canada can watch the action live on TSN and TSN TV.
In Singapore, the Watford vs Manchester United match will be shown live on 102 Mio, while the action can be watched live in Malaysia on Fox Sports. Viewers in Thailand can flip their remotes to CTH, while audience in Indonesia can watch the EPL game live on Orange TV. PPTV and QQ Sports will show the EPL action live in China.
Audience in the Middle East and North Africa will be able to watch the EPL match live on Bein Sports Arabia, with the live streaming option on Bein Sports Connect.
