It is often said that in every crisis, there is an opportunity but the injury crisis for Manchester United last season became so big even those opportunities were in the physio room.
Unfortunately, this season has started on a similar note at Old Trafford with respect to injury issues, with Erik ten Hag starting multiple men down even before a competitive ball was kicked.
The latest Mason Mount injury becomes the first issue picked up in a competitive game after Harry Maguire started vs Brighton despite coming off vs Fulham.
Fortunately, though, the situation hasn't reached a breaking point yet where Ten Hag can't fix things. In fact, Mount's injury could finally force him to make a change that makes the whole team better.
It allowed Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount, two extremely hard workers, to press the opposition during their buildup and create high turnovers.
Every team they came up against had trouble too, as United regularly managed to win the ball high up and create chances.
In fact, when Mount came off vs Brighton, their high press fell apart to an extent as Fernandes was left chasing shadows often.
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However, the presence of Mount comes at a huge cost. That is because he hasn't done much else apart from pressing like a maniac.
He doesn't have the pace of Marcus Rashford, the trickery of Amad, or the invention and creativity of Bruno Fernandes.
Furthermore, he doesn't have the defensive solidity to accompany Kobbie Mainoo in the two deeper midfield roles either, for which Manuel Ugarte has arrived anyway.
This led to United looking toothless in attack. In the first two games, they created numerous chances but wasted most of them, with Mount missing a glaring one vs Fulham too.
Still, Ten Hag looked committed to this system, but Mount's injury will take that decision off his hands.
A blessing in disguise First things first, nobody will think that Manchester United are better off with Mount injured. He is a unique player whose skill set isn't replicated by any other player in the current squad.
Having said that, it is not the skill set United need right now. Mount is best served as a squad player to give fresh legs to the team late in games.
With Mount's injury and Manuel Ugarte's arrival, the game vs Liverpool should be the true start of the new era at United.
A natural striker should come in (Joshua Zirkzee), and the split striker system should be dropped to go back to a 4-2-3-1 which will restore Bruno Fernandes to the position he thrives in - No. 10.
If Ugarte is deemed fit to start, then his position in the pivot alongside Mainoo makes perfect sense, especially if Lisandro Martinez starts with Matthijs de Ligt in defence to relieve Ugarte of ball-playing duties.
So far, Ten Hag has resisted the urge to throw in his new signings, with only Noussair Mazraoui being trusted and that too out of necessity.
It's time for the manager to take the brakes away and insert the players brought to improve the team. Mount's injury should be the spark that lights the fire.