Ruben Amorim said Manchester United were unlucky - but they've caused their own problems

Man Utd suffered an injury crisis in the build-up to their Premier League defeat to Tottenham and despite a solid performance, a squad down to the bare bones suffered another defeat.

Manchester United played some nice football against Tottenham - but with Amad out injured their season is all but over

The biggest problem Manchester United were going to face at Tottenham took just 90 seconds to be made clear to any neutrals tuning in to events between the Premier League's 14th and 15th-best teams.

When a wide camera shot of Ruben Amorim showed the nine United subs sitting behind the head coach, it lingered for a while, but still not long enough to work out who was who. Neutrals would have struggled to name more than a couple of them, at most.

Amorim has been pleading for more training sessions to drill his ideas into his squad. The irony that the longest spell between games since he took the job in November had caused so much carnage wouldn't have been lost on him.

Carrington had been more like Holby City this week. There were more medical issues than your average episode of Casualty. Manuel Ugarte, Toby Collyer, Kobbie Mainoo and Amad all picked up injuries in training. Leny Yoro and Christian Eriksen were ill. The team that Amorim picked was pretty much the only one available to him.

As those subs went through their pre-match routine, Victor Lindelof must have felt a little like a babysitter. He could have been charging double time for the work he was doing on a Sunday.

Eight of those nine replacements hadn't kicked a ball for United previously. Seven had never played a professional game before, and three had never even been substitutes until Sunday. It was a bizarre, unique situation.

Amorim was honest about United suffering some misfortune this week when he faced the press on Friday, but he declined to name names. He probably couldn't remember all of them.

Six players who were in the matchday squad last week were absent. The loss of Amad for the rest of the season was easily the most grievous blow, robbing United of their most dangerous attacking outlet. But losing Ugarte and Mainoo stripped the midfield down to the bare bones, and one of the likely beneficiaries - Collyer - also pulled up lame.

It all led to the academy being plundered to not only make up the numbers but to potentially become the point of difference. Three of them started the FA Youth Cup win against Chelsea in midweek.

But for all the inexperience on the bench, this was still a starting XI costing around £450m. Yes, an awful lot of that sums up United's recruitment problems and as Amorim explained so eloquently on Friday, it is why staff are at risk of losing their jobs and supporters will be asked to pay more for a ticket.

It felt incumbent on those starting the game to put up a performance, so the manner in which they conceded so early on was particularly frustrating for Amorim. Neither Diogo Dalot nor Matthijs de Ligt covered themselves in glory.

The response was promising though and United created chances. Joshua Zirkzee shone in a No.10 role and Alejandro Garnacho was bright. The Argentine should have scored in the first half and twice stung the plams of Guglielmo Vicario early in the second, with the second of those saves an excellent one.

United would go through waves of pressure before finding themselves penned in a little. In a way, it might have been a good approach. Amorim has always been a coach who relies on his subs. More often than not he makes all five and given the physical demands he places on players, refreshing the ranks is often vital.

On this occasion, that wasn't going to be a viable tactic, so having bursts of attacking pressure before resting for small periods might have helped the 11 who started go further than usual. It certainly felt telling that when Tottenham made their final change with five minutes to go, Amorim still hadn't turned to his bench.

But for all the spells of pressure for Vicario's saves, United again drew a blank in front of goal. They created more than they have done in many games and an average Tottenham side were clearly beatable. Had Amad been available, it might have been a different story, but when a goal-shy squad loses their most potent attacking weapon, the outcome can feel inevitable. It is why plenty of people feel like that with Amad's injury in particular, this season has run its course already.

Amorim called that injury, but also United let two forwards leave without replacing them in January. With their best attacker now also out, it is going to be a long few months