Jose Mourinho has admitted Manchester United’s season is in danger of falling apart.
Mourinho conceded United have “lots of problems” after missing the chance to make up ground on leaders Manchester City.
The Old Trafford boss was booed by some fans after the draw with Southampton on Saturday, he lost more players to injury, Ashley Young is now facing a three-match ban for violent conduct, Chelsea moved above them into second place in the Premier League and then City dropped two points themselves in Sunday's 0-0 at Crystal Palace.
United are now without strikers Romelu Lukaku and Zlatan Ibrahimovic , having already been missing Antonio Valencia, Chris Smalling, Marouane Fellaini and Michael Carrick.
Young was caught on TV elbowing Saints’ Dusan Tadic in the stomach during the goalless home game — an incident missed by referee Craig Pawson.
“We have lots of problems,” said Mourinho. “We lost Lukaku and we lost Ibrahimovic for a month.
“To lose him for a month means he stops his run to the recovery. He has been running for many months.
“In the period where what he needs is to play and have minutes, we lose him for a month.
“We lose Lukaku, I don’t know for how long.
“I don’t remember the last time Fellaini played. It was a long time ago. Michael Carrick was in pre-season. I don’t remember him playing during the season, so we have problems.
“We have difficulty now to rotate players. The fact that we don’t play the League Cup semi-final is a good thing for us — we have no players to play these two possible extra matches in January.
“Now we have to cope with Everton and Derby. After that, we have an open space of nine or 10 days before Stoke. Hopefully in this period we can rest, we can work, we can recover some players to attack the second part of the season.
“We finish the year in third position in the table. We have to fight to improve our position.”
It emerged on Sunday evening that Lukaku is likely to be missing for a week because of his concussion.