Mazraoui reveals secret to newfound longevity after playing 55 games for Manchester United in all competitions.
Mazraoui reveals that cutting out fizzy drinks has helped him to make 55 Manchester United appearances this season.
Mazraoui’s previous highest number was 48 games for Ajax in 2018–19. The 27-year-old gave an explanation for why he might finish on 57 with two games remaining.
“I’m not drinking any sodas any more – fizzy drinks,” he said. “It changes a lot because of the sugar; you don’t get it in your body any more. So just water makes a huge difference eventually. It was just to try to see if there’s any difference. I know sugar is really bad for your body but it’s really nice to have a little drink of it with dinner.”
Even though he was substituted off at halftime of the October tie with Aston Villa due to heart palpitations that necessitated a medical operation, he still has this appearance total. Thirteen days later, he was ready to return to action in the 2-1 victory over Brentford.
“It feels like ages ago,” he said. “Everything was just fine. It was nothing big or huge. It didn’t make any difference [to my season]. I’ve managed to play a lot of minutes, playing in different positions.”
Despite playing primarily as a centre-back or wing-back, Mazraoui has appeared in seven different places this season, including at number 10 in the draw against Fenerbahce, where Erik ten Hag started the Dutchman in his penultimate game. “It was unexpected,” Mazraoui remarked. “It was a very long time ago.”
United will finish last in the Premier League, but they will be the only team in the tournament without a loss when they play Tottenham in the Europa League final on Wednesday.
Mazraoui said: “The Premier League is a tough league but out of two chances in every Europa League game, we score a minimum one. Out of the 20 chances we get in the Premier League we don’t manage to score one. That’s the biggest difference, so I don’t think that has something to do with the league. I don’t think that the goalkeepers in the Europa League are that much worse than in the Premier League.”
The Moroccan also cited a difference in attitude. “We always manage in the Europa League to win,” he said. “The biggest example is Lyon, where we were almost dead in the last 10 minutes of the game [4-2 down]. Extra time, everybody’s tired and you still manage to win [5-4].
“We have maybe the kind of fighting spirit in the Europa League that we lack in the Premier League. I cannot really tell you what the reasons for that are, because that’s something in the mindset that should be there, but many times this season it was not.”