Manchester United have gotten better and better as their first season under Erik ten Hag has progressed. They’ve been one of the best teams in Europe since the domestic campaign resumed and only lost one out of 19 games played since late December.
The Red Devils recently put an end to their five-and-a-half-year trophy drought by bagging the Carabao Cup with a win over Newcastle United in the final.
Fortunately for the Red Devils, all their January signings have made a positive impact and helped them maintain a winning momentum despite a flurry of injury problems since the turn of the new year.
Wout Weghorst was brought in as a short-term replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo – who left the club after a toxic interview with Piers Morgan in November.
The Dutch striker has been able to feature regularly since joining on loan from Burnley, mostly because Anthony Martial has struggled to recover from his various injury problems.
Ten Hag was also dealt a blow in January when his influential midfielder Christian Eriksen was injured by Reading striker Andy Carroll in their FA Cup 3rd round match.
With Scott McTominay also struggling with injuries and Casemiro at risk of wearing out, the Dutch gaffer decided to make a deadline-day move for Bayern Munich midfielder Marcel Sabitzer.
The Austrian midfielder was struggling to get regular minutes with the Bundesliga champions and was only happy to join Ten Hag’s exciting project at Old Trafford.
Sabitzer has acted as an alternative to Eriksen since his arrival, having made five appearances for the Red Devils so far.
The 28-year-old has brought something different to the fray for United, adding more steel and energy to their midfield and impressing fans with some efficient displays.
Sabitzer has already won over some fans enough for them to want the club to sign him on a permanent basis in the summer transfer window.
The Austrian also appears to be trying to improve his popularity by being way more active on social media than he’s been in the past.
Since his arrival at Old Trafford, Sabitzer has made a ton of posts on his Instagram account – posting pictures of him involved in training sessions as well as some appearances for the club.
His latest set of pictures are of him celebrating the Carabao Cup final win, posing with the trophy and medal won in the final.
Some fans have been surprised over how just how proactive Sabitzer has become on Instagram.
He didn’t usually post so many pictures or make posts during his time at Bayern Munich and used to only do so for special occasions.
A possible reason for that is that Bayern isn’t that interested in PR antics of asking players to get more fan attention by posting positive pictures that they would love.
Manchester United have their own ‘head of fan engagement’ – who was appointed last year.
Utd have a social media team who operate the players social media accounts with them and post Man Utd content on the players accounts to drive social media views and interaction. Sabitzer himself did not post most if not all of those Man Utd pictures on his Instagram.
— Oisin Hughes (@OisinHughes4) February 27, 2023
Their job is to find ways on increasing engagement numbers on social media. They work on United’s social media profiles as well as those of their players to get more clicks and interactions on their posts.
Of course, that wouldn’t be possible for a player who rarely posts anything.
Sabitzer most likely just had to follow Man Utd's social media promo strategy, which like most clubs include the player's own account. If you're a United player, you need to be an Instagram influencer, which doesn't seem to be the case at Bayern.
— mtlgooner (@mtlgooner) February 27, 2023
As a result, Sabitzer might’ve been asked by the Head of Social Media or Head of Fan Engagement to regularly posts pictures to earn more followers and love from the United fans.
There is, of course, a chance that Sabitzer has fallen in love with life at United and is just making the posts as a way of displaying that love.
Irrespective, the Austrian midfielder appears to love playing under Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford and would want to finish his loan stint with them by winning more trophies.