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Noussair Mazraoui has revealed that cutting out fizzy drinks has helped him to make 55 Manchester United appearances this season, the most of the defender’s eight-year career. Mazraoui’s 48 games for Ajax in 2018-19 constituted his previous highest number. With two matches left he could end on 57 and the 27-year-old explained why.
“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.”
His appearance tally comes despite being taken off at half-time of the draw with Aston Villa in October owing to heart palpitations that required a minor procedure. He was able to play again 13 days later, in the 2-1 win 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.”
Though Mazraoui has operated mainly as a centre-back or wing-back, he has featured in seven positions this season, including at No 10 in the draw at Fenerbahce, Erik ten Hag fielding him there in the Dutchman’s penultimate match. “It was a surprise,” Mazraoui said. “I did it a really long time ago.”
United will record their lowest Premier League finish but face Tottenham in Wednesday’s Europa League final as the only unbeaten team in competition. 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.”
In the league United have managed 42 goals in 37 games, while in the Europa League they have 34 in 14. 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].
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“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.”
