Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim will have some tired legs to deal with when selecting his starting XI for today’s match vs Brighton at Old Trafford.
Amorim mentioned that both Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo were weary during the Southampton game just three days ago, and with a Europa League clash against Rangers coming up on Thursday, at least one of them will surely be rested today.
As Mainoo was replaced at half time against the Saints, he should be the fresher of the two and so we expect him to play alongside Bruno Fernandes in midfield.
Christian Eriksen, Casemiro and Toby Collyer are other options.
Diogo Dalot will be back from suspension so we expect him to return to the left wing back role, with Noussair Mazraoui switching back to the right.
Tyrell Malacia is another option at wing back.
Harry Maguire is also likely to return in defence in place of Leny Yoro, who looked shaky on Thursday. Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez will most likely accompany him in the back three.
Up front, we have been predicting Josh Zirkzee will replace Rasmus Hojlund for a couple of games now but have been wrong. However, with the former looking stronger with every game and the latter looking weaker, surely the Dutchman will get his reward today?
Amad and Alejandro Garnacho will flank him and look for the clever layoffs he is skilled at providing.
Andre Onana will be in goal.
Marcus Rashford is unlikely to feature and has been pretty much banished from the first team squad amidst speculation over his future.
Luke Shaw, Victor Lindelof, Jonny Evans and Mason Mount are all injured.
With all that in mind, here is our predicted XI for today’s 2pm GMT kick off:
Featured image Julian Finney via Getty Images
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Red Billy
Red Billy is the managing editor of The Peoples Person, author of three books and totally obsessed with football’s transfer market. Billy still insists Matteo Darmian and Alex Telles could have made it at United given half a chance.
