Manchester United were able to rest several members of their first team during Saturday’s 4-0 defeat of Reading in the FA Cup third round whilst still bulldozing their Championship opponents, which will surely be of immense satisfaction to Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese saw Anthony Martial, Wayne Rooney and Marcus Rashford, who have been involved in the first team picture sporadically of late score the goals that took the cup holders comfortably through to round four with plenty to spare.
Hull City provide the next opposition at Old Trafford on Tuesday night, with Mourinho keen to make the most of this EFL Cup semi-final first leg. With that in mind, here’s how we expect United to start;
David De Gea enjoyed a rare day off at the weekend, with the Spanish shotstopper rested alongside Matteo Darmian and Antonio Valencia. Expect all three to come back into the side on Tuesday, with Chris Smalling likely to replace Marcos Rojo alongside Phil Jones after the Argentine suffered an injury during Saturday’s victory.
Strangely, Michael Carrick started and played almost 80 minutes of that game, which was a surprise given that United face two big games in the next five days, with Liverpool visiting Old Trafford this coming Sunday. As such, Bastian Schweinsteiger has an outside chance of starting alongside Paul Pogba and Ander Herrera in midfield after both took no part against Reading.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan was another of United’s in-form players who wasn’t called upon on Saturday, and he will likely start on the right alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic, with the big Swede returning up front. Anthony Martial, who gave Jaap Stam’s defence a torrid time in the 4-0 win should retain his place on the left-hand side of attack.
Let us know what you think of this line-up in the comments below!
