Manchester United will host fourth placed Leicester City at Old Trafford on Tuesday. The 18:00 BST kick-off comes hot on the heels of the superb 3-1 victory at Aston Villa, with a big home game against Liverpool just around the corner, on Thursday night.
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer set to make wholesale changes for the visit of Leicester City. He made it clear that he has been left with no option but to rotate his players for the arduous schedule.
Although several youngsters could be in the frame for an outing, there are a number of more experienced players who will be hoping for a start.
An update is awaited on the extent of Harry Maguire’s ankle injury but it would appear likely that the skipper is to miss out on another reunion with his former club. Eric Bailly came on for the captain at Villa Park, and Axel Tuanzebe is also an option for an outing in the heart of defence.
Daniel James is doubtful while Anthony Martial is presumably not yet ready for a return.
Youngsters Amad, Shola Shoretire, Hannibal and Anthony Elanga are among the Under-23s players in contention to be involved, and another is Will Fish after his recent promotion to the B list in the Europa League and the fact that the Reds may be a little light in defence.
“They [Amad and Shoretire] are in contention, yeah, definitely and they’re in the first-team squad,“ confirmed Ole. ”They’re training with us every day so I would think that some of the young boys will get an appearance definitely. If it’s coming on towards the end or starting, I don’t know because I don’t know how the players will be on Tuesday when we see them.”
United boss is unable to make any decisions on his selection until closer to kick-off time.
“I wish I could have said let’s go full out in all the games,“ he admitted. ”But it’s impossible. That’s the hard bit for me – knowing that if I do play the same XI again on Tuesday and Thursday, it’s impossible.
“I run too much of a risk of injuries so talking about integrity in the league and stuff, don’t blame me when I have to make changes, because I have to. It’s not safe for them to play all four, so I’ve got to prioritise.”
Brendan Rodgers Provides Leicester City Team News
Leicester City coming to Old Trafford with three Premier League fixtures remaining in 2020/21 and, despite last Friday’s defeat in the hands of Newcastle United at King Power Stadium, the Foxes remain in the top four going into the season’s final run-in of fixtures.
According to Rodgers Jonny Evans will be assessed ahead of tackling his former club, also The Boss thinks James Maddison and Ricardo Pereira need game time to return to their best.
Rodgers says the Club’s medical team will monitor the Northern Ireland centre-back’s condition over the coming days.
“We’ve been managing him over the last couple of weeks and he’s come through really well,” the 48-year-old said. “He was in a lot of pain [last Thursday] and woke up [on Friday] feeling better. In the warm-up, just as he was coming in before kick-off, he felt discomfort.
“Jonny’s a real warrior so you know if he’s not able to at least give it a go, then he’s really suffering. We’ll just have to see how he is and what his availability is going forward.”
Maddison, on the other hand, benefited from another 77 minutes of action on Filbert Way as part of his return from a hip complaint and Rodgers pointed to the benefits of the England international returning to full fitness at a crucial point in Leicester’s campaign.
“He’s not 100 per cent,” he added. “That’s something I’ve said before, he’s not up to game speed. The problem is you’ve got to give him the minutes and time to try and get him there, likewise with Ricky (Ricardo). These are things to consider coming into the last important games now.
“He’ll have a big part to play for us. Of course, we need to ensure we have a player who will give us that fight within the game. We’ll assess that going into Tuesday. It’s always a balance. I go back to this time last year. The one player we were crying out for was James Maddison.
“His quality, his ability to take the ball and create, I don’t lose sight of that. We’ll always pick what we think is the best team to win the game. He’s had another period on the field [on Friday]. It didn’t help us get the result, but it’ll help us going forward.”
