Manchester United will be without Luke Shaw for their FA Cup semi-final encounter against Chelsea on Sunday at the Wembley Stadium.
As Ole Gunnar Solskjaer prepares his team to take on Chelsea on Sunday in the FA Cup in an attempt to secure his first cup final as Manchester United manager, his task has been made difficult by the unavailability of Luke Shaw, who was injured against his former club Southampton.
There is slight positives for Ole according to his own self in the pre-match conference, with the manager hopeful of Brandon Williams recovering in time to feature against Chelsea.
“Luke will be out. I can’t see him recovering. Brandon will hopefully be okay, he’ll try to join in training today with his eye. We’ll see if he can see the ball when he comes in! He should be fine.”
Brandon Williams should be fit enough start, with the likes of David de Gea, Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka all assuming their defensive duties. Victor Lindelof could be rested after playing a flurry of matches, with Eric Bailly the likeliest to come in for the Swede.
Nemanja Matic got a deserved 60 minutes or so of rest against Crystal Palace and should be raring to go against his former club Chelsea. Paul Pogba should partner Matic in the middle, with Bruno Fernandes donning the number 10 role once again. Ole talked about the possibility of rotating his squad amid fixture congestion during his pre-match conference.
“We’ve not seen a lot of them [the players] because we’re just coming up to a training session now. But I’d rather have this game than not have it. We can’t say it [the scheduling] has been unkind, it is what it is and, when you get the opportunity to play a semi-final, you’ll squeeze that in even if you have to play on the same day.”
Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial are guaranteed to start. While Mason Greenwood has seemed a bit off in the last couple of games, Ole should prefer him over Daniel James just for his ability to confuse defenders as to which feet he will shoot from.
The likes of Fred, Scott McTominay and Odion Ighalo will be itching to come on and have an impact, if needed.
Predicted Manchester United Starting XI: de Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Maguire, Bailly, Williams; Matic, Pogba; Greenwood, Fernandes, Rashford; Martial
