Manchester United host West Ham United for the second time in four days on Wednesday night and this time a place in the EFL Cup semi-finals is up for grabs.
Manchester United and West Ham United played each other in a Premier League Matchday 13 clash, when the Hammers held Jose Mourinho’s side to an excruciating 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. The draw on Sunday meant that Manchester United have gone off to their worst ever start to a league campaign since the 1990. It also meant that the Red Devils have gone on a four game winless run for the first time since 1980.
The two sides meet at the Theatre of Dreams again in an EFL Cup quarter-final encounter, with the Red Devils looking to do one better than what they were able to at the weekend. Here’s the team news for Manchester United ahead of Wednesday night’s match.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has just four players missing for the match against West Ham on Wednesday. Midfielders Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini will miss the game through suspension after picking up their fifth bookings of the season on Sunday. Central defensive duo of Chris Smalling (toe) and Eric Bailly (knee) continue to remain unavailable, although the latter is making promising progress in his rehabilitation.
Bailly trained for the first time since suffering his knee ligament injury in the 4-0 loss to Chelsea in October, but the match against West Ham comes too early for the Ivory Coast international as he is still some way off regaining match fitness.
In Bailly’s absence Phil Jones will continue to marshal the defence, and is likely to be joined by Daley Blind in the heart of the Manchester United defence. The centre-half partnership should be flanked by Antonio Valencia on the right and Luke Shaw, who missed the weekend’s clash against the Hammers, on the left.
Michael Carrick, too, resumed training on Monday after missing Sunday’s match with a slight niggle, and is in contention to return to the starting lineup on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Bastian Schweinsteiger could be set to start his first game for Manchester United this season, with Sky Sports reporting that Schweinsteiger’s “attitude and performance has impressed senior figures at the club.”
Up front, club captain Wayne Rooney and Armenia captain Henrikh Mkhitaryan are likely to return to the starting lineup after seeing action from the bench on Sunday. Anthony Martial, too, could make a return after being excluded from the matchday squad altogether, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic leading the line in what is a crunch game for Jose Mourinho and Manchester United.
