Jose Mourinho will be without his enigmatic striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic as Manchester United travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in the FA Cup.
Manchester United have a chance to redeem themselves at Stamford Bridge, after the humiliation from early season, with the Red Devils set to face Chelsea in the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup on Monday. But, Jose Mourinho has a few selection headaches to deal with as United continue to compete on all fronts.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic starts his three-match suspension and is unavailable for the Monday game, which will be a huge blow, considering the influence the Swede has had at United so far. Mourinho reflected on the Swede’s absence in the pre-match conference, admitting that it would be difficult without the veteran.
But, the Portuguese did say that he is likely to put out a relatively strong team, as Manchester United cannot simply put in a weakened team in the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup against a team of Chelsea’s calibre.
“ We have three days and we have to travel. We have to go to London. It’s really hard. We don’t have Zlatan, of course not, but we go with everything we have. We don’t put a [weakened] team out like some clubs sometimes – Manchester United cannot do that.”
“ Manchester United is Manchester United; it’s the winner of this competition. It’s not Chelsea’s fault we were given this Monday match. We’ll make changes, as we played on Thursday, but we cannot go to Chelsea with a [Reserve] team.”
Other than Zlatan Ibrahimovic, United do have other issues as well, with the major issues coming in the attacking area. BBC have reported that both Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford are unavailable for the trip, with Martial nursing an injury while Rashford has an illness.
Anthony Martial is injured and Marcus Rashford is ill and both will miss the game vs Chelsea. [BBC] #MUFC
— Manchester United (@ManUtdUpdates_) March 12, 2017
Wayne Rooney will miss Chelsea game after a collision with Phil Jones in training. [BBC] #MUFC
— Manchester United (@ManUtdUpdates_) March 12, 2017
Wayne Rooney, too, is set to miss the Chelsea game after a collision with Phil Jones in training. But, Luke Shaw is set to feature after being included in the matchday squad in what could turn out to be a real crunch match for the Englishman in order to convince Mourinho of his pedigree to don the Manchester United jersey.
We could very well see either Marouane Fellaini or Henrikh Mkhitaryan start as a forward or perhaps, the United fans could be in for a surprise in the form of another academy graduate. It, however, is set to be a mouth-watering encounter.