Victor Lindelof has been rested for the trip to the capital as Manchester United prepare to take on Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon.
Manchester United will be looking for their 10th win under the guidance of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, when they travel to Craven Cottage to lock horns with Fulham on Saturday. And, the interim manager will be happy about the fact that he has a near-full strength squad at his disposal.
Only two fringe players remain unavailable for Solskjaer, with Antonio Valencia and Matteo Darmian dealing with minor niggles. The Manchester United caretaker boss provided the update on the duo during his pre-match press conference, laying more emphasis on Valencia’s situation while also providing some good news on Marcos Rojo.
“Rojo has been training for a few days, so he’s back in training. But we’ve lost Antonio and Matteo through niggles for a couple of weeks. We’re still not bad. We’ve got 20-21 players training every day, so that’s good.”
Antonio has been training hard, really hard, and then he got a setback. So, hopefully, in a couple of weeks, he’ll be back with us. He’s been a fantastic servant at the club, he’s captain for a
reason and, hopefully, we can get him back on the pitch. It was hard when he broke down, because he would have travelled this weekend.”
While Rojo has resumed training, he is still some way off regaining full match fitness, which explains why he is not a part of the travelling squad, as revealed by the reliable Manchester Evening News. But, Chris Smalling is fit and available for Saturday’s clash.
Another centre-back, Victor Lindelof, has missed out on the trip to face Fulham, perhaps with the intention of being rested ahead of the UEFA Champions League tie against PSG. Lindelof should be replaced by Smalling at the heart of the Manchester United defence, with Phil Jones, who signed a new deal with the club on Friday, being his partner.
Ashley Young is a part of the travelling squad, but should be rested, with Diogo Dalot taking his place at right-back. On the opposite flank, Luke Shaw should be the other full-back, with David de Gea lining up in the Manchester United goal.
In midfield, the first-choice trident of Paul Pogba, Ander Herrera and Nemanja Matic are likely to take the field against Fulham, particularly with Scott McTominay being the only other alternative in the squad.
Up ahead in attack, Solskjaer has all his resources available to him, but Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard are likely to be preserved with one eye on the PSG tie. Facing Fulham in the final third should thus, be Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez and Anthony Martial, while Tahith Chong will be an option on the bench to make his Premier League debut.
