Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is likely to name a heavily similar Manchester United eleven as Crystal Palace pay Old Trafford a visit on Saturday.
Manchester United will look to continue their positive start to the 2019-20 Premier League season as they face Crystal Palace at Old Trafford on Saturday as part of Matchday 3. The Eagles are yet to score a goal and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be hoping United can roll them over for three points.
In defence, injuries are starting to pile up, albeit, fortunately, not to any of the first-choice stars. Diogo Dalot will be out for a couple of weeks and is set to be back after the international break, thus thinning the depth at the back. Solskjaer confirmed the same and more in his pre-match conference.
“Diogo is injured, he’ll be out for a little while, hopefully he’ll be back for [the games] after the international break. He’s had that problem for a couple of weeks. But that’s it. [The squad is] more or less the same.”
Add to it the injuries to Eric Bailly and Timothy Fosu-Mensah and United are down to their bare bones, especially in the full-back areas, with Ashley Young and Matteo Darmian the only options available beyond the first-choice duo of Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw.
Wan-Bissaka and Shaw should start on Saturday against Crystal Palace, along with the centre-back pairing of Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire as well as David de Gea in goal. Solskjaer had made just one change to the lineup that handed Chelsea a 4-0 drubbing for the Wolves match in the form of Daniel James coming in for Andreas Pereira.
The same is expected more or less, with Paul Pogba and Scott McTominay set to be the double pivot in midfield. Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford are penciled in to start. But, Manchester United have been playing closed door friendlies to get other stars to match fitness, including Alexis Sanchez and Mason Greenwood, with the latter also in contention to feature against Crystal Palace.
Pereira should be restored in the starting eleven, with James making way. Jesse Lingard should be preferred over Juan Mata purely for the purpose of continuing with the high press.
Manchester United Expected Starting XI: de Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw; McTominay, Pogba; Pereira, Lingard, Rashford; Martial
