Man United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made as many as 10 changes to his starting line-up on Tuesday vs Leicester City and this was one of the main reasons why they ended up losing the match 1-2.
All the players who started against Aston Villa on Sunday were put on the bench and only Mason Greenwood was the one constant figure. And all these changes were also partly made because Man United are set to take on Liverpool just 48 hours later.
Speaking ahead of the match, the Manchester United manager has already made it clear that defender Harry Maguire is ruled out with a ligament injury and he is not likely to play any part in the rest of the Premier League matches as well.
“The good news was it wasn’t broken,” Ole said about Maguire’s injury. “There was no fracture, but a ligament injury, of course, is serious as well. If I’m very positive – that’s maybe stretching it – I’m hopeful that he might be ready for it. I don’t think he’ll play in the league again before [the end of the season]. We’ll do everything we can to get him ready for the final.”
“You always try to look after players long term. If he’s fit, he’ll play for us, if he’s not he won’t. As I said, we’re hopeful that he’s ready.
“If he’s ready for us, he’ll probably be ready for the Euros. Norway are not in the Euros, so I’m not really that concerned [about the European Championship].”
The manager also admitted that despite several players performing really well against Leicester, he is going to make changes to his starting line-up on Thursday night.
“There will be changes, of course but many of the players that played tonight did really well so they’re in contention as well,” added Ole.
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“It’s about managing the squad now and building momentum, building confidence, making sure we get enough points to get second [place] and then going into the final confident.”
The Man United manager is expected to bring back his usual starting line-up against Liverpool meaning players like De Gea and Van de Beek are once again going to sit on the bench.
But the injury to Harry Maguire is a real cause of concern for the United manager since Eric Bailly is also injury prone and it will be a massive risk playing him at centre-back in such quick succession.
