Man United are going to face Granada in the Europa League this midweek and for the first-leg of the quarter-finals, Solskjaer is expected to make a number of changes to his usual line-up.
Granada have lost three out of their previous four league matches in Spain and so far, they’ve tasted 13 defeats in the La Liga this season. So naturally, the Man United boss will be tempted to rest some of his overworked players on Thursday.
And while speaking to the press, the manager has also hinted that he could be looking to check his bench strength against Granada given they have the buffer of a second leg.
The manager said in his pre-match press conference: “No matter who we’re playing against, we pick a team to win that one, that we feel is good enough to win that game.
“Of course this game is just the first half of the leg, there are two games and we’ve got league games coming up, big games as well. So that’s always a conundrum and always a thought process on who’s fit enough, who can last 90 times two-three-four-five on the bounce and who needs to have a rest in between to perform at the highest level.
“Everyone can do it, but [it’s about] in what way does it affect your performance for the next one. And we always have a check in the morning of the game for how everyone’s feeling.”
After the Granada game, Man United will take on Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League and Solskjaer will definitely not want any unexpected injuries before that.
The United boss is eager to rest players like Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford and even Bruno Fernandes could start on the bench given that Donny van de Beek is desperate for gametime.
The Premier League side travel to Spain with a lot of youngsters in their squad and we expect some of them to get sufficient amounts of gametime on Thursday – particularly in the forward areas.
