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With his Manchester United side no longer in Europe nor the Carabao Cup, the FA Cup is Erik ten Hag’s most realistic chance of silverware this season and he will undoubtedly field his strongest side against Wigan Athletic in Monday’s third round tie.
There is light at the end of the tunnel for Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez, who are both back in full training after long injury layoffs, but the manager has said that Monday’s game will come a little too soon for them.
At the pre-match press conference, he said that the squad would be largely the same one that lost to Nottingham Forest last weekend.
One addition to that will almost surely be Rasmus Hojlund, who missed that game through illness. He has been filmed looking sharp and well in training, so we expect him to go straight back into the centre forward role.
Eagle-eyed observers of the training video released by United will notice that Marcus Rashford did not take part in the session. Whether this means Rashford is unwell or unfit or there was some other reason, we do not know. We have assumed he will play and as such he is expected to take the left wing role with Alejandro Garnacho on the right in the format that worked so well against Aston Villa on Boxing Day.
If Rashford is unavailable for some reason, Garnacho will no doubt be on the left wing and it is possible that Amad Diallo will be handed a start on the right. Antony’s form has not improved and the Ivorian looked sharp when coming on as substitute against Forest.
One player who is almost certainly unavailable is Anthony Martial, who is still missing with a mystery illness and who was not spotted in the training video.
Jadon Sancho is of course very close to a loan move to Borussia Dortmund and will not play.
Bruno Fernandes will play in the number 10 role.
In midfield, with Casemiro not ready and Donny van de Beek having gone out on loan to Eintracht Frankfurt, the three main contenders are still Christian Eriksen, Kobbie Mainoo and Scott McTominay.
Mainoo was subbed for the Scot at half time against Forest and United looked a far worse team for it. The youngster should therefore be reinstated alongside Eriksen, whose passing range is desperately needed from deep.
Fringe star Dan Gore is other option but we expect the best he will manage will be a spot on the bench. Hannibal looks set to join Sevilla on a six-month loan.
In defence, Luke Shaw’s “minor issue” from two matches ago looks to have become more of a major one. He too was missing from training in the video released by the club, and that coupled with Ten Hag’s comment that the squad would not be much different leads us to believe he remains unavailable.
With Sergio Reguilon having been returned to Spurs after six months of his loan, Martinez still not ready and Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof definitely out, this leaves United’s defence to pick itself: Aaron Wan-Bissaka at right back, Jonny Evans and Raphael Varane at centre back and Diogo Dalot at left back.
Any injuries to any of these four will require an academy player such as Willy Kambwala or Rhys Bennett to step up.
Andre Onana’s trip to the Ivory Coast to represent Cameroon in AFCON has been delayed in order for him to play in this match and the following one against Spurs next Sunday.
This means Altay Bayindir will have to wait even longer for his debut in a United shirt.
With all that in mind, here is our predicted XI for Monday’s game, with Amad or Antony to replace Rashford if he is unavailable:
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