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Manchester United face Leicester City in the Carabao Cup tomorrow under new management.
Ruud van Nistelrooy will be in the Old Trafford hotseat tomorrow for the first time following the sacking of former manager Erik ten Hag.
Van Nistelrooy is a bit of an unknown quantity, making prediction of his first line-up something of a guessing game, although with all the injuries to his squad at the moment, there are not too many difficult decisions to be made.
It may be that Van Nistelrooy will start with Altay Bayindir in goal. The Turk’s only game for United came in the same competition and he needs minutes. Perhaps the interim boss will do the right thing and give him a game, particularly as he kept a clean sheet against Barnsley.
Given the injuries to defenders, including Harry Maguire, Leny Yoro, Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia, we expect Ruud to keep the same back line that lost to West Ham on Sunday, with Diogo Dalot, Matthijs de Ligt, Lisandro Martinez and Noussair Mazraoui operating from right to left.
Jonny Evans and Victor Lindelof are also options.
One big change that could be expected is in the set-up, with Van Nistelrooy generally preferring a 4-3-3 during his time at PSV. This might make no difference to the personnel, but it could mean Bruno Fernandes dropping back into somewhere between the 8 and 10, rather than being pushed further forward.
Christian Eriksen might need to take a breather, having been overplayed in recent games. So expect Manuel Ugarte and Casemiro to play behind Fernandes.
Kobbie Mainoo and Mason Mount are still out injured.
Up front, Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho will probably flank Rasmus Hojlund. We have kept Garnacho on the left and Rashford on the right in our prediction but Van Nistelrooy likes his wingers to cut in and shoot, which could suggest the right-footed Rashford is more likely to start on the left and the leftie, Garnacho, to start on the right.
Amad Diallo and Josh Zirkzee are other options, but Antony is unavailable through injury.
With all that in mind, here is our predicted XI for tomorrow’s 7.45pm kick off at Old Trafford:
Feature image Paul Ellis via Getty Images
2024-10-29 12:55:51
