Ruben Amorim is likely to rotate his Manchester United starting line-up as we head to Grimsby Town in the Carabao Cup second round.
An exciting draw for our match-going Reds, the Wednesday night fixture provides a first trip to the Mariners since 1948.
It may also, Amorim has suggested, give an opportunity for some of United’s squad to gain a first start of the season.
The Reds were unlucky to be beaten by Arsenal in our opening Premier League fixture a week ago, at Old Trafford, before a frustrating 1-1 draw at Fulham last Sunday.
Amorim rotated little between the fixtures, and addressed journalists at Craven Cottage post-match, first to review that league tie, before taking some time to preview Wednesday’s visit to Grimsby. Here’s every word…
Will you make changes for the game on Tuesday?
“Yes. Yes, we have three games this week, we have quality players, and we need to do rotation to try to win every game.”
Ruben, is that a problem? With no Europe – this a week obviously where you’ve got a midweek game – but keeping players happy, while getting the rhythm of the players who play in the team, that is a delicate balance?
“It’s a normal thing that happens in other clubs. I think we were not prepared to play Europe; that is my feeling, to have strong games in the Champions League and then play Premier League.
We need time to develop as a team. So, they just need to fight for the places, and then everything can change.
Sometimes one is playing, in other moments, other guys are going to play, and we have the cups, so we’re going to have a lot of games for everybody.”
Is Mazraoui still out, or is he likely to come back?
“No, maybe he is going to return next week, we will see. But he’s near, we are just finishing some drills with him to be sure that he’s not going to have another problem.”
Ruben, you’ve just mentioned that you weren’t prepared to play in Europe. Are you glad that you’ve got a bit more time to work with the team?
“Yeah, I said that last season. We need time to prepare every game. The games are really competitive, and we need time to build a base, and then, in the future, to move forward. And we’ll reach one moment where we need to have Europe for everybody to play games.”
Just a question on Altay Bayindir. I mean in the first half especially today, he was knocked over at least two or three times on corners. Do you think your defenders are doing enough to protect him and his area, to stop that from happening?
“Yeah, we are trying everything. But again, I know that you are focused a lot on the opponent’s corners, but if you remember this game – it was 10, 20 minutes ago – we had our chances. And we scored one goal [from] set pieces, we had a penalty,
we had a least one in the end near the post. And you can see every game in the Premier League, tell me one game you didn’t see a big occasion from corners. So, I think that will happen in every game.”
Rasmus Hojlund wasn’t in the squad in this game. Do you consider him available for Tuesday, or, given the speculation, do you consider him not available?
“All the players are available. Then we will make the choice to get the best starting XI to win every game.”
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