Manchester United are preparing to take on Aston Villa in the Premier League and Erik ten Hag’s team selection has been affected by a number of injury concerns and suspension.
Raphael Varane, Jadon Sancho and Antony all miss out completely due to injuries and Bruno Fernandes is unavailable after collecting his fifth yellow card of the season last weekend.
Harry Maguire has been named on the bench despite his promising performance against West Ham and in his absence, Fernandes is the captain for Ten Hag’s men. That’s not possible this time and now, United have confirmed the captaincy for the trip to Villa Park.
Much-maligned forward Cristiano Ronaldo will wear the armband for the game, the club confirmed on the official Manchester United website.
Ronaldo’s inclusion in the line-up is most likely down to United’s lack of options in the final third, with the 37-year-old starting back-to-back league games for the first time this season.
SN’s verdict…
It’s certainly an interesting decision to give Ronaldo the armband following the events of the last couple of months. The forward tried to engineer a move away from the club over the summer and that fractured his relationship with the manager and supporters.
That was only exacerbated last month when he walked out of the 2-0 win against Tottenham before the full-time whistle and was subsequently left out of first-team training.
Previously, David de Gea was often wearing the armband when the first captains in line were unavailable but the Spaniard has seemingly dropped down the pecking order.
