Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag will be hoping his available squad for tonight’s Carabao Cup tie against Burnley are ready to return to competitive action.
In facing Burnley, the Red Devils face a battle against the most in-form side the Championship has to offer this season, as they sit on top of the league and full of confidence.
There is also a feeling that former Man City captain Vincent Kompany will be doing his utmost to get one over his former rivals, which we obviously don’t want to see happening as that would mean United crash out of the cup prematurely (again)!
United had two friendly matches in Spain last week to prepare for this match and Ten Hag is still in the process of welcoming back players to Carrington after the World Cup.
“Of course, this is a very unusual campaign,” Ten Hag wrote in his column for United Review, as per ManUtd.com. “Totally unprecedented, with a six-week break from club football because of the World Cup.
“But we have prepared the players in such a way that they always know what would be happening, whether they were involved in the World Cup or not.
“The aim has always been simple: be absolutely ready for our season resuming and now that time is here.
“I have been in regular contact with our players who were involved in the World Cup, and it was great to see so many of them do well and, in many cases, go into the later stages of the competition,” he added. “But there have also been a lot of players here at Carrington, so we have tried to take advantage of this rare opportunity to spend time together without competitive games.
“I am happy with the state of play as we resume the campaign tonight, but I am well aware – as we all are – that we are not restarting with a straightforward game. Burnley are on top of the Championship, which is a difficult league to contest, plus they have been back in competitive action for a couple of weeks already.
“We want to do well in the Carabao Cup this season and, although we are in different divisions, there is no question that we will have to be straight back into our best form tonight if we are to progress.”
The rest of Ten Hag’s column will feature in tonight’s United Review.
However, it remains to be seen how Ten Hag picks his team tonight.
We can expect David de Gea to play because he wasn’t involved in the World Cup.
There are also a number of players back from Qatar who were knocked out of the quarter-final stages.
