Manchester United take on Bournemouth tonight in an evening Premier League clash at Old Trafford. Kick-off 8pm.
The Red Devils can move up to third place in the league table with a win tonight after several of their top four competitors dropped points in recent days.
United now have the opportunity to leapfrog Newcastle and be within one point of Manchester City, who will face Chelsea before the Manchester derby on January 12.
Team news for United
A significant boost in the squad is the return of Lisandro Martinez, who is in contention to feature tonight for the first time since lifting the World Cup. If he starts, he will partner fellow world champion (with France in 2018) Raphael Varane, making the Reds’ defence a real force to be reckoned with.
Diogo Dalot has also been training in the past few days after recovering from an injury sustained during international duty. However, Erik ten Hag confirmed via MUTV that whilst the defender is making “good progress”, he does not want to “take risks” with players, especially with such a packed schedule on the horizon. Therefore, Aaron Wan-Bissaka is likely to be named in the starting lineup to give Dalot more time to recover.
All systems go at Carrington ⚙️#MUNBOU 🔜#MUFC || #PL
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) January 3, 2023
Scott McTominay has been suffering from an illness, potentially the same one that ruled Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof out of the previous two matches, but has trained this week and the manager is “optimistic” about having him available tonight.
Team news for Bournemouth
Key players were missing from the Cherries’ clash with Crystal Palace on Saturday, in which they suffered a 2-0 loss. David Brooks, Ryan Fredericks, Neto, Junior Stanislas and Marcus Tavernier were all ruled out and it is unconfirmed whether they will be able to line up against the Reds.
Philip Billing picked up a hip injury at the weekend and so Bournemouth’s top goalscorer is a doubt for the match.
