Erik ten Hag knows he will disappoint some of his Manchester United players when he names our team for Saturday's Emirates FA Cup final but, for him, it is merely part of the job.
The Reds must do without Anthony Martial, who has joined Lisandro Martinez, Marcel Sabitzer and Donny van de Beek on the sidelines, while Antony also appears to be a huge doubt after being taken off on a stretcher in our penultimate game of the Premier League season, against Chelsea.
Martial's hamstring tear could be serious and he is one player who will not be able to improve his good personal record against Manchester City.
“Yeah it's going to be a long one,”
Erik said of Martial's injury. “But how long, we don't know. We have to do more assessment.”
There are still options in attack, with leading scorer Marcus Rashford a candidate to fill the central role, but we await the announcement of the starting XI an hour before kick-off at Wembley, at 14:00 BST.
A number of tactical switches have been discussed, including the introduction of an extra midfielder to bolster that area, or Wout Weghorst, in a bid to press from the front.
When asked if he will have conversations with the players left out of the derby, the manager was clear with the journalists at his press conference.
“Yes,”
he replied. “Of course. There will always be disappointed [players] about the starting XI [and] for the [substitutes'] bench.
”But I think it's a normal process in Manchester United and we have to deal with it.
“The players have to deal with it, the squad has to deal with it. And, so, I make the choices.”