Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

Ole names side to take on Leicester

Sunday 21 March 2021 16:00

Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has announced his team to take on Leicester City in the Emirates FA Cup quarter-final at the King Power Stadium.

The Reds are bidding to follow up progress in the Europa League on Thursday night by sealing a last-four spot in the famous domestic competition, ahead of the first international break of 2021.

The boss has opted to retain Dean Henderson in goal while Paul Pogba starts after coming off the bench to fire the winner past AC Milan on Thursday. Anthony Martial returns from injury to lead the line, with Alex Telles in for Luke Shaw.

Donny van de Beek is also back and could play in the no.10 role in Bruno Fernandes' absence, although the exact formation is be a subject of a debate. The bench is a very strong one, with the likes of Fernandes and Edinson Cavani waiting in the wings.

However, Eric Bailly and Marcus Rashford miss out.

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Ole is fired up in our big interview, saying: “If you want an easy life then don’t play for United!”

Discussing Rashford's injury in his pre-match interview with BBC Sport, Solskjaer revealed: "He wasn’t close [to being fit for the game]. We took him off and he thought he’d be ready but yesterday he had no chance of walking on his foot.

"The scans show there’s an injury there but, of course, we’ve got players coming back – Anthony and Donny coming back in, so there are positives as well. I don’t know [timeframe]. The doctor will speak to the English [FA] but I think he’ll travel and report to them. Maybe he’ll be fit for them."

Asked further about shuffling the pack around for today's Cup tie and sticking with Henderson in goal, Ole added; "We need all our players as we’ve played so many games with less than four days in between the games all season so we need everybody fit.

"With Anthony, it’s not been too long since he played really well against City so I expect him to do well tonight. Edinson has been working really hard to get fit as well so we’ll probably see him towards the end of the game.

"You know, David went home for 10 days and didn’t train but came back and trained well. He’s ready to go away with Spain and, in the last two months, you’ll definitely see the two of them."

Leicester City: Schmeichel (c), Fofana, Evans, Soyuncu, Albrighton, Ndidi, Tielemans, Castagne, Perez, Iheanacho, Vardy.

Subs:
Ward, Daley-Campbell, Amartey, Fuchs, Thomas, Mendy, Choudhury, Praet, Leshabela.

United: Henderson; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire (c), Telles; Fred, Matic; Greenwood, van de Beek, Pogba; Martial.

Subs: De Gea, Shaw, Tuanzebe, Williams, Amad, Fernandes, James, McTominay, Cavani.

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