Starting with Leicester City, Manchester United have a tough run of fixtures coming up in Premier League and Champions League.
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With Manchester United set for a difficult run of games, their manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is not looking too far ahead, as he focuses on one game at a time. Starting with Leicester City, United have a tough run of fixtures coming up in Premier League and Champions League. The Leicester match could see the return of Marcus Rashford, who has been sidelined for some time now owing to an injury. Speaking about Rashford, Ole told the club media, “He’ll travel with us, he’s working hard. He played his behind-closed-doors 11-a-side game and trained a full week now. It’s great to have him back, his energy and smile and personality around gives me another headache.”
“It’s a part of football, getting injuries and it’s not just ups, there are some downs and how you deal with it is going to determine your career. Marcus has been very, very good throughout this injury lay-off. He’s knuckled down, worked hard and had time to reflect on how far he’s come in such a short space of time. As I said, it’s great to have him back in and around the squad.”
Another doubt for the Leicester match is defender Harry Maguire. On the skipper, the manager said, “He was out on the grass this morning, so that’s the first day. Of course, Vic [Victor Lindelof] and Eric [Bailly] have played in internationals this week as well, so we’re good.” However, his centre-back partner Raphael Varane is a definite absentee for the weekend clash. Speaking about him, Ole said, “Yeah, but sometimes, you know, it’s the most innocuous ones, he felt a twinge. Hopefully, it won’t be more than a few weeks.”
Meanwhile, promising young attacker Amad Diallo is close to returning to full fitness after suffering an injury earlier this season. Providing an update on his future, the manager said, “Like I’ve said already, injuries are a part of it and that was a bad injury for him, timing-wise. He was looking very sharp. He trained again this morning and we’ll give him time to get up to match and full fitness again. If he gets first-team games, Under-23s games… Let’s evaluate again in January what’s best for him.”
Some Manchester United players had a memorable international break. Cristiano Ronaldo scored again, a late winner for Scott McTominay and Jadon Sancho looked really sharp for England. When asked whether sometimes international breaks help players in terms of confidence, Solskjaer replied, “Definitely.”
“Sometimes, you know, when you go away, you see your mates again, team-mates that you’ve had for many years. Cristiano, as we said, actually set four records along the way. Jadon, Jesse played for England, Luke is back fit again and played for England. And, of course, Paul, Anthony and Rapha lifting a trophy, it’s bound to give them confidence and a feelgood factor.”
Speaking about the tough run of fixtures in the coming weeks, Solskjaer said, “You take one game at a time. You can’t think too far. If we are to fight for trophies and finals in April/May, we know we just have to take one game at a time and improve and get better and look at what Leicester can cause problems for us, how we can cause problems for them. If you think too far ahead, you might miss the boat.”
