Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has provided an insight into the reasoning behind some of the surprise exclusions from his starting XI to face Crystal Palace.
United host Palace
The Red Devils are of course set to kick off their 2020/21 campaign on Saturday.
United were not amongst the 16 clubs to have taken part in the Premier League’s opening weekend of fixtures, after being granted a late return to action following their Europa League ventures last month.
Instead, the Manchester giants will welcome Roy Hodgson’s Palace to Old Trafford this evening, for a highly-anticipated clash.
The Eagles, unlike their hosts tonight, were part of the English top-flight’s opening round of matchups, and managed to get their campaign off to the perfect start.
A meeting with Southampton at Selhurst Park last Saturday eventually saw Hodgson’s men emerge with a deserved 1-0 victory.
Ole speaks out
As such, ahead of what could prove a tricky outing for his side this evening, as is customary, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer revealed his starting XI to take on Palace a short time ago.
There were a number of noteworthy takeaways from the line-up, with David de Gea retaining his place between the posts despite Dean Henderson’s return, summer signing Donny van de Beek confined to the bench, and Mason Greenwood dropped on the back of his controversial recent dismissal from the England squad:
🚨 Presenting our first starting line-up of the 2020/21 #PL season!#MUFC #MUNCRY
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 19, 2020
Another pair of players no doubt disappointed to have been left out from the off, meanwhile, come in the form of Nemanja Matic and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
As such, ahead of kick-off at Old Trafford, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was inevitably drawn on his team selection, with a particular emphasis on the respective omissions of the aforementioned stars.
The United boss, though, was keen to play down the situation, assuring that Matic and Wan-Bissaka are simply not yet match fit, following a late return to training this week:
Solskjaer: “We will see if we need Greenwood today.
“Wan-Bissaka and Matic only came back into training on Monday so only had four sessions and that is not enough to start today.” #MUFC— Shamoon Hafez (@ShamoonHafez) September 19, 2020
