Man United head to Wigan in the FA Cup third round tonight and here are five things to look out for at the DW Stadium.
It was suggested during the coverage of United’s defeat at Nottingham Forest that Antony’s withdrawal early in the second half was enforced due to a hamstring injury. Five days later, Antony appeared in team training at Carrington.
So did Antony cry off? Did United attempt to protect him? Was he truly injured? It is not a good look, though not as bad as Antony’s performance at the City Ground.
The Brazilian was the fall guy in the fallout from United’s last match and some in the away end cheered at his removal, as many did at Fulham in November. They will not be cheering if he somehow starts tonight.
Who’s on the right?
On his first appearance for United in more than two years, Amad showed a greater understanding of the intensity of English football than Antony has in the majority of his appearances for the club. Pitting Amad against League One opponents is an ideal opportunity to ease him into a starting rhythm after a five-month absence with a knee injury.
Yet there has been a nine-day gap between games, the FA Cup is United’s only chance of silverware, Marcus Rashford scored his first goal from open play in almost four months at Forest and Alejandro Garnacho is undroppable.
So it could be Garnacho on the right and Rashford on the left, as it was to great effect against Aston Villa on Boxing Day.
As strong as possible?
One of the few upsides of United’s fixture quirk of no games in nine days is they cannot field an uninspiring team at Wigan. Five years ago, United played a completely different XI against Reading in the FA Cup third round, won 2-0 and the most memorable recollection is of the away-day atmosphere from the relocated home supporters at Old Trafford.
Anyone expecting Erik ten Hag to select Willy Kambwala, Dan Gore, Hannibal Mejbri, Facundo Pellistri and Joe Hugill from the start against the 18th-placed team in League One is likely to be left disappointed.
Exposure for youngsters?
A best-case scenario for United would be to have the game boxed off by the hour or half-time so Ten Hag can then start resting senior players for the visit of Tottenham on Sunday. Tottenham will have three days extra recovery as they beat Burnley on Friday night. United are on 248 academy graduates to debut for the first team and Hugill and Rhys Bennett have been on the bench in recent weeks.
United’s only easy win all season was in a domestic cup tie against Crystal Palace, who hit the eject button themselves in the League Cup. It should not be a tall order to comprehensively beat Wigan.
Gore has made his debut but Bennett and Hugill are still waiting
Memorable away day?
It will have come as a relief to everyone that United avoided Villa, Derby or Reading in the third round draw, such is the regularity with which they have been paired with those teams in the last 20-odd years. Derby and Reading were out of the FA Cup before January.
The Wigan tie ends a sequence of 10 successive home cup draws and United will have more than 6,000 fans at the DW Stadium. As underwhelming as a draw with Derby can be, United’s away-dayers were in tremendous form at Pride Park in 2016 and 2020.
This is their first standalone away cup draw since the latter and they are likely to be just as raucous.
