Manchester United could make as many as 10 changes for Saturday’s Premier League showdown with Norwich City. The Red Devils go into the game on the back of a 1-1 draw with Young Boys in the Champions League. So Express Sport will now bring you our expected XI for the contest at Carrow Road.
Goalkeeper: De Gea
Speaking before United’s match with Norwich on Friday, Ralf Rangnick made it clear David De Gea was the club’s No 1.
“I mean, we have quite a few top goalkeepers,” he said.
“And we could also see that against Young Boys, both goalkeepers did well who played. With David De Gea, we have a top goalkeeper as no 1, so this is a position where we have minimum three, if not four or five good goalkeepers.”
With Dean Henderson starting in midweek, De Gea is now poised to come in.
The Spain international has been back to his best this season, with Henderson now considering his options ahead of the January transfer window.
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Defence: Dalot, Maguire, Lindelof, Telles
Though Raphael Varane has been training this week, United are unlikely to risk the former Real Madrid star from the start against Norwich.
Instead, Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof should make up Rangnick’s centre-back pairing.
At right-back, Aaron Wan-Bissaka is likely to make way for Diogo Dalot.
Wan-Bissaka sustained a knock against Young Boys and Dalot, anyway, has been performing better than the former Crystal Palace star in recent weeks.
With Luke Shaw just returning from injury, it’s hard to see him being risked either. Therefore, Alex Telles can replace him for the trip to Norfolk.
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Midfield: Fred, McTominay, Fernandes, Sancho
United have used a 4-2-2-2 system under Rangnick so far.
And the quartet of Fred, Scott McTominay, Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho all flourished against Crystal Palace last week.
With that being the case, they should all start against Norwich as the Red Devils hunt a third Premier League win in a row.
That means Donny van de Beek and Juan Mata having to settle for a place on the bench.
Likewise Jesse Lingard, who looked flat and out of sorts during the Champions League match on Wednesday night.
Forwards: Ronaldo, Greenwood
While Marcus Rashford started against Crystal Palace last weekend, the forward struggled to make an impact.
Mason Greenwood, however, had no such issues when deployed up top in the Champions League in midweek.
The 20-year-old took his goal well, acrobatically putting the Red Devils ahead before they were pegged back.
Therefore, he could be the only survivor from Wednesday’s match to keep his place.
The prospect of Greenwood partnering Cristiano Ronaldo up top should certainly excite the club’s supporters.
Rangnick’s verdict on Norwich
Speaking on Friday, Rangnick delivered his thoughts on Norwich.
“They have improved since they changed managers,” said the 63-year-old.
“They are a little bit more direct, a little more vertical than they were under Daniel Farke.
“It will be a challenge to play at Carrow Road but we want to improve our performance, build on what we showed against Crystal Palace and then hopefully get the next win tomorrow.”
And he added: “Yeah, we trained in two different groups before the game on Wednesday. We trained with the team against Young Boys in detail to prepare them for the game.
“The other group that played against [Crystal] Palace, they had a day off on Tuesday and started to prepare for the game tomorrow on Wednesday, Thursday and obviously today was the last day of preparation of the game.”