After a night that saw English teams Arsenal and Chelsea beaten by supposedly better teams, manager Louis van Gaal cannot afford to rotate any players as his other Premier League managers did to the teams yesterday.
If Manchester United are to exit the Group stage of the competition they cannot afford to lose at home, and must pull out all the stops against a confident Wolfsburg tonight at Old Trafford.
Despite a host of injury problems in the Red devils defence manager Louis van Gaal needs to take next weekend’s trip to the Emirates for a top of the table match against Arsenal out of his mind and concentrate on the game at hand.
Goalkeeper
Now he is firmly back in the fold following his summer transfer saga with Real Madrid, Spanish international David De Gea would be a first choice in any Premier League manager’s team sheet, and could prove vital tonight in stopping the Bundesliga outfit getting those all-important away goals.
Defence
As we already mentioned United has injuries to worry about at the back, with Ecuadorian right-back Antonio Valencia looking set to miss the match after having not been available for training Tuesday, meaning that 22-year-old Guillermo Varela could get his debut against the Germans. As things stand at the moment we would expect to see former Torino defender Matteo Darmian could start at right-back with Chris Smalling and Phil Jones at centre-half while Daley Blind continues to play left-back.
Midfield
This is where the battle will be won or lost for United with both Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger looking to protect the Red Devils back-four while at the same time getting the ball to Juan Mata and Memphis so they can run at the Wolfsburg defence. As for Captain Wayne Rooney we see him once more returning to a number ten role while LVG sticks the on fire Anthony Martial up front.
Attack
How could you not play Martial as your front-man following the youngster’s impressive start in the Premiership, and with the former Monaco player eager to get on the scoreboard he could prove difficult for Wolfsburg defenders, Naldo and Dante to handle.
