Wolves make four changes to the side named for the defeat at Burnley last weekend. Jonny, Romain Saiss, Ivan Cavaleiro and Adama Traore all drop to the bench, with Ryan Bennett, Matt Doherty, Ruben Vinagre and Raul Jimenez taking their spots.
Manchester United make six changes to the team that beat Watford on Saturday. Stepping up: Victor Lindelof, Fred, Scott McTominay, Diogo Dalot, Romelu Lukaku and Jesse Lingard. Standing down: Phil Jones, Juan Mata, Nemanja Matic, Ander Herrera, Anthony Martial and an injured Marcus Rashford.
The teams
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Rui Patricio, Bennett, Coady, Boly, Doherty, Dendoncker, Neves, Moutinho, Vinagre, Jimenez, Jota.
Subs: Cavaleiro, Costa, Gibbs-White, Jonny, Ruddy, Saiss, Traore.
Manchester United: de Gea, Young, Smalling, Lindelof, Shaw, Fred, McTominay, Pogba, Dalot, Lukaku, Lingard.
Subs: Jones, Mata, Martial, Andreas Pereira, Rojo, Romero, Matic.
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral).
Preamble
Wolverhampton Wanderers have enjoyed playing Manchester United this season. Back in September, they came away from Old Trafford with a deserved 1-1 draw, Fred and Joao Moutinho exchanging goals, Adama Traore going close twice late on. Then a couple of weeks ago, Raul Jimenez and Diogo Jota fired Wolves into the semi-finals of the FA Cup at Molineux at United’s expense. Can they do it again, and beat the Reds twice in the same season for the first time since 1980?
They don’t come into this match in particularly good nick. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side sit seventh in the Premier League table, the Best of the Rest, but they’ve only won once in the league in the last two months, and that against Cardiff City. They’re coming off the back of a lame 2-0 defeat at Burnley. And they’ll surely have one eye on this weekend’s FA Cup semi-final with Watford. It’s only natural if they don’t approach this game with 100 percent vigour.
Then again, United haven’t been themselves of late either. They suffered back-to-back defeats before the international break, in the league at Arsenal and in the cup against Wolves. And their return to Premier League action was frankly weird, a 2-1 home win over Watford in which the Hornets were by far the better team. Nevertheless, everyone’s feeling pretty good about themselves again. A top-four finish, unimaginable when Jose was at the wheel, is a very real prospect now. A rediscovery of form here, and infectious new boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer could be three points closer to completing one of the great managerial salvage jobs.
Here we go, then, a big match between two of English football’s grandest clubs at the business end of the season. It’s on! Kick off is at 7.45pm BST.
