United hope for full strength against Reds
Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag expects to have several key players back from injury for their FA Cup quarterfinal against Liverpool this afternoon, with Rasmus Hojlund, Harry Maguire and Aaron Wan-Bissaka all training this week.
“They returned on the pitch. Partly in the start of the week and today we had a session where they were all training,” Ten Hag said this week. “I think (they will be available). We have, one session (yesterday). We have to see how they recover from this, but it looks good.”
Hojlund scored in six successive games across all competitions, with eight goals in his last eight games, before a muscle injury sidelined him for four games, including United’s 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup fifth round.
United are languishing in sixth in the Premier League and face a red-hot Liverpool side who are level on points at the top of the table with Arsenal, although they trail the Gunners on goal difference.
Facing their north-west rivals adds some spice to the match at Old Trafford. “Some games are bigger than others, I think Manchester United against Liverpool is always a big game. I am looking forward to it,” Ten Hag said.
“The fans see it as a very big game and they are very eager for us to win... our fans have to be loud. In such games, we always achieve good performances. I don’t think in any really high-rated game that we had any lows. They are very consistent, we need our best to beat them.”
The FA Cup is the only silverware United remain in the hunt for amid a tough season for Ten Hag’s side. They lost to Manchester City in last year’s final at Wembley.
United will be the more rested of the two sides after Liverpool clobbered Sparta Prague 6-1 on Thursday in the Europa League. United have not played since they defeated Everton 2-0 with penalties from Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford in the Premier League last Saturday.
United have lifted the FA Cup 12 times, second only to Arsenal’s 14, while Liverpool have hoisted eight.
Meanwhile, Liverpool’s easy win over Sparta meant they could begin to focus on the FA Cup quarterfinal tie with United during that game, manager Jürgen Klopp said.
Klopp’s side were 5-1 up from the away leg and on Thursday they raced into a 4-0 lead after 14 minutes, with qualification to the quarterfinals secured. In the end Liverpool won 6-1 and 11-2 on aggregate.
“We were 4-0 up and that’s the moment when you think, okay we take off now, X, Y and Z. I don’t think we would have played Robbo (Andrew Robertson) as a centre-half if it’s 0-0 or we’re 2-0 down,” he said.
“It’s really strange, you cannot believe you are 4-1 up at half-time and 9-2 on aggregate, so even the biggest pessimist would not think that we will not go through. Usually you really have no time and resources to think about the next game.”
Ibrahima Konate missed Thursday’s game and last weekend’s draw with Manchester City because of a thigh injury, and Klopp was hopeful he could train yesterday, but said he was not hopeful of his defender winning the race against time.
Bobby Clark was taken off after taking a knock against Sparta but Klopp expects the midfielder to be fine to face United, and is very happy with Mohamed Salah’s progress since his recent return from injury.
Salah scored on Thursday in his first start for the club since returning injured from the Africa Cup of Nations in January, and now comes up against his favourite opponent, with 12 goals in 13 games against United. “Mo is definitely ready,” Klopp said.
“How many goals did he set up last night? Exceptional. Strange game second-half, would have loved to take him off but wasn’t possible because of Bobby’s situation. Mo is pure quality. Ask him what he likes the most about Manchester United, but the more we talk about it the less likely that it will happen again.”