De Gea rested as United host Wigan in FA Cup
David de Gea is set for a day off for Manchester United against Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup today with Sergio Romero taking over in goal. The Spaniard was given a break in the third round against Reading and his place once again went to the Argentine. The deputy role will be handed to Joel Pereira in the fourth round against the Latics at Old Trafford.
Jose Mourinho revealed his FA Cup plans when he was explaining why he wasn’t bothered that striker Anthony Martial went to Paris last weekend after being dropped for the match at Stoke City.
“Normally, I take one of the players to prevent any problem in the warm-up. We don’t have many days off,” he said.
“I like to give the players some freedom to choose if they need a weekend off when they are not selected. If for him it was better to go to Paris, that’s completely fine.
“For this weekend if nothing happened in terms on injury, I’m going to play Romero and put Joel on the bench.
“David De Gea will be free and if he wants to go to Spain and enjoy two days, he has to go. I give the players this freedom of choice so no problem at all with Anthony going to Paris.”
Wigan will be sweating on the fitness of Yanic Wildschut after he missed the victory over Brentford with a slight hamstring strain. Reece James and Alex Gilbey both played 45 minutes in midweek for the U21 team - a game which also featured Andy Kellett - and all of them may be included on the bench, from which Marcus Browne will be hoping to make his first appearance in a Latics shirt – what a place to make if he does get on! Jamie Hanson won’t be featuring for his new club as he is cup-tied.
The Latics have lost four encounters with Manchester United and there is little hope the Latics will be able to stun the Old Trafford outfit on Sunday. Fa Cup is a specific kind of a competition and Wigan will nevertheless keep their hopes high until the very end.