Ruben Amorim could be set to make a shock line-up decision for Manchester United’s season-opener against Arsenal at Old Trafford.
After a promising unbeaten pre-season, Manchester United now shift their attention to a mouth-watering Premier League opener against Arsenal at Old Trafford on Sunday, 17 August.
Ruben Amorim’s men will need a fast start as Mikel Arteta’s organised Arsenal arrive for a high-stakes clash featuring new signings, big storylines and early-season tension.
Looking away from the likes of Viktor Gyokeres and Benjamin Šeško, there are a few injury concerns on either side, but some players are returning to action for Amorim.
Apart from Lisandro Martínez and Noussair Mazraoui, it seems like the Portuguese boss will have a full squad to select from.
Amorim could make shock decision vs Arsenal
After the first week of pre-season, it was confirmed that André Onana had suffered a hamstring injury that would keep him out of the summer preparations and potentially the beginning of the season.
The goalkeeper has been able to make a quick recovery and he was spotted in training last week, making him an option for Amorim in the season-opener.
“No, Licha [Martínez] and Mazraoui are out, they cannot play this game. Josh [Zirkzee] and André [Onana] are recovering and are options. We’ll see,” Amorim told journalists.
Reports from ESPN state that Onana feels ‘ready to start’ the Arsenal game despite not playing during pre-season and the feeling amongst most of the fanbase is that he will be thrown into the action by Amorim.
Starting Onana: Is it the right decision?
Starting any player on the opening day without any pre-season is controversial, perhaps even more-so when it is a goalkeeper.
But once again, Onana’s deputy – Altay Bayındır – was unable to provide any convincing performances over that period to make it an easy decision for Amorim.
This continues to be one of the problem positions at Old Trafford but Amorim clearly has trust with Onana over Bayındır and the Cameroon starting wouldn’t be too surprising.
That trust has to be repaid at some point, though. We have seen Onana have strong patches of form in a United shirt, even if there have been a lot of difficulties.
Edwin van der Sar has described him as “top-class”, and he would certainly need to produce a top performance if he was to start in this clash.
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