Why Tyrell Malacia isn’t in Manchester United’s squad vs Wolves

Tyrell Malacia was absent from the Manchester United squad that travelled to face Wolves in the Premier League on Boxing Day.

Ruben Amorim is focused on stabilising Manchester United’s form after enduring back-to-back defeats last week.

Despite a brilliant victory over Manchester City, United followed up with a 4-3 loss to Tottenham in the Carabao Cup and a 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth at Old Trafford.

These setbacks left the team in 13th place in the Premier League—their lowest position on Christmas Day in the competition’s history.

With a Boxing Day fixture ahead, they travel to face Wolves, who have recently appointed new manager Vitor Pereira.

While the midlands outfit are sitting 18th in the league table, they got three points in their first game under Pereira through a convincing 3-0 win over Leicester City.

Why Malacia is absent for Wolves vs United

United’s lineup for the game was confirmed on Thursday afternoon and once again Marcus Rashford was not in the squad.

However, left-back Tyrell Malacia was also not involved at the Molineux Stadium and there were initial concerns about whether he had an injury setback.

Malacia recently returned to action after a torrid 18 months with injury issues and has been having his minutes managed under Amorim.

Thankfully, it has been claimed by Samuel Luckhurst that the Dutch fullback is not injured and him being out of the squad is a selection decision.

Diogo Dalot starts at left wingback for United against Wolves while Noussair Mazraoui is stationed on the other side.

Amorim says United cannot lose their identity

The new boss at Old Trafford will be focused on securing three points but he also wants the team to play his way of football.

United have had some difficult moments in recent games and Amorim has explained that the team have to show improvements.

“We lost some identity in the last game [vs Bournemouth], maybe because we had two very big games during the week and we lost some focus,” Amorim said ahead of the game.

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“If you saw the game we had a lot of opportunities to score and, in the end, if you see the stats, it’s a different game.

“In the end, it’s the result that counts, and today [vs Wolves], we have to be better. We have to take advantage of the opportunities; we have to be better in set pieces because it sometimes changes the momentum of the game, and we have to be clearer in our identity.

“No matter the result, we have to play our game as a team and not try to do everything alone. Sometimes it’s hard, but we have a clear identity that we have to follow no matter what.”

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