Michael Carrick confirmed a stretched squad picture as Manchester United prepare to travel to Stamford Bridge. The manager said he was “massively disappointed” after the decision to uphold the suspensions that rule out his regular centre back pairing, Harry Maguire and Lisandro Mart\u00ednez.<\/p>\n
Carrick was clear about his options at the back and offered encouragement for the teenager waiting in the wings. He pointed to Ayden Heaven\u2019s early-season run, noting the 19-year-old had started eight successive Premier League fixtures while benefiting from Ruben Amorim\u2019s back-three system. Heaven has played just 15 minutes across four cameos since Carrick\u2019s appointment in mid-January.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s training really well, he\u2019s learning, he\u2019s listening, he wants to improve,” Carrick said. On the possibility of Heaven being named alongside Leny Yoro at Stamford Bridge he added: “I\u2019ve got no worries. He went away and played with England a couple of weeks ago and done well, so yeah, [he\u2019s] looking forward to the game, for sure.”<\/p>\n
The defensive situation is only part of Carrick\u2019s headache. Kobbie Mainoo\u2019s absence was notable in Monday\u2019s 2\u20131 defeat to Leeds United, a match in which Manuel Ugarte was described as hiding from the ball and Casemiro was left to cover the midfield. Carrick would not confirm Mainoo\u2019s return for the Chelsea trip, revealing the academy graduate had done “little bits” in training and suggesting there is a risk he may be rushed back.<\/p>\n
Maguire will miss the trip to Chelsea after receiving an extended punishment for comments made following the defeat to Bournemouth. Maguire maintains he was describing the general situation a “f—–g joke,” rather than any specific match official. Mart\u00ednez\u2019s red card for the tug on Dominic Calvert-Lewin\u2019s man bun has been upheld by the FA and his suspension will cover the Chelsea game and the next two fixtures. United host Brentford next Monday before the derby with Liverpool at Old Trafford on May 3.<\/p>\n
There was encouraging progress on Patrick Dorgu but the winger, who suffered a serious hamstring strain against Arsenal, did not make the bench at Leeds and Carrick confirmed he will also miss the Chelsea match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United short at the back as Maguire and Mart\u00ednez face bans; Mainoo and Dorgu doubtful this weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,969],"tags":[181,939,1393],"class_list":["post-12189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-premier-league","tag-ayden-heaven","tag-casemiro","tag-centre-back"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}