Manchester United face a stretch of fixtures after the international break that will test their defensive options. Ruben Amorim will be feeling ever so slightly more optimistic after the victory over Sunderland last time out, but visiting the reigning Premier League champions is an entirely different proposition. Amorim will want his key performers fit and firing for the trip to Merseyside, yet a series of defensive problems threatens to limit his choices.<\/p>\n
Lisandro Mart\u00ednez has endured a run of long-term absence since tearing his ACL at the beginning of February. That injury has kept the centre back out of action for more than eight months. The positive update is that Mart\u00ednez is reportedly close to making his return to full team training, but Amorim is expected to manage his reintegration carefully to avoid setbacks. He will definitely be absent this weekend, however.<\/p>\n
Noussair Mazraoui did not feature in United\u2019s most recent games against Brentford and Sunderland. He was also unable to join Morocco for the international period because of an unspecified knock. Amorim had already confirmed that Mazraoui wouldn\u2019t return until after the October break, and it remains uncertain whether he will be available for the trip to Anfield.<\/p>\n
The squad has also picked up a fresh concern in Ayden Heaven. The centre back was withdrawn at half time for England\u2019s Under-20s during the international period. “He picked something up,” England Under-20s boss Ben Futcher said. “I don’t think it is too serious but we will have to see how it settles down”. The club will monitor Heaven\u2019s recovery alongside the assessments of Mart\u00ednez and Mazraoui as they prepare for the high-profile match against Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Amorim\u2019s handling of returns and minutes will be a central theme as United attempt to field a competitive back line. With Mart\u00ednez edging toward training and others still uncertain, the defensive picture for the fixture remains cautious and subject to late decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
United head to Anfield with a depleted defence: Mart\u00ednez nearing training, others doubtful. next-up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1083,969],"tags":[1073,1021,181],"class_list":["post-3837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-man-utd","category-premier-league","tag-acl-injury","tag-amorim","tag-ayden-heaven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837","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=3837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}