MIKAEL Silvestre and Wes Brown have returned to the Manchester United squad for the New Year's Eve clash with Bolton at Old Trafford.
Silvestre has been plagued by groin problems in recent weeks while Brown missed Wednesday's draw at Birmingham with a thigh strain.
Both men are back to bolster a shaky defence which conceded two goals at St Andrews but Louis Saha is unlikely to be involved after being sent home from the midlands with a heavy cold. Alan Smith is suffering from the same problem but should be available.
El-Hadji Diouf and Ivan Campo are suspended and miss the game.
Kevin Nolan, Kevin Davies, Abdoulaye Faye and Joey O’Brien are likely to be recalled after being rested for the 0-0 draw at Sunderland.
Utility player Henrik Pedersen is sidelined and is not expected to feature again until the new year because of an Achilles problem.
Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Howard, Neville, Bardsley, Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre, O'Shea, Richardson, Ronaldo, Park, Scholes, Smith, Fletcher, Giggs, Rooney, Van Nistelrooy, Rossi.
Bolton Wanderers (from): Jaaskelainen, O’Brien, Ben Haim, Jaidi, N’Gotty, Gardner, Giannakopoulos, Speed, Faye, Nolan, Nakata, Davies, Walker, Hunt, Okocha, Vaz Te, Fadiga, Borgetti.
Last season: United 2 Bolton 0
Key opponent: Kevin Nolan - Wanderers skipper has been in superb form this season and poses a goal threat
Prediction: United 2 Bolton 0
Agree with the prediction? Have your say.
You can get 6/1 on United winning 1-0 with Betfred. For this and more odds, click here.
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Van Der Saar Neville, Rio, Brown, Silvestre...Ronaldo and giggs on either flank, scholes playmaker deep midfielder distributing, park behind the strikers, rooney and ruud....3-0 Sir Damen of Droylsden second choice new manager behind capello
We might win this match but to me, Man UTD is still a weak team. We are not the team we used to be, that is for sure. And we fans should not always blame SAF & queiroz for this situation. In fact, we should put the blame on the Glazers for failing to deliver the financial muscles they promised when they took over. I remember them saying that they had always been great UTD supporters! rubbish!!Look at what is going on at Chelsea. This guy has splashed $400M in players so far. He has just even added Maniche, another world-class midfielder, to their already-leathal midfield. What have we spent since the Glazers' take over? roughly 10M Pounds between Park and VDS. Is that serious? SAF does with what is available to him. And obviously the best players are not in the 4-10M range. If You need a ready-to-efficiently-play player, you have to put the price, what the Glazers have not been doing. And they won't do it. So they better shut up and let the old man and his assistants do what they can with what is available. Look,we are second in the league (in fact, we might even end-up third with Liverpool currently on fire!); we might win the League Cup and,who knows, the FA Cup, this is with a non-existant budget. I am writing this because of certain fans that are always criticising for the sake of it. We have to be cautious, pragmatic and acknowledge that the Glazers are the ones to be blame not the management. Poor UTD...
MUFC So What... who really cares?
Give me 650,000,000 reasons why you think I should go here. But make it quick because I'll need another 150,000 reasons tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next....................................
for gods sake lets start with Park & Giggs and let Ronaldo act like a child on the bench.
To all United players....please please please do whatever it takes to win tomorrow. Do not ruin our new year celebrations. GOOD LUCK.
Dear SAF
Due respect to you Sir, pls see if you can be bold and play this line up.
EVS, Gary, Rio, Brown, Sylvestre (For me. I'll pick Giggs - he can tackle and attack, so why not?), Park, Scholes, (Choose bet. your favourites Smith or Fletcher but never both please!!!!!! However, if I am in your shoes, I'll play Rooney in the middle of the park. He is good enough to play box to box. Why not try him there? He MUST be better than Smith & Fletcher together.), Ronaldo (or Giggs), Saha & RVN. Subs: Howard, Solskjaer, Rossi, Pique, (Smith or Fletcher or better yet give them a New Year's break. If they don't need it, us fans do...)
Be BOLD dear Sir. Fortune favours the brave.
My question to you:
Are you Man Utd enough?
Merry Christmas from your second favourite Yank -
sure hope ManU players have more respect for bolton than the guy who predicted a 2-0 manu victory....