CRISTIANO Ronaldo and Gary Neville both look set to be involved in Manchester United's Champions League encounter with FC Copenhagen after returning to training this morning.
The duo missed Saturday's win at Wigan, Ronaldo with an ankle injury and skipper Neville after picking up a calf injury during England's defeat in Croatia last week.
However, they were both able to train with their United team-mates at Carrington this morning, and providing they suffer no reaction, should start at Old Trafford as United look to maintain their 100% start in Group F.
Neville would almost certainly replace Wes Brown at right-back, while Ronaldo's return may come at the expense of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who netted his fifth goal of the season at the JJB Stadium this weekend.
The only major doubt for United is Gabriel Heinze, who is still struggling with a hamstring strain.
Manchester United (from): Van der Sar, Kuszczak, Neville, Brown, Vidic, Ferdinand, O'Shea, Evra, Heinze, Solskjaer, Ronaldo, Fletcher, Jones, Scholes, Carrick, Giggs, Richardson, Saha, Rooney, Smith.
Would you rest any players for the Copenhagen game? Have your say.
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If we win the game by HT,why not give smith and jones a run...CMON REDS
no need to rest anyone, liverpool game is still on sunday and they have enough days to rest. but if we find ourselves comfortable, then the big guys can come off for likes of smith etc
Give rooney and ronaldo 45 min. Then bring on Ole and Smudger. Copenhagen is not a great football team, and not as good as the Brondby team we trashed twice in 98/99. We must ofcourse do our best, but anything else than a win will be a total disaster. We need to be a 110% for the Scouser game. If Rooney continues like he did against Wigan, Ronaldo as he has done all season and Vidic closes the backdoor, the scousers will have a hard time beating us. Keep the red flag flying high!
SAF will surely rest players with Sunday in mind. The lesson of what happened to Giggs against Celtic, especially as Park went down same day, must still be in his mind. Anyway the likes of Smith and Jones(who cannot be any worse than JOS) need games badly. Pity we did not have the young Italian fella thow into this one as well.
I'd keep the same side as finished in the 2nd half we played our best football of the season.
It's nice to have Ronaldo back to the team cus he's been playing so well for us this season, and his form is fantastic at the moment and with him and Ronney in form,we will beat liverpool on sunday
I agree with you nikolai. sunday united must have ronaldo rooney and saha fit.
Let's not mess about!
Nikolai, Norway... I think it would be very stupid to underestimate FC Copenhagen.. They are actually a better side than the Brondby side you are referring to !! I live in Copenhagen and see this side almost every week.. they work hard and is a very though side to break down.. they is well organised and full of internationals with plenty of routine...That said they are not great going forward and a inspired United side should trash them.. I hope :-)
I don't think starting Smith tomorrow in place of Saha or Rooney is particilarly a big risk. It is not like there is a massive drop in class like when Richardson comes in for Giggs. SAF reckons we have a good squad and for United to do owt this season we are going to need to see summat from Smith. Tomorrow is a perfect chance to get him in tune with the rest of the players.
If that was the only change we made from our best starting eleven and ROnnie and Giggs got starts I would be happy. Give DJ a chance in the second half if needs be but Smith has to start somewhere.
I agree that we should rest as many players as we can against Copenhagen. But we still need to win the game. So I would rest maybe one key player from the outset (Scholes?, Giggs?) then make another one or two subs as soon as we get a couple of goals (man, I hope I'm not tempting fate by saying that!)
Play your bets team, Liverpool have to play their best team because they need the points so we should just get on with it and do the same. Do liverpool play their champions league game on Wednesday? if so that's an advantage for us.
Our squad is so weak after the starting ten...we can make any team look good after the top 10.
Think about it Fletcher, Richardson, O'Shea, Carrick...we have problems and we spend each week trying to cover them up...you put those 4 on the pitch and Rooney will need to run himself into the ground for us to stay even. Now Arsenal are deep, so is Chelsea and Liverpool...it's a shame we are so thin in talent...guess that's what happens when you buy an average English player for 18 mil. when we could have bought 3 or 4 for that kind of money. For my money I would give Smith a run and Jones a run...rest Giggs and Saha or play Evra on left wing if Heinze is fit.
Bottom line if Copenhagen is average we will be alright if not we will see what the younger players are made of.
Fergie, start the best and hardest line-up possible. Destroy these Danes and really send a message!
We shouldn't be resting Giggs, Mick, he's only played 45 minutes in a month, and will benefit from the game. Smith for Saha and Jones for Scholes at half time maybe. Good to see that Rossi got another full six minutes at Newcastle. I bet SAF wishes he'd let Sparky have him. He must be fuming...
Well said <b>mkamper, Copenhagen </b></br>
I just hope the players don't have the same attitude as some here, if they do we'll be getting a good pasting tonight.
Kuszczak-O'Shea,Brown,Vidic,Evra-D.Jones,Carrick,Fletcher-Solskjaer,Smith,Richardson
subs:VanDerSar,Neville,Ferdinand,Scholes,Rooney,Giggs,Saha
trust the squad players for this one...
Oh god Mick, what have you done?!!
jw i take it you have not shelled out ¿¿32 for this one
If this team with 8 full internationals plus Evra,Jones and Smith ain't good enough to comfortably beat Copenhagen at OT then something is very wrong with the Utd squad.
this team should trash the danes!
Kuszczak-O'Shea,Brown,Vidic,Evra-D.Jones,Carrick,Fletcher-Solskjaer,Smith,Richardson subs:VanDerSar,Neville,Ferdinand,Scholes,Rooney,Giggs,Saha
sorry Bobbydazzler, I don't get what you mean.
jw I have paid out ¿¿96 to see this game and expect a strong line up. they dont have another game for 5 days so there should be no problem. any team that contains jos and df in the same line up is going to have problems
mkamper, Copenhagen you say you live in Copenhagen. If that is true, then which bus line goes along the bay area next to the Mermaid thingy?
Plus, if you live in Copenhagen your writing and spelling would be different, with a slight accent on the O's and A's, and perhaps a heavier intonation on your W's, making them sound like V's.
I'm not seeing that at all in your comments.
Be honest, you're from Birmingham aren't you?
GiggsyO`shea....Maybe i dont get the english humour or lack of it.... And do i care about the little mermaid and bus lines... If i wanna see it i ride my bike, as thousands of others born and raised copenhagers...And no im not from Birmingham... Does my spelling indicate that :-) Apart from this.. Cmon United and take the 3 points and finish the business in Copenhagen in a fortnight... A game im gonna see live !!! Because i live in Copenhagen :-)