There are notable absentees from the Manchester Derby for both Manchester City and Manchester United.
City have had Omar Marmoush injured during the international break, with 17 players including Marmoush set to miss the occasion.
This is where having a large squad and crucial players who can play multiple positions comes in and becomes a factor.
Dealing with injuries and absences is just a part of the season that managers have to deal with and is a good marker to judge how well INEOS and Ruben Amorim have built a squad to deal with the weekly cut and thrust of the Premier League.
Of course, City have spent heavily since January, so even when they have injuries you can be rest assured Pep Guardiola’s men will put out a team who can hurt any team with their dominating presence.
With Matheus Cunha and Mason Mount hobbling off against Burnley, Ben Jacobs has now given a crucial update on their recovery progress.
Jacobs explains that Cunha and Mount won’t be involved this weekend and have not recovered in time, leading the journalist to theorise that we may finally get to see Benjamin Sesko starting with Bruno Fernandes pushed further up away from his midfield role and Bryan Mbeumo as the other number ten.
Whilst Amorim has opted to start Mount and Cunha in all three matches because of their guile, work out of possession and tenacity, United’s squad is such now that they can compensate for the injuries with changes and still look a threat on paper because of the work done in the summer.
It remains to be seen whether Kaiboo Mainoo starts next to Casemiro ahead of such a huge game where the game will be won or lost in the midfield battle and how much United can limit City.
Irrespective of this, the updates on Mount and Cunha may force Amorim into tinkering with his line-up.
