Apologies in advance, I'm heading out of the office until this afternoon so I couldn't devote any time to it. How to follow the match: Monday night's Emirates FA Cup fifth-round tie is scheduled for 19:45 GMT and it will be broadcast live in the UK on BT Sport. You can follow it live via ManUtd.com’s live blog and our official Twitter account @ManUtd. MUTV’s Match Day Live programme starts at 18:45 GMT and the club’s official channel will also show the full game at midnight. Scene-setter: Manchester United are clear favourites to win this first-ever match against Shrewsbury Town, yet victory against the relegation-threatened League One side is far from guaranteed with the Reds low on confidence after consecutive away defeats to Sunderland and FC Midtjylland. Form guide: Louis van Gaal’s men have registered five wins, two draws and three defeats from 10 matches in 2016, a run of results that includes two FA Cup victories over Sheffield United and Derby County. Meanwhile, Shrewsbury are currently 19th in League One and sit just three points above the drop zone, yet they head into this game on the back of a morale-boosting 3-2 win at rivals Blackpool. They beat Cardiff City and Sheffield Wednesday in the third and fourth rounds of the cup. Latest team news: David De Gea suffered an injury during the warm-up in Midtjylland and the goalkeeper could miss Monday’s match as a result, with Sergio Romero set to deputise again. Sam Johnstone, Marcos Rojo, Phil Jones, Luke Shaw, Antonio Valencia, Guillermo Varela, Ashley Young, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Marouane Fellaini, Adnan Januzaj and Wayne Rooney are also recovering from injuries. Donald Love, who made his senior debut in the Europa League on Thursday, is cup-tied due to his previous involvement in the competition with loan club Wigan Athletic against Bury. Shrewsbury's on-loan midfielder James Wallace has been forced out of action with a knee injury. View from the dressing room: “It was a performance that wasn’t acceptable. We need to start rewarding these fans who travel this far and give us great support throughout the whole game. I think we all know that it wasn’t good enough.” - Chris Smalling, after losing at Midtjylland. View from the opposition: “It's great for the fans. To get that last-minute winner [against Sheffield Wednesday], then sit around the telly on Sunday night and see us pull Man United, it doesn't get any better than that for any fan. You have people stopping you to shake your hand. It's great for the fans. It's a chance to enjoy it, to go and milk every moment.” - Shrewsbury manager Micky Mellon. Opposition manager: Mellon is a former Scottish professional who spent his playing career with 10 different clubs, but made the most appearances with Blackpool, Burnley and Tranmere Rovers. His managerial career began at Fleetwood Town in 2008 for four seasons, followed by a caretaker spell at Barnsley ahead of his current reign at Shrewsbury. Sub-plots: The draw for the FA Cup sixth round takes place at 18:15 GMT on Sunday evening, some 24 hours ahead of United facing the Shrews at Greenhous Meadow. The Reds will be ball no.4. Betting: Official betting partner Marathon Bet has priced United as clear favourites at odds of 39/100, with Shrewsbury at 41/5 and the draw at 43/10. Visit manutd.com/bet for more offers and odds. Rivals watch: FA Cup holders Arsenal host Hull City on Saturday; Tottenham Hotspur host Crystal Palace and Manchester City travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on Sunday. Referee: Robert Madley will take charge of Monday's match under the floodlights. The Yorkshireman has refereed just one United match this season, the 2-1 win at Watford on 21 November.
4 - Manchester United have won only four of their last 12 games played on a Monday (D3 L5). Blue.— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 22, 2016
Romero McNair Smalling Blind Jackson Schneiderlin Herrera Depay Mata Pereira Martial Subs: Henderson, Lingard, Rothwell, Carrick, Tuanzabe, Poole, Keane. Tuanzbe Regan Poole were not involved with the u18's or u21's. Keane was involved against City played 67 minutes, I doubt he starts. Angel Gomes is not in the club's website and has not played for either the u18 (which he usually does) or the u21. Riley and Weir played 90 minutes. Rothwell came off early in the 75th min, which I would assume he gets the nod on the bench. I am not sure how you have Riley play 2 games in two days. Lingard should sit this one out. He has been disappointing along with Carrick. I am not happy about about our midfielder as there is no one to pull through in the middle and play the ball forward from deep on the ground. I am not happy with McNair, I personally would prefer Riley or Weir, but McNair is better at right back in an away scrappy game than at home at center back against an opposition that can beat him on the run.
This really ought to be a game where we should be able to give Smalling a break. We've 2 more games after this one coming up this week. It's a gamble but I'd be tempted to give Tuanzebe a shot at this one. I imagine moving BoJack inside is not really an option as we'd have 2 left footed guys at CB. I realize that Smalling has been our workhorse this season but 5 games in 2 weeks just seem like madness. He needs to be spelled at some point soon.
Probably going to be McNair. Although if it were up to me, I'd push him inside and play either Riley or Weir at RB, so Smalling can get some kind of break.
It'd be surprising to see him allowed to face United under the terms of the loan agreement between the 2 clubs.
I see: wasn't aware he no longer was with United. He was a highly touted prospect at one point. Interesting.
I couldn't agree with this more. I hope he gets a rest for this game. Surely we could move McNair to CB and call up a reserve or something for RB.
Down to who? Fergie. He gave up on the academy because of him not keeping up with the progression of youth football and the acceleration of other teams' youth academies.
Van Gaal constantly talks about players in the "red zone" or having played too many games. It would stand to reason that Smalling is getting there fast, especially should he keep on being played so much. One of the knocks against him so far has been his lack of durability: it's safe to say that he's disproved this, at least for this season. There is no need to run him down to the ground. It's pretty clear his production has dropped fairly significantly from what it was earlier in the year.
It was mainly due to his loyalty to older players blocking progression combined with Chelsea buying the league and inflating the required points totals.
I still believe it's more the latter as he's put some impressive performances in the past year. Still hope he will be paired with a top notch CB soon, so we can finally know once and for all how real he actually is. But I believe he can still take his game up a notch or two.