Manchester United fans observing the team sheet on Saturday night may have been surprised to see how strong Erik ten Hag chose to go against Reading.

With a Carabao Cup semi-final second leg with Nottingham Forest coming up in midweek as well as a hectic February on the horizon, there might have been some temptation to rotate. Instead the likes of Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro were all given starts ahead of fringe players and some of the club’s promising youngsters.

However, the team selection shouldn’t have come as too much of a shock given Ten Hag’s previous comments. He explained: “I never, never let players get opportunities.

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“A player has to deserve opportunities and they’re doing that by their performances on the training pitch, by their performances when they are on the pitch on the matchday. That’s what I expect and they did quite well [vs Nottingham Forest].

“We have seen [Alejandro] Garnacho already over a long period and [Facundo] Pellistri is now coming in.” Of course, Pellistri, Garnacho and Kobbie Mainoo all received minutes from the bench but Ten Hag’s promise was kept from the start.

United have plenty of talented youngsters coming through the academy at present but the Dutchman is showing patience. So far, this appears to be working well.

There were a lot of calls for Garnacho to get more minutes at the beginning of the campaign. But when he finally did start making regular first-team appearances in late October, the teenager was in a better position to try and influence the game.

No matter who the Reds draw in the fifth round of the FA Cup, we can be almost guaranteed that a strong line-up will be selected when the sides meet at the end of February.

Source: manchestereveningnews.co.uk