Manchester United travel to Selhurst Park to play Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon and Ruben Amorim has been handed a selection headache up front
Ruben Amorim needs to be bold when Man Utd face Liverpool - and so do his players, like Matheus Cunha
Ruben Amorim will be without Matheus Cunha again this weekend(Image: 2025 Kevin C. Cox - Premier League)
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Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim will again be without strikers Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko for their trip to Crystal Palace on Sunday. The two forwards sat out of the 1-0 defeat by Everton on Monday due to injury and have not recovered in time to travel to Selhurst Park.
Cunha picked up a knock in training over the weekend, compounding the absence of Sesko, who picked up a knee injury in the 2-2 draw against Tottenham before the international break. Amorim was therefore forced to hand Joshua Zirkzee his first Premier League start of the season against Everton.
It did not go to plan, with United failing to score past Jordan Pickford, despite playing the vast majority of the match against 10 men after Idrissa Gueye was dismissed for slapping his team-mate Michael Keane. Supporters had been hopeful that Cunha would return for the Palace game, after Amorim described his knock as "nothing serious", but that is not the case.
"Sesko is going to take a little bit more time," Amorim told reporters in his pre-match press conference on Friday. "It will take a little bit longer and we are taking care of him. Harry [Maguire], the same. I expect to have Matheus in the next one [West Ham on Thursday], not this one."
Centre-back Maguire also sat out of the Everton game with a hamstring injury after Cunha was injured in training - news that leaked because he had to pull out of turning on the Christmas lights in Altrincham.
Speaking about Cunha's issue before the Everton game, Amorim said: "It was a knock in training so I don't know how long he's going to stay out, I think it's nothing serious, but we cannot risk players. We have to show everybody, when you are not 100 per cent, we have a different player to cope with the demands of the game."
United had gone five games unbeaten in the Premier League before Kieran Dewsbury-Hall secured three points for 10-man Everton on Monday. It was a terrible result for Amorim, whose side had 25 shots and 69 per cent possession without scoring at Old Trafford.
Benjamin Sesko sits on the grass
Benjamin Sesko has a knee injury
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"It was really tough, the week was hard with this result, this defeat, but the process needs to continue and we need to go to the next game," Amorim said.
"If I look at the games, we should have more points. We had the advantage in some games and we lost control, which is really disappointing and frustrating, especially after the last game."
United are 10th in the Premier League on 18 points from 12 games. They head into the weekend three points off the top four in an extremely congested top half of the table.
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