"We hope many players will return to the squad in mid-January such as Mason Mount, Casemiro, Lisandro Martinez, Tycell Malacia, of course we expect Harry Maguire to return as well," coach Ten Hag shared before Man Utd's final match of the calendar year when the "Red Devils" will visit Nottingham Forest in the early morning of tomorrow (0:30 on December 31, Vietnam time).
The Dutch strategist admitted that Man Utd are still missing many key players when facing Nottingham Forest in round 20 of the Premier League, but he expects to have the strongest squad in the second half of this season thanks to the return of many stars, including Victor Lindelof and Amad Diallo.
Mason Mount returned to Man Utd's Carrington training ground for the first time since November this year (Photo: Getty).
"I think we are very optimistic. When players come back from injury, we have like five or six new signings in January.
I don't think any team has suffered as many defeats as we have because of so many injuries in the squad. It's difficult so we have to be satisfied with the points we have.
When we had all the players back, we proved that against Liverpool, Arsenal and Aston Villa in the last few games. We could have won all those games. We showed that we have the desire, the determination and the right mentality.
That shows once again that this squad is very strong even with many players not participating. Even then, we can compete and face the best teams in this tournament.
When the players return, we can beat anyone if we have the right mentality. It depends on us," coach Ten Hag confidently declared.
In the previous round, Man Utd caused a surprise when they came from behind to defeat Aston Villa, a team in excellent form this season, with a score of 3-2, thereby rising to 7th place in the Premier League table and 6 points away from the top 4 position held by Man City.
Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest, despite beating Newcastle 3-1 in the previous round, are only 2 points away from the relegation zone. The home advantage is expected to help coach Nuno Santos' team cause many difficulties for Man Utd as the Old Trafford team has a rather poor away record this season.
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