Strong side for Crawley clash
Sir Alex Ferguson won't be taking anything for granted against non-league Crawley Town on Saturday with the United boss set to field a number of the players who helped see off Southampton in the last round.
The manager confirmed that a host of senior players including John O'Shea, Wes Brown and Michael Carrick will all be involved, while the likes of Bebe, Chicharito and the da Silva brothers will also feature in the FA Cup fifth round tie.
The Reds, however, will be without the injured Michael Owen after the striker picked a knock in training earlier in the week, while Ji-sung Park is also missing.
"It's disappointing because I was keen to play Michael," the boss told reporters at his pre-match press conference. "We could risk him but there's no point. He should be okay for Wednesday [against Marseille].
"Ji picked up a hamstring injury in the last few minutes of training last Friday. It's a blow because we've missed him [while he's been away on international duty]. He won't be available until March now.
"Rio [Ferdinand] and Jonny [Evans] are also still injured.
"We'll play all the players who were involved at Southampton in the last round," added the boss. "Bebe will play, so will the two da Silvas, Brown, O'Shea, Chicharito. We're strong in midfield with Anderson, Gibson and Carrick all available."
United may be overriding favourites to make it through to the quarter-finals, but Sir Alex insists his players still need to produce the goods to get through.
"It should be an interesting game. We've got good experience of playing sides like Crawley having played Burton Albion and Exeter," he said.
"Those games were reminders that shocks can happen, and they almost did against those two teams. But the quality of players we'll have on Saturday shouldn't give us the same worry.
"We respect the fact that Crawley are the best non-league side for quite a while. They're very committed and aggressive and it'll be a tough game."
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