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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Samuel Meade

Man Utd squad fly to Brighton as Harry Maguire and Jesse Lingard included with young star

Manchester United head to the south coast to take on Brighton and Hove Albion this weekend and will welcome back skipper Harry Maguire.

The Red Devils won their final home game of the season earlier in the week and will now finish off their campaign with successive away days. Ralf Rangnick's interim spell will soon come to an end and he could hand yet another teenager his first outing in the form of Alvaro Fernandez.

The left-back has been in the matchday squad for their past three outings but has watched the likes of Alejandro Garnacho be handed opportunities ahead of him. Saturday's game at the Amex Stadium could finally see Fernandez get his shot as United see out the final few games of what has been a disappointing year.

Maguire has been among those to cop the majority of the criticism. The centre-half, now into his third year at Old Trafford, has suffered a hangover this Euro 2020 and has missed the last four games with his most recent outing coming in the win over Norwich City on April 16.

Rangnick confirmed the Englishman will be part of the squad, but refused to state whether he would reprise his starting role. The German said: "Harry is back in training. He trained the whole week since the second day after the Brentford game, so he will be available for tomorrow and part of the group.

He added on the possibility of starting: "This is a decision I have to make after training today, I don't want to tell our opponents the line-up to start." Rangnick has confirmed that Rashford, another player to struggle throughout the campaign, will be absent. Eric Bailly meanwhile is a doubt.

Jesse Lingard will also be part of the squad despite missing out on an Old Trafford farewell on Monday. The player will leave on a free this summer and Rangnick's decision not to hand the academy graduate a final home appearance saw his brother lash out on social media.

Rangnick has hit back claims the club are "classless" stating: "To start with, in the last couple of weeks under my tenure he has played far more games than he used to.

"Number two, on game day against Chelsea, he asked me to release him from the game and training the following day for personal family reasons. I took the decision to bring on Edinson. Had I not brought him on, someone might have asked if it's classless not to bring on Cavani or Garnacho. After two substitutes, you have to take a decision and this will not be to the liking of everybody. This is part of the game."

HAVE YOUR SAY! Will Man Utd win at Brighton? Let us know in the comments

The German was impressed with the manner of their performance against Brentford and, despite their being little to play for, is hoping the players can continue in the same vain.

He said: "I am positive the team will try to play on the same level tomorrow against Brighton and in two weeks' time against Crystal Palace. Once again, this is our job and what I liked about the game is you could see that they had fun playing together, that they were enjoying themselves on the pitch and this is exactly the kind of approach we need tomorrow as well."

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