Manchester United defeated Charlton with a weakened side last week and only Diogo Dalot, Lisandro Martinez and Antony from the starting team in that League Cup fixture were expected to retain their roles for the Manchester derby.
That changed when Erik ten Hag confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Dalot was unavailable through injury, but it was still a surprise to see neither Martinez nor Antony make the starting XI when the line-ups were confirmed on Saturday morning.
Martinez and Raphael Varane are Ten Hag's favoured centre-back pairing, but Luke Shaw was selected to start at centre-back instead of the World Cup winner, which the Dutchman insisted was for a combination of tactical and fitness reasons.
