Midfielder Ruled Out As van Gaal Offers Man Utd Team News Update Ahead Of Norwich

Manchester United will continue their quest to finish in the top four when they travel to Carrow Road to take on Norwich City on Saturday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, Louis van Gaal has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and he’s given ManUtd.com a team news update.

The Dutchman confirmed the news that Marouane Fellaini will miss the Norwich game after being slapped with a three-match suspension by the FA following a clash with Robert Huth last weekend.

The Belgian international reacted angrily after Huth had pulled his hair with the midfielder catching the Leicester defender in the face with an elbow and he’ll now sit out the final three league games of the season.

United suffered no fresh injury problems at Old Trafford last weekend so van Gaal has virtually a fully-fit squad to choose from and the boss hinted that he may decide to rotate his team for the trip to Carrow Road on Saturday.

United face a tricky away game at West Ham in midweek before finishing off the Premier League season against Bournemouth next weekend, and with an FA Cup final to consdier later this month, van Gaal is looking to protect his players.

He told the clubs website:

“We have to assess the tiredness of the players because there’s an overload of matches, so maybe I have to rotate,”

“Fellaini is suspended so I will have to change my line-up. Every week you have something that you don’t like, but I think we can manage.”

“When I can, I shall do it always [play his best team], in every club I have done that.

“In the Premier League it is more difficult because of the overload of the matches, we have to play more matches than in Spain or Germany, so I have to rotate sometimes, but also because of injuries or suspensions.”

“Of course, that’s the benefit of the situation now. I have that at this moment, but in the month of December, I didn’t have that.

“That’s also fantastic for the players because they have a lot of chances and ability as a team,”

“We have to win our matches because otherwise we cannot be in the first four – that’s the pressure that we have. We have to fight until the end, and then we have still a title [trophy] to win.”

BACK MAN UTD TO WIN AT CRAZY ODDS OF 10/1 + MONEY BACK IF YOU LOSE

United head in to the Norwich game sitting four points adrift of fourth-placed Manchester City with a game in hand and with their rivals playing third-placed Arsenal on Sunday, the Red Devils have the perfect opportunity to close the gap on the top four this weekend.