Louis van Gaal says many of his players are in the “red zone” and at risk of injury, so the Manchester United manager will carefully consider the XI to face Middlesbrough in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday.

United host Aitor Karanka’s side at Old Trafford with Luke Shaw, Paddy McNair and Antonio Valencia unavailable because of injury while Ashley Young may also not yet be match fit after a calf problem. “I have a lot of players in the red zone because we have had a lot of matches and we have a lot of matches to play. I have to see if I can use them or not. We need all the days to recover at this moment.”

This may lead Van Gaal to consider resting one or more of Wayne Rooney, David de Gea, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Juan Mata, Chris Smalling, Michael Carrick and Anthony Martial. The striker James Wilson and midfielder Andreas Pereira are in the matchday squad for Middlesbrough. “They are in the selection, but I have to select the lineup and that I don’t know,” Van Gaal said. “I have to do that tomorrow.”

Of the threat of Middlesbrough, who are fourth in the Championship, Van Gaal said: “I think Middlesbrough is a good playing side. They want to play football, that is also a benefit for us, I think. You can also see teams with another play style and that is more difficult for us, but we can play football against them but it is also dependable of the strategy their team.”

United shared a goalless draw with Manchester City on Sunday in what was a dour 170th edition of the derby. “I can imagine the game was not so exciting for the fans because there were no chances,” said Van Gaal. “We had three chances in the second half and you have to finish those kind of chances and it was a high level game with two teams defending very compact and it is very difficult to create openings – we did that in the second half and the fans shall enjoy the tension of the game and also because of the result we were closer to win.

“I think the Manchester United fans were happy to see that because I have seen them also applauding when we left the pitch. It is not like the media are saying.”