Bayern Munich manager Pep Guardiola has injury problems ahead of the Manchester United game (Picture: AP Photo)

Manchester United head into tomorrow evening’s second leg with Bayern Munich with the Bavarians holding a slender advantage courtesy of Bastian Schweinsteiger’s crucial away goal last week.

However, the English champions have a far greater chance of progression through to the semi-finals than many believed due to issues of suspension and injury within Pep Guardiola’s squad.

Guardiola was quoted by Bayern Munich’s official Twitter page this morning as claiming he had only ’14 players’ to choose from ahead of tomorrow’s clash at the Allianz Arena.

Suspensions to Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez, as well as the injury to Thiago Alcantara, have left Bayern Munich’s midfield significantly depleted with Toni Kroos the only recognised central midfielder left for Guardiola to pick. Obviously Philipp Lahm will once again feature in the middle of the park, however, his partner in that area is yet to be determined.




The 4-1-4-1 system which Guardiola has favoured worked to good effect last week in Manchester with Martinez filling in at centre-half for the suspended Dante, whilst Kroos was trusted as the holding midfield sat just ahead of the back four.

Kroos was the error-free safety net which allowed the central partnership of Schweinsteiger and Lahm to truly dictate the pace of the match however it is difficult to see just how Bayern Munich will be able to employ such an effective system with the availability issues they face.

Dante is capable of playing as a holding midfielder, especially tomorrow where you expect Manchester United to enjoy very little possession and only play with one, for want of a better term, ‘pencilled in’ forward.

However, this leaves the defence painfully short with Daniel Van Buyten as the sole reserve option and the Belgian certainly didn’t cover himself in glory during last weekend’s record ending defeat to Augsburg with the defender’s presence appearing to introduce chaos to the Bavarian backline.

Wayne Rooney made a return to training this morning (Picture: AP Photo)

With these squad issues in mind, Manchester United have arguably the best chance of knocking Bayern Munich out of the competition that anybody has had over the course of the past 12 months. The fluidity in midfield will be slightly amiss with Schweinsteiger unavailable and there is every chance that Bayern will have to play a weakened defence if Guardiola wants to stick to his thus far infallible 4-1-4-1 formation which centres around a strong holding midfielder.

Wayne Rooney is expect to make a rather quick recovery from the bruised toe which kept him out of Saturday’s trip to Newcastle United and start tomorrow evening whilst Marouane Fellaini and Rafael both failed to travel to Munich with the rest of the squad this morning through their respective fitness concerns.

The absence of Fellaini may see Darren Fletcher brought into the side for extra defensive resolve or perhaps a start for the resurgent Shinji Kagawa to really put pressure on a makeshift Bayern Munich line-up.

Bayern Munich may not be at full-strength however they are still an excellent team. The talent of Mario Gotze will certainly shine through if he is given a starting role alongside Lahm and even though United will have to be as defensively solid and focused as they were a week ago, there is a huge opportunity for David Moyes’ side to overcome the odds and make the semi-finals for the first time since 2011.

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