Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes the changes Manchester United made during their Europa League semi-final second leg in Rome on Thursday have enabled him to play a strong team against Aston Villa.
This is the second of four games in eight days for United. They secured progress to the Europa League final on Thursday night and after this trip to Villa Park they face Leicester City and Liverpool at Old Trafford on Tuesday night and Thursday night respectively.
But Solskjaer has picked the strongest possible United side - with the exception of Edinson Cavani - to face Villa and kickstart three Premier League games in six days.
United were able to make five substitutions in the Europa League on Thursday and Solskjaer withdrew Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw at half-time and Paul Pogba at around the hour mark.
“We managed to make a few changes during the game, we took the full-backs off, Paul came off early, we’ve got loads of fresh legs and fresh minds, players that want to show to me they want to play more games and especially the last one," Solskjaer told MUTV.
United make four changes in total from the side that were beaten 3-2 by Roma on Thursday night, with Dean Henderson, Victor Lindelof, Scott McTominay and Marcus Rashford coming in for David de Gea, Eric Bailly, Donny van de Beek and Edinson Cavani.
This is United's 56th game of the season and they will play 61 in total, the same number they played last season.
Victory in the Midlands will put United within touching distance of securing a runners-up finish in the Premier League and Solskjaer insists his players are still feeling good and want to finish this season with momentum.
“They’re good, looking forward to it, we’re happy going through to a final and knowing we have something to look forward to," he said.
"But now we have five important games in the league, to build momentum, build confidence, get as many points as we can."
