Early Team News For Wigan Tie

Sergio Romero and Anthony Martial will start for Manchester United in Sunday’s FA Cup fourth-round tie at home to Wigan Athletic, manager Jose Mourinho has revealed.

The boss has confirmed he will rest no.1 David De Gea for the Old Trafford clash against Warren Joyce’s Latics, providing Argentina international Romero the chance to make his sixth appearance of the season, with recent loan returnee Joel Pereira set to be named on the bench. 

Martial, meanwhile, will come back into the side after missing the last two games and Mourinho has challenged him to keep his place for next Wednesday's Premier League encounter against Hull City.

Speaking after Thursday’s EFL Cup semi-final aggregate victory over the Tigers, Mourinho said: "This is the second match for us in the FA Cup and I want to do it in a serious way. We have to play with a very good team; the only player that is out is De Gea – I’ll give him a few days off. 

"I will play Romero, I will put Joel on the bench and apart from that I go with a good team because we want to try to beat them. Anthony will play on Sunday and if he plays magnificently, he will play against Hull in the next match – it’s simple."

Continuing on the theme of team news, Mourinho stated: "I will make some changes – that’s obvious. We play Hull again three days after Wigan but I’m going to play a good team with the responsibility to give fans a good performance at home and with the responsibility to try to win against Wigan."

Former Reserves coach Joyce makes a quick return to Old Trafford, having ended his eight-year spell with the Reds to take the reins at Wigan in November.

"We know the difficulty to play against Championship teams," Mourinho told reporters. "We played Wigan already in pre-season and now they are with Warren, who knows us well and will come with special motivation to play against his old club. 

"I worked at the club with him for a few months but it was enough to know he’s a very nice man, a very passionate football man. He took the risk, accepted the challenge and left a good situation at this club. 

"His team will be very aggressive, very well organised defensively and also emotional, like the manager is emotional, so it will be a difficult match."