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Manchester United have been urged to show extra ‘fight’ during their FA Cup final showdown with Manchester City this weekend.
The Red Devils must win in order to achieve qualification to next season’s UEFA Europa League, with City presenting a chance to win back-to-back finals against their crosstown rivals.
Erik ten Hag is expected to welcome back some recent absentees in the capital, with Mason Mount, Lisandro Martinez and even Harry Maguire all tipped to potentially feature.
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After a poor campaign domestically, much of the criticism has been aimed at manager Ten Hag.
The Dutchman is failing to unite the full fan base despite a large section of Man Utd’s fans staying to serenade their manager during the end-of-season win against Brighton.
One man who believes more can and should be done is former defender Gary Pallister, who says his former employer should be looking to give absolutely everything at Wembley this weekend.
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“Taking the fact that it’s a derby out of it, this team has been all-conquering,” he told Flashscore. “They’ve just put the Premier League to bed and they are full of confidence.
“It’s a very difficult game for anybody in world football right now, never mind a Manchester United team that’s struggled quite a lot this season. They’ve got to turn up, they’ve got to fight. If they go behind, they can’t get down on themselves.
“They’ve got to turn up for the fans that are going to be there on the day, for the manager and for themselves. It’s down to them, but it’s a tough ask.”
A huge boost is of course having the never-say-die attitude of Martinez back in the Red Devils defence.
The Argentinian is by far the club’s standout performer by many metrics and Pallister agrees having the 26-year-old back serves as a huge boost.
“Martinez is back, which is a huge shot in the arm for them. But is he going to be really up to match speed? Only time will tell,” he added.
“There’s a lot of negativity going into this game, I think, from United fans. But I think if you can take any kind of hope, it’s from a game like the Liverpool one, which was in the quarter-final where everybody expected us to get rolled over.
“We came out fighting and managed to get the result, so it’s probably much of the same with that attitude.
“I think you have to stop the attacking intent of Manchester City, so I think if Martinez was fully fit, I’d be delighted.
“I can’t see him being fully fit because he’s only played 110 minutes of football since his injury. He is one of the players that we really have missed. Defensively, we’ve got to be on it.”
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