Chelsea vs Manchester United: Jose Mourinho faces FA Cup striker dilemma

Tom Doyle13 March 2017

Jose Mourinho faces a selection dilemma against Chelsea with three more Manchester United forwards joining Zlatan Ibrahimovic on the sidelines.

Ibrahimovic will serve the first game of his three-match ban for Monday night's FA Cup quarter-final at Stamford Bridge, but Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford have also been ruled out of the trip to west London.

United captain Rooney was injured by team-mate Phil Jones during a training session ahead of the capital cup clash, with Martial also sidelined and Rashford struggling with an illness.

Rashford's illness in particular comes at a frustrating time for both the striker and Mourinho, with the 18-year-old expected to deputise for Ibrahimovic after struggling to dislodge the Swedish forward as United's first-choice frontman.

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The injury setbacks mean Mourinho is (currently) without a specialist striker among the squad which travelled to London on Sunday.

Mourinho will now have to shuffle his front line, with the Portuguese coach hinting at matching Antonio Conte's 3-4-3 formation by deploying the same system during United's 1-1 Europa League draw against FC Rostov on Thursday night.

The former Chelsea manager may be tempted to deploy Henrikh Mkhitaryan in an advanced role - as Conte has done with Eden Hazard - or else play Marouane Fellaini up front.

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