Erik ten Hag has the perfect opportunity to hand out a Manchester United debut vs Barnsley

Tuesday night's Carabao Cup third round clash with Barnsley at Old Trafford will hopefully mark the beginning of another road to Wembley for Manchester United.

Since Erik ten Hag was appointed United manager ahead of the start of the 2022/23 season, the club has visited the national stadium on six occasions, winning trophies on two of them.

The Carabao Cup was, of course, the first piece of silverware Ten Hag won, leading United to a 2-0 win over Newcastle United in the 2023 final. The trophy was secured thanks to goals from Marcus Rashford and Casemiro.

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One of the biggest takeaways from United's run to their sixth League Cup crown was that Ten Hag consistently fielded a strong team throughout the competition. Every starting XI was jam-packed with first-team regulars and star-studded names.

Nowadays, Premier League managers often use the Carabao Cup to make wholesale changes and give those on the fringes of their first-choice starting XI an opportunity to get some minutes under their belts. It is not usually until the latter stages of the competition that the big guns are considered.

However, Ten Hag, in a pleasant change, has always respected the cup competitions ever since arriving at Old Trafford, hence why United have reached three of the four domestic cup finals they possibly could have.

Of course, injury issues and a lack of options enabling him to rotate his pack more often have played their parts at times, but he has often refused to shuffle his pack as often as he could have done.

However, with United's fixture list currently more condensed than ever before,