How Manchester United should line up vs Middlesbrough in FA Cup fixture

Manchester United welcome Middlesbrough to Old Trafford in the FA Cup on Friday night.

After a tumultuous season, the Champions League and the FA Cup are the only avenues for silverware still available for United and the latter certainly seems the more realistic target. United last won the FA Cup in 2016 under Louis van Gaal.

United beat Aston Villa 1-0 in the previous round of the FA Cup but that was far from a convincing performance.

However, Ralf Rangnick's side went into the winter break on a positive note, winning consecutive games against Brentford and West Ham in the Premier League and the German will be hoping his side can maintain that momentum in the coming weeks.

While Middlesbrough have improved under Chris Wilder in the Championship, they still sit seventh in the second tier.

Here's how our MEN writers think United should line up.

Samuel Luckhurst

Dean Henderson might as well ask to play for the Under-23s for the remainder of the season if he doesn't start against a Championship side in a domestic cup match on a Friday night. Luke Shaw would be a sensible recall for Alex Telles and it would be positive to get Victor Lindelof back on the pitch after a distressing time.

Fred is back already from Brazil but tonight is not the night for the Fred-McTominay axis. Paul Pogba has been training for the best part of a month and should come back into the 4-3-3.

Marcus Rashford has earned a start, Jadon Sancho needs to get up to speed on the right and Cristiano Ronaldo is the obvious pick at centre forward.

Tyrone Marshall

Now he is staying at the club for the rest of the season there is no good reason not to start Henderson in goal. Shaw will come in at left-back, with Dalot at right-back. With Lindelof unavailable one