Rasmus Hojlund fit to make Manchester United debut at Arsenal – Erik ten Hag

By Simon Peach, PA Chief Football Writer

Rasmus Hojlund is fit to make his debut this weekend and Erik ten Hag says Sergio Reguilon could feature at Arsenal having trained with Manchester United ahead of his loan move.

Denmark international Hojlund joined United at the start of August for a fee rising up to £74million from Atalanta, but the 20-year-old has yet to feature, due to a back complaint.

But Ten Hag says the striker is fit to feature at Arsenal, when new goalkeeper Altay Bayindir and left-back Reguilon will also be available for selection.

United have agreed a loan deal with Tottenham for the left-back, and the Dutchman revealed he had trained with his new team-mates ahead of the announcement of the move.

“Yes (Hojlund will be available),” Ten Hag said.

“He had a good training week so tomorrow we have the final training. But he is doing well, responding well, so, yeah, he will be available for Sunday’s game.

“(Bayindir) will be in the squad as well, Altay, so happy. Now we have the keeper group fully there. We covered every position so I think we have a very good keeper group with the arrival of Altay.”

Asked if Reguilon could be involved at the Emirates Stadium, the United boss said: “He is here, he trained. Yes (he will also be available for Sunday).”

Reguilon comes in after United went from too many options at left-back to too few when Luke Shaw’s muscle injury compounded the absence of Tyrell Malacia and recent exits. The Spain international was linked with a move to Old Trafford three years ago and spent last season on loan at Atletico Madrid.

“He’s a very experienced player, played for big clubs, played already a lot of games in LaLiga, Premier League, so, yes, I think very good background,” Ten Hag said.

“We have seen he can play very intense football, so we are happy while we had a problem with Luke Shaw injured, Tyrell Malacia injured, therefore long-term out. So I think we responded very well on that emergency situation.”

On top of deadline-day moves for Bayindir and Reguilon, progress has been made in United’s move for Fiorentina’s Sofyan Amrabat.

The 27-year-old midfielder starred at the World Cup for Morocco and previously played under Ten Hag at Utrecht.

“There are so many rumours, but it’s nice, eh?,” the United boss said when asked about Amrabat.

“I think we have done good business, we constructed a strong squad, and we are ready to go in to the fight.”

Pushed again on Amrabat, he said: “I can’t tell (you much) because I don’t know if he can sign, so if we have news, we will report it immediately.”

There could be outgoings as well as incomings before the day is out, with multiple clubs looking at Mason Greenwood, Eric Bailly and Donny Van De Beek.

However, Harry Maguire and Scott McTominay look set to stay, having been subject of interest this summer.

“If you see the schedule, it’s tough, it’s really condensed,” United boss Ten Hag said.

“When you see last season the World Cup, crazy season, the season takes longer, two weeks longer. We played (the) FA Cup final one week longer.

 

“We had a short break, we had a really condensed pre-season again, so we need numbers. But also we need not only numbers, the numbers have to be quality.

“I think, yeah, with this squad we have depth and we have quality players and we can be in a variety of systems and we are happy with it.

“We are ready to go into the fight.”