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The news is confirmed, Michael Carrick will be out for 6 weeks due to broken elbow suffered during the Champions’ League match against Roma last night. It’s a blow for United as Hargreaves has just suffered a new blow prior to the game, and will be out for another 4 weeks. Darren Fletcher has been out due to knee injury. With Wes Brown out due to knock, it makes things even more complicated. Then, who’s stepping in? Here’s a few possibilities:

If Brown recovered
1. O’Shea will be paired with Scholes in the middle of the park.
It’ll be the same ol’ 4-4-2 (Kuszczak, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Brown - Giggs, Scholes, O’Shea, Ronaldo - Tevez, Rooney)

2. Tevez, Rooney, and Saha will be together in the starting XI
Attacking formation: 4-3-1-2 (Kuszczak, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Brown - Giggs, Scholes, Ronaldo - Tevez - Rooney, Saha).

3. Pique stepped in
Defensive formation: 4-1-3-1-1 (Kuszczak, Evra, Ferdinand, Vidic, Brown - Pique - Giggs, Scholes, Ronaldo - Tevez - Rooney).

4. Nani started with Saha benched
SAF’s confusing “continental” formation: 4-3-2-1 (Kuszczak, Evra, Ferdinand, Brown - Nani, Scholes, Ronaldo - Tevez, Giggs - Rooney)

5. Anderson is given a nod
Attaching formation: 4-3-3 (Kuszczak, Evra, Ferdinand, Brown - Scholes, Anderson, Ronaldo - Giggs, Rooney, Tevez

If Brown doesn’t recovered
Obviously with O’Shea needing to play at right back, option 1 above could be crossed out.