Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson is set to keep faith with the youngsters defeated by Besiktas last week against Tottenham in the Carling Cup quarter-final tonight.
That means teenage trio Danny Welbeck, Federico Macheda and Rafael Da Silva will all be involved, as well as Darron Gibson and Gabriel Obertan, who have just 25 first-team appearances between them.
Ferguson was irritated by the criticism his players received last week and at the first appropriate opportunity, he launched a fierce counter-offensive.
He said: 'Those lads need to be challenged and I thought they did okay. They did not deserve that kind of criticism. Those same people will be going cap in hand to them, begging them for interviews in a few years' time, mark my words. It is so hypocritical.
'What is the difference between that and Alan Hansen doing it in front of millions. Yet one gets slaughtered for it and this guy gets off. Wonderful. What a world.' Ferguson was referring to Hansen's criticism of Wayne Bridge after Manchester City's draw with Burnley earlier this month.
As the person who left Hansen out of Scotland's 1986 World Cup squad, there has never been any particular empathy between the pair. However, there is a recognition of the respect Hansen has gained in his role as a pundit, and his insight into the art of defending. Ferguson clearly feels others sitting in judgement do not possess the same depth of knowledge.
'I don't need to motivate them (the players) with what has been said. Their future is well mapped out. But the one thing we cannot give them is an old head, which is what we saw in the last third of the pitch last week. 'They got anxious. They created good chances and they hurried the thing, but that is not the biggest crime in the world.'
Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp insists the time has come for his team to start winning on their travels against the big-four teams. Redknapp was encouraged by the manner of his team's performance at Aston Villa on Saturday - showing the progress being made at Spurs - but they still struggle to get victories at the country's toughest grounds.
After showing themselves to be contenders for a Champions League place, winning at places like Old Trafford would be seen as the next step. He said: 'This time last year, you wouldn't even have considered us breaking in there, we were at the bottom of the league. But you look at the way we played during the second half on Saturday and to dominate a team like Villa as we did second-half.
'Normally, you see a Man United dominate someone like that or a Liverpool. I think we are getting to the stage where we it is possible for us to go away (to top-four clubs), we can play at these places and feel we've got a chance of winning.'
Manchester United team (from): Foster, Kuszczak, Amos, Neville, De Laet, Brown, Vidic, Jonny Evans, Corry Evans, Evra, Rafael, Obertan, Valencia, Gibson, Anderson, Fletcher, Carrick, Nani, Park, Tosic, Berbatov, Rooney, Owen, King, James, Macheda, Welbeck.
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