Erik ten Hag hasn't shown himself to be a manager who likes to tinker so far at Manchester United, which is probably for the best when it comes to picking his midfield for the double-header against Leeds this week.
The unnecessary red card picked up by Casemiro in the win against Crystal Palace on Saturday has earned the Brazilian a three-match ban in the Premier League, which means Ten Hag only has three midfielders left to pick from.
With Christian Eriksen and Donny van de Beek long-term absentees and Scott McTominay out for a few weeks, it will be Fred, Marcel Sabitzer and Bruno Fernandes who line up in the back-to-back games against the Yorkshire club.
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It's a week that has taken a turn for the unexpected, with Leeds sacking Jesse Marsch on Monday, but United have limited options anyway, even if the caretaker team, including former Old Trafford coach Chris Armas, come up with something radically different.
That 11th-hour move for Sabitzer on deadline day is looking even shrewder a week on. United only confirmed the arrival of the Austrian, on loan from Bayern Munich, at 12.10am on deadline day, having made sure a deal sheet was with the Premier League by 11pm.
The timings make it sound more stressful than it might have been, but any complications to that deal would have left United in a bind now. Instead, Sabitzer came on for the final 16 minutes, including injury time, on Saturday and he is said to have settled into life at the club quickly.
He's still played less than 20 minutes of football since November, but the 28-year-old will almost certainly be called upon to start the two games against Leeds and then the fixture with Leicester City next weekend.
The Wednesday-Sunday clashes with the Whites are likely to be demanding. Their hard-running style can be one of the toughest to play against in the Premier League, although that might change with the sacking of Marsch, who favoured a high-intensity pressing game.
It will still make it a challenge for Sabitzer to get through two full games in five days and Ten Hag will need to try and protect his midfielders over the next couple of weeks. Casemiro will come back into the side at the Nou Camp next Thursday, allowing one to get a rest, but he might also try and take them off early if United are in control of either game this week.
Seventeen-year-old midfielder Kobbie Mainoo has been on the bench for four of the last six Premier League games, but he is only likely to be called on very late in games. Instead, Ten Hag gave a glimpse of his thinking against Nottingham Forest last week.
In the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg, he brought Jadon Sancho on to play in Fernandes' role and then Victor Lindelof to replace Casemiro. We could see Sancho and Lindelof used in those roles again off the bench this week.
Ten Hag is unlikely to start Lindelof in the No. 6 role, but he has used the Swede there in training and he is an option to replace Fred or Sabitzer, or even a more attacking player if United are looking to protect a lead.
"He was educated as a six, a control, holding midfielder in Benfica, I know he can do that, we tried it in training," Ten Hag said after that Forest game.
When it came to Sancho, he was useed centrally to move Fernandes to the right, giving the defence a different dilemma after playing against Antony. But Sancho played as an attacking midfielder at Borussia Dortmund and can play that role.
Neither solution is perfect, but in Lindelof, Mainoo and Sancho, Ten Hag does at least have options from the bench to change his midfield three over the next few games.
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