Shrewsbury boss Micky Mellon plans to increase Manchester United woes in FA Cup
Shrewsbury boss Micky Mellon believes his side must execute their plan perfectly to beat Manchester United in Monday's FA Cup fifth-round clash.
Louis van Gaal is under increasing pressure and defeat to the Sky Bet League One side will turn up the heat on the Dutchman and see him pushed closer to the exit door.
Shrewsbury lost 2-1 to Chelsea in last season's League Cup after giving them a scare and Mellon knows how they can stun United.
He said: "If I said we are going to go toe-to-toe with Manchester United, match them right up, hit possession in the final third and pin them right back, they'll think I'm bananas.
"We have to be realistic and say in every game you have a chance, we have to work hard on making that chance bigger.
"We did it against Chelsea - in certain areas of the pitch we knew we had to be good, certain personnel we had to stop service to, we also knew certain times in the game we had to get through, first 20 minutes, half-time, then we knew our chance had increased."
Shrewsbury are hopeful defender Jack Grimmer will overcome a hamstring injury to feature but ex-United trainee Richie Wellens is cup-tied having played for Doncaster earlier in the competition.
James Wesolowski is close to a return from a cruciate knee ligament injury but while he has returned to training he is unlikely to be risked yet.
Michael Carrick has no doubt Manchester United could suffer further humiliation if they do not raise their performance level from Thursday's sorry defeat to FC Midtjylland.
The latest substandard display of United's increasingly troubled season saw them lose 2-1 to the Danish outfit in the first leg of their Europa League last-32 tie - a result set to be looked back upon as one of the most embarrassing in their European history.
Red Devils supporters at the MCH Arena in Herning made their feelings about the team's performance known at the end, hurling expletive-laden abuse, and midfielder Carrick has apologised to the fans over the showing, for which he felt there could be "no excuses".
And Carrick said: "Monday is a different game but we do need to be so much better than we were on Thursday.
"We know what Monday is going to be - it has been shown many times. It's going to be a tough game. And (the Midtjylland match) has shown that if you are not anywhere near your best then you can slip up, so we need to be ready for that.
"If we are at our best then we should win the game, but it is not as easy as that - as Thursday night has shown.
"We're bitterly disappointed, frustrated and angry at the performance, but over the next few days we will get ourselves ready for the games coming up.
"We have to pick ourselves up and go again - there is no other way."
David de Gea is the latest player to join Manchester United's lengthy injury list after he sustained a knee problem in the warm-up in Denmark.
United have also lost Wayne Rooney (knee), Marouane Fellaini (muscle injury), Cameron Borthwick-Jackson (illness) and Matteo Darmian (shoulder) in the last few days, while defender Donald Love - newly promoted to the first-team fold of late due to the depleted numbers - is cup-tied.
Source: PAR
