Manchester United have problems in the middle of the park ahead of their League Cup semi-final vs Nottingham Forest.
Christian Eriksen is sidelined until late April with an ankle injury and Scott McTominay is out for weeks with a muscular injury.
To provide some much-needed cover, Manchester United secured a loan move for Marcel Sabitzer on deadline day but Casemiro and Fred are the only regular midfielders available to Ten Hag for the League Cup semi-final second leg with Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night.
Elsewhere, academy graduates Kobbie Mainoo, 17, and Zidane Iqbal, 19, are the alternative midfielders who have been involved with the first team this season.
Lisandro Martinez played in defensive midfield a number of times under Ten Hag at Ajax and the United manager acknowledged the Argentine was capable of moving forward:
“He did it before,” Ten Hag noted, “so that is also one thing, me as a manager, you have to be creative in such situations where in other departments where we have players who can be starting 11 players, but because I can only play one player in that position we can maybe move players into different departments and be creative to form a team.”
