Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney has urged Erik ten Hag to try his luck with his team selection ahead of the FA Cup final against Manchester City.
The Reds march to Wembley on Saturday 3 June to face their bitter rivals in an attempt to end Pep Guardiola's hat-trick.
Manchester City took one step closer to rivaling the legendary level of Sir Alex Ferguson in 1999 last weekend before winning the Premier League with three games remaining.
They are now just two wins away from a historic treble, as City prepare to face Ten Hag's men before facing Inter Milan in the Champions League final.
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Few teams can compete with the sky blues this season, but United's all-time top scorer Rooney believes he has a way to stop them. Writing in his column for The Times, Rooney suggested that Ten Hag should use a 4-4-2 formation to try to confuse the opposition.
"My strategy is to go the other way and ask City to do something different," he said.
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“I would put United in a 4-4-2, with [Anthony] Martial and [Marcus] Rashford up front and a very solid midfield behind them:
Casemiro is in the middle with Christian Eriksen, or Scott McTominay, Bruno Fernandes and Fred on each side. I want to keep a small distance between my eight defenders.
“Everybody in football knows that if you have a good eight-man defense, do well and are disciplined, it is very difficult to break you. United have had some success against City in recent years playing on the counter-attack - often with Rashford and Martial at the front.
"Playing my way is risky, but I think you have to risk City and ask questions that force them to do something different. Play and they can punish you, but if you just sit rest, you'll be punished by them - so why not be proactive and try something out?" he added.
Discussing a tactic used by Jose Mourinho during his first spell in charge of Chelsea, in which he would let players move forward to exploit opponents on counter-attacks, Rooney suggested United could do the same. with Rashford and Martial.
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"United can do the same thing using Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial:
defend with eight players and let those two wait on the counter-attack,” Rooney continued. "That will raise different questions for City:
Should John Stones still play in midfield or will he leave that part of the field to Rashford? Should Kyle Walker rise or will that open up space?"
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