Manchester United recently announced that he will travel to Spain during the World Cup break to play a friendly against La Liga sides Cadiz and Real Betis. The matches will take place on December 7 and 10, with Red Devils boss Erik ten Hag having a smaller squad than usual.

The Dutch will be without 14 players for both matches as they represented their country at the World Cup in Qatar. Notable absentees include this season’s top scorer Marcus Rashford, Casemiro and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, this does mean that Ten Hag has the ability to maintain match suitability for individuals not selected for their country or those whose nation failed to qualify for the competition. Several key players are still staying in Manchester during the month-long break and are expected to play in Spain in December.

The friendlies give Ten Hag the chance to assess those still at the club ahead of what could be a busy second half of the campaign for United, especially with the January transfer window not far away. The Dutchman is likely to explore the winter market and make further changes to his squad after a busy summer which saw the arrivals of Christian Eriksen, Lisandro Martinez, Tyrell Malacia, Casemiro, Antony and Martin Dubravka.

That being said, we take a look at the 17 first-team players who are in contention to make an appearance against Cadiz and Betis next month. It’s likely that Ten Hag will also use several members of the Red Devils U21 squad in Spain.