Villa's Solano axed for United game

Nolberto Solano was axed from Aston Villa’s starting line-up by manager David O’Leary this lunchtime in the wake of the winger’s admission he would be interested in a move to Liverpool.

Confirmation from the Peruvian that he is willing to join the European Cup winners as makeweight in any deal that would see Reds’ front-man Milan Baros move to Villa Park has not gone down well with O’Leary, who promptly dumped Solano to the substitutes’ bench for their Barclays Premiership clash with Manchester United.

Peter Whittingham took Solano’s place, one of three changes to the Villa line-up which drew against Bolton last weekend.

In contrast, Alex Ferguson named the same team which started the 2-0 win at Everton, Park Ji-sung keeping his place on the left flank with Cristiano Ronaldo joining Gabriel Heinze and Alan Smith on the bench.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Silvestre, O’Shea, Fletcher, Keane, Scholes, Rooney, van Nistelrooy, Park. Subs: Howard, Heinze, Ronaldo, Smith, Richardson.

Aston Villa: Sorensen, Hughes, Ridgewell, Mellberg, Samuel, De la Cruz, McCann, Davis, Barry, Whittingham, Angel. Subs: Solano, Taylor, Djemba-Djemba, Cahill, Moore.

Referee: P Dowd (Staffordshire)