Manchester United: Why doesn’t Ruben Amorim’s team play on Saturdays for two months?

There are five packages to the latest TV rights deal, which began at the start of this season and runs for four years, although Sky Sports owns four of them.

TNT Sports has a slot at 12:30 GMT on Saturday, but doesn’t have any first picks. Sky Sports holds all first picks, 14 at 17:30 on Saturday and 18 on Sunday at 16:30.

So, what goes into the selection process? There are quite a few details, and it will always be influenced by the European calendar – especially this season when there are nine clubs in UEFA’s competition.

For example, the teams participating in the Europa League and Conference League on Thursday – Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest – cannot play on Saturday. Teams playing away in the Champions League on Wednesday will start at 20:00 on Saturday if chosen by TNT.

Even then there is some flexibility. TNT Sports has picked Crystal Palace vs Manchester United on Saturday 29 November, but as the Eagles cannot play on that day, the match will kick off at 12:00 on Sunday.

Sky Sports picked the Tottenham Hotspur-Fulham match, which was supposed to be slotted for Friday or Monday at 20:00 on the same weekend. But as Tottenham are away to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday, 26 November, and have a Premier League match on Tuesday, 2 December, the Fulham match is scheduled for 20:00 on Saturday.

Any team in Europe has limited options to be selected to play on Monday, which is why Manchester United, who do not have any European appearances, are more likely to be selected than other clubs.

There are other limitations too. In the 12:30 and 17:30 slots on Saturday, each club must feature at least once and no team can select more than six times. As for other slots, the maximum is five times.

Since Manchester United have already been selected three times in Monday’s slot, they can only be selected twice more.